Jared Leto

**Jared Joseph Leto** (born December 26, 1971) is an American actor and musician. He is known for acting in movies such as _Fight Club_; _Girl, Interrupted_; _Panic Room_; _American Psycho_; _Alexander_; _Requiem for a Dream_; _Lord of War_,_ Prefontaine_, _Mr. Nobody_ and _Suicide Squad_ in which he starred as The Joker.

He started a rock band called Thirty Seconds to Mars in 1998 with his brother Shannon Leto. Leto was the lead singer. The band has released four albums.

## Early life

Leto was born on December 26, 1971, in Bossier City, Louisiana, to Constance Leto (née Metrejon). His mother has Cajun ancestry. Leto is his stepfather's surname. His parents divorced when he was a child, and he and his older brother, Shannon, lived with their mother and their maternal grandparents, Ruby (Russell) and William Lee Metrejon. After he remarried, his father died by suicide when Jared was eight. Leto moved frequently with his family from Louisiana to different cities around the country. "My mom's father was in the Air Force," Leto has explained, "so moving around a lot was a normal way of life." Leto has two younger half-brothers from his father's second marriage.

Constance joined the hippie movement and encouraged her sons to get involved in the arts. Leto said he "was raised around a lot of artists, musicians, photographers, painters and people that were in theater," adding that "Just having the art communal hippie experience as a child, there wasn't a clear line that was drawn. We celebrated creative experience and creative expression. We didn't try and curtail it and stunt any of that kind of growth." Leto started playing music with his brother at an early age; his first musical instrument was a broken-down piano.

After dropping out briefly in the 10th grade, Leto decided to return and focus on his education at the private Emerson Preparatory School in Washington, D.C. He was interested in large-scale visual art and enrolled at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. After developing an interest in filmmaking, he transferred to the School of Visual Arts in New York City. While he was a student there, he wrote and starred in his own short film, _Crying Joy_. He also attended the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, now a part of George Washington University.

## Filmography

|Year|Title|Role|class="unsortable"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1995|_How to Make an American Quilt_|Beck|||
|1996|__|Frankie Griffin|Also known as _Summer Fling_||
|1997|_Prefontaine_|Steve Prefontaine|||
|1997|_Switchback_|Lane Dixon|||
|1998|_Basil_|Basil|||
|1998|_Urban Legend_|Paul Gardener|||
|1998|__|Second Lieutenant Whyte|||
|1999|_Black and White_|Casey|||
|1999|_Fight Club_|Angel Face|||
|1999|_Girl, Interrupted_|Tobias "Toby" Jacobs|||
|2000|_American Psycho_|Paul Allen|||
|2000|_Requiem for a Dream_|Harry Goldfarb|||
|2000|_Sunset Strip_|Glen Walker|||
|2002|_Highway_|Jack Hayes|||
|2002|_Panic Room_|Junior|||
|2002|_Phone Booth_|Bobby|Uncredited cameo||
|2003|_Sol Goode_|Rock Star Wannabe|Uncredited||
|2004|_Alexander_|Hephaestion|||
|2005|_Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow_|Himself|Documentary movie||
|2005|_Lord of War_|Vitaly Orlov|||
|2006|_Lonely Hearts_|Raymond Fernandez|||
|2007|_Chapter 27_|Mark David Chapman|||
|2009|_Mr. Nobody_|Nemo Nobody|||
|2011|_TT3D: Closer to the Edge_|Narrator|Voice||
|2012|_Artifact_|Himself|Also director||
|2013|_Dallas Buyers Club_|Rayon|||
|2016|_Suicide Squad_|The Joker|||
|2017|_Blade Runner 2049_|Niander Wallace|||
|2018|_The Outsider_|Nick Lowell|||

|Year|Title|class="unsortable"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2006|""|Music video||
|2006|"From Yesterday"|Music video||
|2008|""|Music video||
|2009|"Kings and Queens"|Music video||
|2010|"Closer to the Edge"|Music video||
|2010|"Hurricane"|Music video||
|2012|_Artifact_|Documentary||
|2013|"Up in the Air"|Music video||
|2013|"City of Angels"|Music video||
|2015|_Beyond the Horizon_|TV Documentary||
|2016|_Great Wide Open_|Documentary||

|Year|Title|class="unsortable"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2001|_Sol Goode_|Co-producer||
|2007|_Chapter 27_|Executive Producer||
|2012|_Artifact_|Documentary||
|2016|_Holy Hell_|Executive Producer||

|Year|Title|Role|class="unsortable"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1992– 1993|_Camp Wilder_|Dexter|2 episodes||
|1993|_Almost Home_|Rick Aiken|Episode: "The Fox and the Hound"||
|1994– 1995|_My So-Called Life_|Jordan Catalano|19 episodes||
|1994|_Rebel Highway_|Michael|Episode: "Cool and the Crazy"||
|1994|_Cool and the Crazy_|Michael|TV film||
|1998|_Wild Life Adventures_|Himself|Episode: "Alaska's Bush Pilots"||
|2003|''Player$|Himself|Episode: "Posehn, Papa and Mars"||
|2003|_Hollywood High_|Himself|Documentary film||
|2006|__|Narrator|Documentary movie||
|2014– 2015|_Into the Wild_|Himself|Documentary; 16 episodes; also director||

## Other websites

- Jared Leto at the Internet Movie Database
- Jared Leto on Myspace

## Infobox (musical artist)

- **embed**: yes
- **background**: solo_singer
- **genre**: Alternative rock, post-grunge, progressive rock, hard rock, alternative metal, progressive metal
- **associated acts**: 30 Seconds to Mars


## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Jared Leto
- **image**: Flickr - nicogenin - 66ème Festival de Venise (Mostra) - Jared Leto (8).jpg
- **caption**: Leto in 2009
- **birth name**: Jared Joseph Leto
- **birth place**: Bossier City, Louisiana, Bossier City, Louisiana, USA
- **occupation**: Actor, musician, director
- **years active**: 1992–present