Jake was born on June 15th, 1971 in L.A.. As a child, he was surrounded by his father’s drunken musician friends, who would hang out in Gary’s recording studio in the house. Jake recalls, “Here I am trying to wake up and go to school at 7 in the morning and there’s headlights pulling in the driveway at 5am.” Jake told one interviewer that “there were nights they didn’t have a drummer and the 8-yr-old would be playing his drums in his blue pajamas at 3am.” (Notice the inclusion of the color of the pajamas. Perhaps Jake does indeed have some of Gary’s flair for storytelling.) Jake’s mother, less than pleased at Gary’s responsible fathering, divorced Jake’s father when Jake was 16 years old.
Jake got his start in acting at Santa Barbara City College (if you ignore the movie Straight Time, in which he appeared opposite his father when he was 5 years old). Having caught the acting (or, as I like to call it, ‘playing pretend’) bug, Jake decided to study acting seriously for three years. He was given no easy breaks in the business, however, as he auditioned for over 2 years before landing a single role. Finally, he caught his first break in “SFW” opposite Stephen Dorff, and the rest is Home Fries history.
After small roles in movies as various as PCU and Contact, Jake went on to star in his own zany sitcom called “Shasta McNasty” (1999). From what I’ve gathered, the show was about a group of rappers that made fun of midgets. As you can see, it had all the trappings of lasting television – and Gary even costarred for some episodes – but, alas, it was soon canceled. Never fear, though, the Buseys aren’t quitters. Jake has since redoubled his efforts in the movie business, honing his skills at playing the sophomoric, horse-mouthed bad-boy.