His father Tom Banks was the Exec. at Foote Cone & Belding San Francisco, and creator of "Heard It Through The Grapevine" spot with the dancing raisins.Studied at the GroundlingsHis first national commercial was Samsung with Director Hype Williams .Comes from Petaluma, California, where he attended PHS as a contemporary of Winona Ryder (Horowitz).Transformed himself by losing 20 pounds in preparation for doing the role of Chris in the movie Doing Hard Time (2004) (V), with Steven Bauer , Giancarlo Esposito and Boris Kodjoe . He did so by fasting for some 12 days.Shares a birthday with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Modine .Was a member of the band "Flipside"Is a stand-up comedian.Drummer for the 3 heads.Is of Native American (Cherokee Indian) lineage.Son of Thomas Banks.California Raisins...The concept was originally created for a 1987 commercial on behalf of the California Raisin Advisory Board when one of the writers (Thomas Banks of the advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding) came up with an idea for the new raisin commercial, saying "We have tried everything but dancing raisins singing 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine'" (the 1968 Marvin Gaye song). To their surprise, the commercial became wildly popular, spawning future commercials, two TV specials (Meet the Raisins in 1988 and Raisins: Sold Out! in 1990), four studio albums, and a Saturday morning cartoon series, aptly titled The California Raisin Show.Has appeared in over 100 commercials.