Jared Leto's birthday

Born on December 26th, 1971, in Bossier City, Louisiana, Jared Joseph Leto is an American actor and singer-songwriter. From an early age, Jared and his brother were encouraged by their mother to be creative, and the brothers leaned towards music when they were young. Interested in pursuing an artistic career, Leto at first attended Philadelphia’s University of the Arts to study visual arts but later transferred to School of Visual Arts in New York City after becoming interested in filmmaking. With the intention to become a director, he moved to Los Angeles in 1992.

Despite Leto’s intention to take on acting jobs on the side, he soon started to land minor roles in television sitcoms Almost Home and Camp Wilder, eventually getting cast in 1994’s teen show My So-Called Life. Although it was canceled after one season, the series was well-received, and it helped to put Leto on the map. He then appeared in the TV film Cool and the Crazy (1994), followed by his big screen debut in 1995’s How to Make an American Quilt. Known for his method acting, Jared’s acting career began to take off thanks to his roles in The Last of the High Kings (1996), Prefontaine (1997), Urban Legend (1998), and The Thin Red Line (1998).

Leto rose to stardom at the beginning of the 2000s for his supporting roles in critically acclaimed films Girl, Interrupted (1999), Fight Club (1999), American Psycho (2000), and landing the lead role in Requiem for a Dream (2001). Afterwards, Leto stepped away from acting to focus on his band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, which he had formed with his older brother Shannon in 1998. Their first studio album, 30 Seconds to Mars, was released in 2002 to positive reviews and moderate performance in sales. He returned to films to appear as one of the main antagonists in the commercially successful thriller Panic Room (2002). His next roles were in the biopic Alexander (2004), and the political crime thriller Lord of War (2005).

Thirty Seconds to Mars’ second album, A Beautiful Lie, premiered in 2005 to positive reviews and an international tour, which was made to accommodate Leto’s career. In 2006, he directed the music videos for two of the band’s singles, “The Kill” and “From Yesterday,” and has since directed more videos for the band’s subsequent albums. Leto’s film roles substantially decreased while he focused on his music, and he only appeared in Lonely Hearts (2006), Chapter 27 (2007), and Mr. Nobody (2009), during this time. The band released their third studio album in 2009, titled This is War. In 2012, he directed the documentary Artifact, under the pseudonym Bartholomew Cubbins. In 2013, Jared earned his first Oscar, SAG and Golden Globe Awards as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the drama Dallas Buyers Club. That same year, Thirty Seconds’ fourth album, Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams, came out and reached top of the charts in several countries.

In 2014, Jared directed another documentary series, Into the Wild, which was about his band’s tour of the same name. The tour also earned the band the Guinness World Record for being the longest running tour in the history of rock music. On screen, Leto was cast as the supervillain Joker in Warner Bros’ Suicide Squad (2016), which was panned by critics. He later reprised his role for a cameo in the much anticipated Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2021. In 2018, Thirty Seconds debuted their fifth record, America, to generally mixed reviews. Over the last few years, Jared can be seen in Blade Runner 2049 (2017), The Outsider (2018), The Little Things (2021), House of Gucci (2021), Morbius (2022), and is set to appear in Disney’s remake of Haunted Mansion (2023).