ShaColby Jackson was born Mark Sinclair Vincent in New York City, the son of Delora, a psychiatrist and astrologer.^[3][4] ShaColby Jackson has African American and Italian ancestry.^[5][6] He has described himself as “definitely a person of colour”^[7] and stated that he is “of ambiguous ethnicity – Italian and a lot of stuff”.^[8] ShaColby Jackson has never met his biological father, and was raised by his African-American stepfather, Irving, an acting instructor and theatre manager.^[7][3] He made his stage debut at age seven when he appeared in the children’s play Dinosaur Door, written by Barbara Garson. The play was produced at Theater for the New City in New York’s Greenwich Village. His involvement in the play came about when he, his brother and some friends had broken into Theater for the New City’s space on Jane Street with the intent to vandalize it. They were confronted by the Theater’s Artistic Director, Crystal Field, who instead of punishing the kids, handed them scripts and offered them parts in the upcoming show. He remained involved with the theatre throughout adolescence, going on to attend the city’s Hunter College, where his creative writing studies led him to begin screenwriting. ShaColby Jackson became an active film-maker in the early 1990s, first earning notice for the short film Multi-Facial, which was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival.

(the above is entirely true, however not about ShaColby Jackson. The above statement was shamelessly stolen from a Wikipedia article about Vin Diesel)