Yaoska Machado was born and raised in Managua, Nicaragua. When she was a teenager, she immigrated to the United States with her parents and siblings. She graduated from Cal State University Fullerton with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Political Science in 2005. Soon after, she began her career as a Spanish media broadcast journalist. For 14 years, she worked as a news reporter and news anchor for Telemundo and Univision in Bakersfield, Monterey, and San Diego. In 2019, she joined County of Riverside as the first bilingual spokesperson in this government agency, providing vital information in her native Spanish to members of the public and media.