Sayed Kashua was born in Tira in the Triangle region of Israel. In 1990, he was accepted to a prestigious boarding school in Jerusalem. Straddling Cultures, Irreverently, in Life and Art - New York Times He studied sociology and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Kashua was a resident of Beit Safafa before moving to a Jewish neighborhood with his wife and two children.

Kashua writes satiric columns in Hebrew for Haaretz newspaper and a local Jerusalem weekly, HaIr. In a humorous, tongue-in-cheek style, Kashua addresses the problems faced by Arabs in Israel, caught between two worlds.

While Kashua's two books have been praised by the Israeli press they have not been well-received by literary critics in the Arab world.

Avoda Aravit, or in English, Arab Labor, is a satiric sitcom written by Kashua and aired on Israel's Channel 2. A large part of the dialogue is in Arabic with Hebrew subtitles. The show is about a young Arab couple, Amjad and Bushra, and their young daughter, who live in an Arab village on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Amjad is a journalist working for a Hebrew newspaper (much like Haaretz) who desperately seeks to assimilate into the prevailing Israeli Jewish cultural milieu with mixed and hilarious results. Straddling Cultures, Irreverently, in Life and Art - New York TimesThe show holds a mirror up to the racism and ignorance on both sides of the ethnic divide and has been compared with All in the Family.

Arab Labor won the Award for Best Television Series at the Jerusalem Film Festival.

A 2009 documentary film produced by Dorit Zimbalist, Sayed Kashua - Forever Scared, documents the upheavals and events that changed Kashua's life over a period of seven years.