There is a revolution afoot in our understanding of supermassive black holes (SMBHs), that is reshaping our view of their formation, growth and influence on cosmic architecture. Recent breakthroughs that have enriched our knowledge of their origins, mass assembly histories and coupling to the larger scale galactic environments. These include: (i) unveiling black hole seed formation via direct collapse illuminated by the synergistic capabilities of NASA’s JWST, Chandra, and Hubble telescopes; (ii) groundbreaking evidence for the collective gravitational wave signals from merging SMBHs, captured by the global network of pulsar timing arrays, including NANOGrav; and (iii) the advent of cutting-edge computational methods enabling us to integrate the dynamics of SMBH accretion with their extended cosmic environments. In this talk, I focus on new insights into the formation of the first black holes from when the Universe was ~ 400-500 Myrs old and what we are learning from these new data-sets; discuss open pertinent questions in black hole physics and outline the exciting prospects for the future including the upcoming LISA mission.
