Born Betty Kay Ageloff in New York City, Aberlin grew up in a Jewish family [3][4] and attended public schools in Queens and Staten Island.

She graduated from Bennington College, having studied art, modern dance, and literature with Howard Nemerov and Bernard Malamud.

For a short time she did a late-night radio show on WYEP-FM in Pittsburgh, a non-commercial, community-supported station she helped found.

Aberlin wrote and performed a sequence for ACRE TV's The 90's—"Stop Me Before I Love Again"—in a theme show on growing older, which aired on PBS.

[10] Later in her career, Aberlin formed a friendship with filmmaker Kevin Smith[11] and appeared in six of his films, including Dogma (1999), Jersey Girl (2004), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), Red State (2011), and The 4:30 Movie (2024).

Wearing the wig, Aberlin is aware of how it erases racial or ethnic features and how her new look evokes a more glamorous feminine stereotype.