Maya Rudolph reveals Jack Black was her improv coach

Maya Rudolph has revealed Jack Black was her theatre coach in high school.

The Saturday Night Live alum explained she and her fellow comedian, three years her senior, were thrown together by their high school drama teacher.

Maya, 51 and Jack, 54, both attended the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California – an independent day school whose alumni include Zooey Deschanel, Kate Hudson and Gwyneth Paltrow.

"My drama teacher put us together, and he was my improv coach for an improv competition we did," Maya told host Drew Barrymore on her self-titled talk show.

"And he got me into the improv class, and he took me to my first Groundlings show, which is where I ended up."

The Groundlings is an improvisation and sketch comedy theatre in Los Angeles that has launched numerous comedians' careers.

Maya added that Jack "was the most inspiring" and that he was "just special".

"First of all, you have to understand something about Jack," she gushed. "Jack has been the same person since the day I met him. The exact same person... He's just that guy. He's just special."

The Loot actress previously admitted she "always had a crush" on Jack as a teen.

"He was like the theatre god at my school," she told Vulture in 2014. "He was Pippin when we did Pippin. I was just one of the chorus in a unitard."