There are two rock 'n roll entities to be known as Jack Black. Jack Black the New York City based band, and the actor/musician. The man, Thomas Black (born August 28, 1969), better known as Jack Black, is an American film/television actor and musician. Black was born in Hermosa Beach, California to a middle-class Jewish family. His parents, Thomas W. Black and Judith C. Cohen, were satellite engineers and members of a naturist group, Family Synergy; they divorced when he was ten.