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Producer · Actor

1969-08-28 · Santa Monica, California, USA · Male

90 series in the catalog

Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He has played leading roles in family and comedy films, in addition to his voice work in animated features. His accolades include an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, and nominations for two Critics' Choice Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. In 2018, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Black began acting at age 13, and his early films include Dead Man Walking (1995), The Cable Guy (1996), Mars Attacks! (1996) and Enemy of the State (1998). He gained recognition for starring in the romantic comedy High Fidelity (2000), which led to substantial roles in films like Shallow Hal (2001) and Orange County (2002). He established himself as a leading man with a starring role in the musical comedy School of Rock (2003), earning a nomination for the Golden Globe for Best Actor. He then starred in the films King Kong (2005), The Holiday (2006), Nacho Libre (2006) and Tropic Thunder (2008). Also in 2008, he began voicing Po in the Kung Fu Panda franchise.

Black was critically praised for portraying Bernie Tiede in the biographical thriller film Bernie (2011), receiving several Best Actor award nominations. Following career fluctuations, he experienced a resurgence with roles in Goosebumps (2016), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018), Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) and A Minecraft Movie (2025). He also voiced Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and its sequel, receiving a nomination for the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for the former.

Outside of acting, Black formed the comedy musical duo Tenacious D with long-time friend Kyle Gass in 1994; they have won one Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Since 2018, he has run a YouTube channel called Jablinski Games.

Early life

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, and 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, to a family from Poland and Russia. His father converted to Judaism, and is of German, English, Irish, and Scottish descent. Black was raised Jewish, attending Hebrew school and had a bar mitzvah.

Despite being named Thomas, a name his family has used since his ancestors lived in Ireland, his parents called him Jack as a nickname instead.

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. 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 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), but dropped out during his second year to pursue a career in entertainment. 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.

Early roles

In 1982, Black's first acting job was in a television commercial for the video game Pitfall! at age 13. 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 Tim Robbins cast him in Bob Roberts (1992), Black began appearing in small film roles such as Airborne (1993), Demolition Man (1993), Waterworld (1995), Dead Man Walking (1995), The Cable Guy (1996), The Fan (1996), Mars Attacks! (1996), Crossworlds (1996), The Jackal (1997), Enemy of the State (1998), and others. He had a small role in True Romance (1993) as a security guard, but the scene was deleted.

2000s

In 2000, Black co-starred in the film High Fidelity as a wild employee in a record store run by John Cusack. Black considers his role in High Fidelity as his breakout into the Hollywood scene. He quickly gained leading roles in films such as Saving Silverman (2001), Shallow Hal (2001), Orange County (2002), and Gulliver's Travels (2010). He received particular praise for his starring role in the well-received School of Rock (2003), earning critical acclaim and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy. Black took part in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? celebrity edition, along with Denis Leary, Jimmy Kimmel, and others, and was handed the prize of US$125,000 in October 2001. He has also had starring voice-overs in animated features, including Zeke in Ice Age (2002) and Lenny in Shark Tale (2004). In 2004, Black guest-starred in the first episode of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim show Tom Goes to the Mayor.

He starred in one of his few dramatic roles as the obsessed filmmaker Carl Denham in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong, a performance he based on Orson Welles. In 2006, he played the role of King Herod in a one night benefit concert of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre. That same year, he starred as the romantic love interest to Kate Winslet in the Nancy Meyers romantic comedy The Holiday (2006). Also in 2006, he starred in the comedy film Nacho Libre, which he also produced, and Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, which he also wrote and produced. In 2007, he took a supporting role in the Noah Baumbach directed comedy-drama film Margot at the Wedding starring Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh. That same year, he made a cameo appearance, portraying Paul McCartney, in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007). Black has voice acted on other occasions, including "Husbands and Knives" from The Simpsons, which aired November 18, 2007, portraying Milo, the friendly owner of the rival comic book store. In 2008, he starred in the buddy comedy Be Kind Rewind, opposite Mos Def, and the war satire Tropic Thunder, alongside Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. On December 14, he hosted the 2008 Spike Video Game Awards. Black has hosted the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Acceptable.TV.

He voiced the title role in Kung Fu Panda, which grossed US$20.3 million on its opening day, June 6, 2008, as well as Kung Fu Panda 2 Kung Fu Panda 3 and Kung Fu Panda 4; this is his favorite role, calling it “the role of a lifetime” and he praises the tutoring of co-star and two-time Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman. In addition to Kung Fu Panda (2008), He provided the voice of the main character, roadie Eddie Riggs, in the heavy metal–themed action-adventure video game Brütal Legend, for which he won the Best Voice award at the Spike Video Game Awards in 2009.

In 2009, he appeared in the post-Super Bowl episode of The Office along with Cloris Leachman and Jessica Alba in a fake movie within the show. He starred in the Harold Ramis-directed adventure comedy Year One (2009) alongside Michael Cera. In April 2009, Black starred in an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba!, in which he vocalized children songs, such as "It's Not Fun to Get Lost", "Friends", and "The Goodbye Song". Black voiced Darth Vader in Bad Lip Reading's parodies of the Star Wars original trilogy on YouTube.

2010s

In 2010, Black made a guest appearance on Community and also…