David Blaine was born in Brooklyn to a father of Puerto Rican descent and a mother of Russian-Jewish descent. His mother Patrice Maureen White (1946-1995) was a school teacher living in New York, and his father William Perez is a Vietnam veteran. He was raised by his single mother. He attended many schools in Brooklyn. At the age of 10, David Blaine's mother married John Bukalo and they moved to New Jersey.