Ariel Leve was born in New York City and grew up with her mother, Sandra Hochman, a poet, in Manhattan.

[2] At age five she began traveling to Southeast Asia, where she spent part of the year living in Bangkok, Thailand, with her father.

[10] From October 2005 to January 2010 Leve wrote the weekly humor column "Cassandra" for the Sunday Times Magazine.

Leve's television pilot of "It Could Be Worse, You Could Be Me" was optioned by Cineflix Studios[13] Her second book, 1963: The Year of the Revolution[14], co-authored by Robin Morgan recounts the story of the rise of the Youthquake movement in 1963.

Leve and Morgan detail how young people became a significant commercial and cultural force for the first time.