Vin Diesel was born Mark Sinclair in Alameda County, California, to Delora Sherleen Vincent (née Sinclair), an astrologer, and was raised by his white mother and adoptive African-American father, Irving H. Vincent, an acting instructor and theater manager.

Diesel made his stage debut at age seven when he appeared in the children's play "Dinosaur Door", written by Barbara Garson, at Theater for the New City in New York's Greenwich Village.

Diesel attended NYC's Hunter College, where studies in creative writing led him to begin screenwriting.