Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Connie McHugh Zastoupil, a health care executive and nurse, and Tony Tarantino, an actor and amateur musician born in Queens, New York.[2] Tarantino's father is Italian American and his mother is of Irish and Cherokee Native American ancestry.[3][4][5] He attended Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California for his freshman year before dropping out of school at age 15. He pursued being taught acting at the James Best Theatre Company in Toluca Lake. At age 22, he held employment at the Video Archives, a now defunct video rental store in Manhattan Beach where he and fellow movie buffs like Roger Avary spent all day discussing and recommending films to customers