Jack Black

Biography

Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician.

Black's film roles include High Fidelity (2000), Shallow Hal (2001), Orange County (2002), School of Rock (2003), Envy (2004), King Kong (2005), The Holiday (2006), Gulliver's Travels (2010), Bernie (2011), The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018), and the Jumanji franchise. He has also done voice acting for DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda franchise, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and the video games Brütal Legend, Broken Age, and Psychonauts 2.

Black is the lead vocalist of the band Tenacious D and formed the duo in 1994 with long-time friend Kyle Gass. Since 2018, he has operated a YouTube channel called Jablonski Games.

Thomas Jacob Black was born in Santa Monica, California, on August 28, 1969, the son of satellite engineers Thomas William Black and Judith Love Cohen. He was raised in Hermosa Beach, California. His mother worked on the Minuteman nuclear missile guidance system, the Apollo lunar module guidance system, the science ground station for the Hubble Space Telescope, and was also a writer. 

He has three older half-siblings through his mother: scientist Neil Siegel, Howard Siegel, and Rachel Siegel. His mother was born Jewish, while his father converted to Judaism. Black was raised Jewish, attending Hebrew school and having a bar mitzvah. His other ancestry includes English, German, Irish, Polish, Russian, and Scottish.

Black's parents divorced when he was 10, and his father then stopped practicing Judaism.

 Black moved to Culver City with his father and frequently visited his mother's home. As a child, he appeared in a commercial for the Activision game Pitfall! in 1982. For high school, Black's parents enrolled him at the Poseidon School, a private secondary school designed for students struggling in the traditional school system. 

He also attended the Crossroads School, where he excelled in drama. He later attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA),[18] but dropped out during his second year to pursue an entertainment career. Fellow UCLA student Tim Robbins later cast Black in Bob Roberts. In 1995 and 1996, he gained recurring roles in the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show.

In 1982, Black's first acting job was in a television commercial at age 13 for the video game Pitfall! In 1987, Black joined the Actors' Gang, a theater troupe founded by UCLA students including Tim Robbins, and appeared in a variety of stage productions. 

Black's adult career began with small roles on prime-time television, including Life Goes On, Northern Exposure, Mr. Show, Picket Fences, The Golden Palace, and The X-Files. Black appeared in the unaired TV pilot Heat Vision and Jack, directed by Ben Stiller, in which he played an ex-astronaut pursued by actor Ron Silver. He was accompanied by his friend who had merged with a motorcycle, voiced by Owen Wilson.

After Robbins cast him in Bob Roberts, Black began appearing in small film roles such as Airborne (1993), Demolition Man, Waterworld, The Fan, The Cable Guy, Mars Attacks!, Dead Man Walking, The Jackal, Crossworlds, Enemy of the State, and others. He had a small role in True Romance as a security guard, but the scene was deleted.