  The first massive astrophysical black holes likely formed at high redshifts
(z>10) at the centers of low mass (~10^6 Msun) dark matter concentrations.
These black holes grow by mergers and gas accretion, evolve into the population
of bright quasars observed at lower redshifts, and eventually leave the
supermassive black hole remnants that are ubiquitous at the centers of galaxies
in the nearby universe. The astrophysical processes responsible for the
formation of the earliest seed black holes are poorly understood. The purpose
of this review is threefold: (1) to describe theoretical expectations for the
formation and growth of the earliest black holes within the general paradigm of
hierarchical cold dark matter cosmologies, (2) to summarize several relevant
recent observations that have implications for the formation of the earliest
black holes, and (3) to look into the future and assess the power of
forthcoming observations to probe the physics of the first active galactic
nuclei.
