Jack Black

Jack Black (birthname: Thomas Jacob “Jack” Black) is one of the wild men of Hollywood—a lovably rambunctious bear of an actor and musician, grounded in the adventurous Brechtian theater of the Los Angeles-based Actors’ Gang, but now one of the top go-to vocal actors for animated features, most prominently with the Kung Fu Panda franchise.

Black, with his fellow Actors’ Gang collaborator, Tim Robbins, had his feature debut in Robbins’ political satire, Bob Roberts (1992), and followed this with a host of supporting roles throughout the 1990s in largely studio movies: in Airborne (1993), Demolition Man (1993), The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia (1994), Bye Bye Love (1995), the Robbins-directed drama Dead Man Walking (1995), as part of his rock group Tenacious D in Bio-Dome (1996), then Ben Stiller’s The Cable Guy (1996), Tony Scott’s The Fan (1996), Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! (1996), Crossworlds (1996), The Jackal (1997), Johnny Skidmarks (1998), Bongwater (1998), Scott’s Enemy of the State (1998), Robbins’ version of Marc Blitzstein’s Cradle Will Rock (1999), and Jesus’ Son (1999), directed by Alison Maclean and premiering at the Venice film festival, where it won the Little Gold Lion award.

Black had initially passed on what would be his first co-starring role of Dick in director Stephen Frears’ acclaimed High Fidelity (2000), but Frears insisted that Black (who never auditioned) take on the part, with John Cusack, Lisa Bonet, Joelle Carter, Joan Cusack, and Lili Taylor. Black had now caught the industry’s attention and followed this with his next co-starring part in the Dennis Dugan-directed comedy, Saving Silverman (2001), starring Jason Biggs, Steve Zahn, Amanda Peet, R. Lee Ermey, and Neil Diamond.

Jack Black had his first starring role in The Farrelly Brothers’ hit comedy for 20^th Century Fox, Shallow Hal (2001), co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jason Alexander, grossing $141 million globally. Black then co-starred (with Colin Hanks) in another successful studio comedy, Orange County (2002), directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Mike White, and which earned over $43 million worldwide against $18 million in costs.

Black’s first significant voice role in an animated movie was as Zeke in Blue Sky Studios/20^th Century Fox Animation Studio’s Ice Age (2002)–which started the longtime Ice Age franchise with a knockout $383 million gross—with Black joining the voice cast of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Cedric the Entertainer, and Stephen Root. Black’s breakthrough role arrived when he starred as rocker-turned-teacher Dewey Finn in director Richard Linklater’s and writer Mike White’s comedy, School of Rock (2003), with Joan Cusack, White, and Sarah Silverman, earning Black his best-yet reviews and grossing a strong $131 million, spawning a Nickelodeon TV series and a Broadway musical adaptation.

Jack Black co-starred with Ben Stiller in the Barry Levinson-directed Envy (2004), with Rachel Weisz, Amy Poehler, and Christopher Walken, and released to the poor box office by DreamWorks Pictures. Black had a major voice role in an ensemble including Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renée Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, and Martin Scorsese in DreamWorks Animation’s Shark Tale (2004), premiering at the Venice Film Festival and Oscar-nominated for best animated feature.

Black joined the ensemble of director/writer/producer Peter Jackson’s massively staged $207-million King Kong (2005), co-starring Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks, Jamie Bell, and Andy Serkis, earning $557 million globally after winning three Oscars (visual effects, sound mixing, and sound editing). Black had two back-to-back projects as star-producer, first with the broad comedy (co-produced and co-written with Black’s frequent collaborator, Mike White) Nacho Libre (2006), directed and co-written by Jared Hess and grossing $99.3 million for Paramount/Nickelodeon; and then Black was producer-writer-star of Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (2006), which brought his rock band (with partner, co-star and co-producer Kyle Gass), Tenacious D, to the big screen.

Jack Black took an uncharacteristic turn to the Hollywood mainstream as co-star with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, and Jude Law in director/writer/producer Nancy Meyers’ comedy, The Holiday (2006), which did good business for Sony/Columbia and Universal with a global return of $205 million. Black was then a co-star in the large ensemble of Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama, Margot at the Wedding (2007), including Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and John Turturro, and which enjoyed a robust festival run at Telluride, Toronto, New York, and Mill Valley.

