Facts about Jack Black
Jack Black Biography
Jack Black is the wild-eyed, manic star of the hit comedy School of Rock (2003, directed by Richard Linklater), and half of the comedy-rock duo Tenacious D. Younger moviegoers know him as the voice of Po in the animated adventures of Kung Fu Panda (2008).
He started in the movies in the early 1990s with small but memorable parts in movies, including Tim Burton‘s Mars Attacks! (1996) and Enemy of the State (1998, with Will Smith).
Tenacious D earned a national audience by way of a short-lived cable TV show by 2000, and Black’s film career was taking off at the same time. In a supporting role, he stole the show in the film High Fidelity (2000, starring John Cusack) and was next getting lead roles in comedies, including Shallow Hal (2001, with Gwyneth Paltrow) and Orange County (2002). Meanwhile, Tenacious D (Black and his partner, Kyle Gass) was building a base of fans who loved their comedic rock shows and videos.
Black’s other films, mostly comedies, include Nacho Libre (2006), The Holiday (2006, opposite Kate Winslet), Be Kind Rewind (2008, co-starring Mos Def), Bernie (2011), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and The House With the Clock in Its Walls (2018).
Extra credit
Jack Black was also the star of Heat Vision and Jack (1999, with the voice of Owen Wilson), a tongue-in-cheek TV series directed by Ben Stiller that was made for Fox television but never broadcast… In March of 2006 it was reported that Black married musician Tanya Haden, a daughter of jazz bassist Charlie Haden.