She graduated from Martha's Vineyard Regional High School as valedictorian of her class, before going on to study theatre and earn an honors degree in Comparative Religion at Harvard University, with a focus in Buddhism. Galland spent her 20s and 30s working in theatre, teaching, editing and juggling odd jobs. These included co-founding a teen theater company in California that debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Galland once described her life as existing at the whim of serendipity.
