Comedian, rock star, and actor Jack Black refers to himself as an “entertainment arsenal”, wielding his “acting bazooka and music machete”. A bizarre but fitting description, Black has flexed his talent with a long list of memorable film roles and as one half of the popular parody rock-comedy duo Tenacious D.
Black was born in Hermosa Beach, California on August 28, 1969 to Jewish parents who divorced when the funnyman was ten. Growing up in the L.A. area, Black was rabidly interested in drama and rock music. He attended two private high schools, Poseidon and Crossroads, after his parents pulled him from public institutions out of fear they would contribute to a minor drug problem that surfaced in his early teens. At the latter school he excelled as an actor, and went on to attend UCLA for a year before dropping out to pursue a career in entertainment.
Black’s friendship with the UCLA-educated Tim Robbins led to one his first gigs, doing background vocal work for 1992’s “Bob Roberts”. He then appeared in a slew of films and television shows in the 90s, including “Demolition Man”, “Northern Exposure”, “Waterworld”, “The X-Files”, “The Cable Guy”, and “Enemy of the State”. Not yet a well-known film star, Black garnered much attention due to his two-man cult band Tenacious D, which was a unique mix of heavily performative stand-up comedy and rock music. Parodying many of Black and partner Kyle Gass’s favorite rock and metal groups of the 70s and 80s, the pair’s live shows became enormously popular throughout the U.S. due to the pair’s singular love of hard rock and Black’s vocalized guitar solos and hilarious lyrics. To date they have released only one album, 2001’s self-titled “Tenacious D”.
Black’s prolific acting career and his cult following as a musician led him to more prominent movie roles in the 2000s, including an acclaimed turn in the sleeper hit “High Fidelity”, and lead roles in the comedies “Shallow Hal”, “Orange County”, and Richard Linklater’s delightful 2003 comedy “School of Rock”. Black is often included among the members of the ‘Frat Pack’, a group of successful comedians such as Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Will Ferrell who consistently act together. He has also lent his voice to several animated projects, including “Shark Tale” and “Ice Age”. Since finding even greater mainstream success with his role as the overzealous director in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” remake, Black has starred in the surprise smash “Nacho Libre” and is currently filming three different movies, the Cameron Diaz-Kate Winslet romance “The Holiday”, an as-yet untitled Noah Baumbach film with Nicole Kidman, and the animated comedy “Kung Fu Panda”. A Tenacious D revival film, "The Pick of Destiny", is scheduled to hit theatres for the 2006 holiday season.