Baker was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in what she describes as a "half-Mexican, half-Mormon" family.
[9] When she chose the school over Brigham Young University (owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), she says her mother asked her what she would do if a lesbian tried to make out with her.
[9] During her senior year at NYU, Baker was one of twelve students selected to write and workshop a show with the playwright Elizabeth Swados.
[11] For the rest of the semester, Baker would go over Swados's home on Fridays to learn about storytelling, a mentorship that continued for the next seven years.
[10] When a friend mentioned a club called the Moth, Baker started to go, and suddenly got to perform on the main stage when Lewis Black had to cancel at the last minute.
[14] Within a month, she got a job as an usher on David Letterman's show on CBS with the responsibility of seating people according to their physical appearances.
[14] Baker's writings and humor often relate to her experiences in New York City, coming of age as a Mormon, and the resultant abstinence from premarital sex, drugs, alcohol, and profanity.
[18] In a 2017 episode of This American Life, she recounted losing a television role because she looked "too nervous" on camera, an incident that made her want to get surgery to correct the problem.