Scott was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Newport News, Virginia. He is of African American and Filipino (maternal grandfather) descent.</ref> His father Dr. Charles Waldo Scott (1916–93) was a pioneering African American surgeon and in 1952 became the first African American appointed to the Newport News school board in the 20th century. Scott's mother Mae Hamlin-Scott (1918-2010), a graduate in chemistry from the University of Michigan, was an educator who taught science in the Newport News public schools.