Scott was born in Los Angeles and spent a lot of his childhood with his parents on picket lines campaigning for local civil rights. His father was the executive director of the University of Southern California,Community Services Center, and his mother worked for Operation Breadbasket and other organizations dedicated to improving economic conditions of black communities.

After studying electrical engineering for two years at USC, he sat in on a friends acting class, was immediately bitten by the bug and auditioned for USC's Bachelor of Fine Arts acting conservatory the next semester. He started over as a freshman and completed the program in 1986. In 1987, Scott earned his SAG card on the feature film "Punchline".