Black co-starred with Mos Def in writer-director Michel Gondry’s fanciful video store comedy, Be Kind Rewind (2008), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Black debuted his beloved animated character, Po, in the DreamWorks Animation/Oriental DreamWorks/China Film Group co-production, Kung Fu Panda (2008), leading to a strong, sustained franchise for distributor 20^th Century Fox including Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016), and Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024), grossing a cumulative $1.82 billion globally up to 2024.

Jack Black reunited with Ben Stiller (who was director, co-writer, story writer, producer, and lead star) for the war movie spoof, Tropic Thunder (2008), co-starring Oscar-nominated Robert Downey Jr., Steve Coogan, Jay Baruchel, Bill Hader, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise, and Nick Nolte, earning a solid gross of $195.7 million on a $92 million budget. Black co-starred with a prehistoric Michael Cera in co-writer/director Harold Ramis’ final comedy, Year One (2009), released by Sony/Columbia to poor reviews and box office.

“Black Is The New Big” was the promotional and poster tagline—an indication of Black’s rising stardom—for the comedic Daniel Dafoe adaptation, Gulliver’s Travels (2010), on which Black was executive producer and star, with Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Amanda Peet, and Billy Connolly, and didn’t turn a profit for 20^th Century Fox ($237.4 million gross on a $112 million budget).

Black earned the best reviews of his career (as well as several award nominations, including the Globes, the Gothams, Independent Spirit Awards, Critics’ Choice, and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards) in another major performance under Richard Linklater’s direction in Bernie (2011), with Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey, and taking in $10 million worldwide.

Jack Black then co-starred with Owen Wilson and Steve Martin in the David Frankel-directed comedy about birders, The Big Year (2013), which lost money for distributor 20^th Century Fox. Black again served as producer-star on the black comedy from the directing-writing team of Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel, The D Train (2015), co-starring James Marsden, with Kathryn Hahn, Mike White, and Jeffrey Tambor, and released by IFC Films after a Sundance film festival premiere.

Black portrayed his first true-life character, author R.L. Stine, as well as voiced characters, in the big-screen Stine adaptation by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, Goosebumps (2015), with Dylan Minnette and Amy Ryan, which grossed $158 million for Sony Releasing. Black continued in the true-life vein by starring and producing his first biopic, The Polka King (2017), co-written and directed by Maya Forbes, and which premiered in Sundance before a Netflix release.

Jack Black signed on to his second franchise as Prof. Oberon in the Jumanji series’ third installment, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), with Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, and Bobby Cannavale under Jake Kasdan’s direction, followed by the Kasdan-directed Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), grossing a combined $1.79 billion globally. Filmmaker Gus Van Sant then cast black in the biopic drama, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot (2018), starring Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara, Udo Kier, and Kim Gordon, and released to tepid box office by Amazon Studios.

Black starred in the Eli Roth-directed family fantasy movie, The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018), co-starring Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Sunny Suljic, and Kyle MacLachlan, and earning a solid return for Amblin/Universal Pictures with a $131.5 million gross. Black reunited with filmmaker Linklater a third time, with a co-starring voice performance in the wonderful Space Race-era memoir, Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood (2022), co-starring Glen Powell and Zachary Levi, and released by Netflix after premiering at the South by Southwest festival.

Jack Black proved a natural portraying legendary d.j. Wolfman Jack in the Eric Appel-directed biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022), starring Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, and Julianne Nicholson, and premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.  Black’s next animated movie with the voice role of the chief villain Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), a megahit for Illumination/Nintendo/Universal Pictures with a powerhouse $1.36 billion return, and co-starring Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, and Fred Armisen.

Black continued his long roster of animated voice roles in his reunion with director/co-writer Eli Roth voicing the robot character of Claptrap in Lionsgate’s sci-fi comedy Borderlands (2024), based on the Gearbox video game and co-starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramirez, Florian Munteanu, and Gina Gershon. Black starred (with Jason Momoa) in another highly anticipated game-to-movie adaptation, Minecraft (2025), directed by Jared Hess and co-starring Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, Jennifer Coolidge, and Kate McKinnon, and released by Warner Bros.

Black reunited with the Farrelly Brothers (Bobby as director and producer, Peter as co-writer and producer) by taking on the role of Satan in Bobby Farrelly’s dark Christmas comedy for Paramount Pictures, Dear Santa (date to be announced), with Keegan-Michael Key and Austin Post. Black starred under co-writer Eric Appel’s direction in the comedy, Stepdude (date to be announced), released by Sony Pictures Releasing.