Black attended the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Theater, Film, and Television ( UCLA) while apprenticing with stage directors, taking acting jobs, and working on theater lighting crews. While attending North Salinas High School, Black began to work in theater at The Western Stage in Salinas and later worked on productions including Bare at Hollywood's Hudson Main Stage Theater. He came out in his senior year of college. He says that his 'acute awareness' of his sexuality made him dark, shy, and at times suicidal. And if I ever admit it, I'll be hurt, and I'll be brought down'. When he found himself attracted to a boy in his neighborhood at the age of six or seven, he told himself 'I'm going to hell. Growing up surrounded by Mormon culture and military bases, Black worried about his sexuality. They grew up in a Mormon household, first in San Antonio, Texas, before moving to Salinas, California.
Black's father Raul Garrison walked out on his polio-stricken mother, Roseanna, and his two brothers, Marcus Raul and Todd Bryant, when he was young.
