Michael Ian Black was born in Chicago, Illinois, but his family moved to Hillsborough, New Jersey, when he was young. His parents divorced when he was 3. When he was 7, his father died during neurological surgery following a mysterious assault.

Michael attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts but left before graduation. It was there he met and joined the core group of the comedy group "The State", who had a short run with their own MTV show, The State, before attempting a move to CBS in the mid-1990s; their make-or-break Halloween special fell short of expectations, and a CBS series never came into fruition. Since then Black has appeared as a regular on Comedy Central's Reno 911! starring Thomas Lennon, Ben Garant and Kerri Kenney.

In addition to his regular television appearances, he also performs in the comedy group Stella with fellow State alumni Michael Showalter and David Wain.


Was the voice of the pets.com sock puppet. Attended New York University but left before graduating. Was not the original choice to play Phil Stubbs on NBC's "Ed" (2000); fellow "I Love the '80s" (2002) commentator Donal Logue played the role in the first episode, but backed out due to scheduling conflicts. Donal Logue appeared in the early promotion for the series but the first episodes were re-shot to include Black. His birth name, Schwartz, is derived from the German word "schwarz," which has the same meaning as his stage name, Black. He has joked that he dropped the name Schwartz because "I'm ashamed of my Jewishness." However, the comedy group "Stella" (2005)'s uniting theme is the 3 members' Jewishness (Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain).