Mann was born in Connecticut in March 1978, and is of Indian Bengali Hindu ancestry. Mann is a truncated version of Mankad, her married name. She moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a young child. Mann's father died while she was in high school. Growing up, her family lived in Mt. Lebanon and Wexford before settling in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania where her mother, Vasanti Majumdar, an obstetrician/gynecologist out of UPMC Passavant, still lives. Mann graduated from Shady Side Academy, Fox Chapel and studied film at New York University.