Jared Leto extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Jared Leto
Jared Leto, December 2006
Born	December 26, 1971 (1971-12-26) (age 37) Bossier City, Louisiana, U.S.
Other name(s)	Bartholomew Cubbins, Angakok Panipaq
Occupation	Actor Musician Songwriter Director
Years active	1994–present

Jared Leto (born December 26, 1971) is an American actor and musician. His first major acting performance was as Jordan Catalano in the television series My So-Called Life. This led to a film career, including a critically acclaimed portrayal of a drug addict in Requiem for a Dream. Additionally, Leto is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and main songwriter of the rock band 30 Seconds to Mars.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Film 2.2 Music 3 Awards 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Leto was born on December 26, 1971 in Bossier City, Louisiana. During his childhood, Leto and his family—his mother, Constance, and his older brother Shannon Leto—moved frequently, living in Louisiana, Wyoming, Colorado, Virginia, and even Haiti.¹²

After dropping out briefly in the 10th grade, Jared decided to return and focus on his education at Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia. He graduated from Emerson Preparatory School in Washington, DC in 1989.³ When he finished school, Leto enrolled at Philadelphia's University of the Arts to pursue his interests in painting. However, he then transferred to New York City's School of Visual Arts after developing an interest in acting.⁴

Career

Film

In 1992, Leto moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music. He only took a few small part- time acting gigs to pay the bills. Two years later, he landed a role in the TV show My So-Called Life in which he played Jordan Catalano, opposite Claire Danes. After the show ended in 1995, Leto acted in several films such as How to Make an American Quilt, Girl, Interrupted, Urban Legend, The Thin Red Line, Prefontaine and Fight Club, among others.

However, it was his portrayal of heroin addict Harry Goldfarb in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream in the year 2000, that garnered him more critical praise. The same year he portrayed a misfortuned yuppie colleague of Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman, in Mary Harron's American Psycho. After that, he returned with David Fincher for Panic Room, then teamed up with Jake Gyllenhaal in Highway in 2002, then acted opposite Colin Farrell in Oliver Stone's Alexander, and later with Nicolas Cage in Lord of War.

Leto is a vegetarian⁵ and especially mentions this in interviews where he talked about his increase of weight for the film Chapter 27 (alongside Lindsay Lohan) in which he plays John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman. He gained more than 60 pounds for this role.

He is set to star in the film Mr Nobody playing the role of the eponymous Nemo Nobody. The film is set to be released in May of 2009.

Music

Aside from his film career, Jared Leto is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and sole songwriter of the band 30 Seconds to Mars along with his brother, Shannon Leto, on drums. They started the band in 1998 and have released two albums: their eponymous debut 30 Seconds to Mars and 2005's A Beautiful Lie. They began opening for other bands and started their first ever headlining tour, Forever Night Never Day, in March of 2006. In May 2007, they started touring Europe, as the opening act for Linkin Park. In August 2008, Virgin Records filed a $30 million lawsuit against Jared and 30 Seconds To Mars, claiming the band refused to deliver three albums as required by its contract. According to the lawsuit, the band "repudiated" a 1999 contract in July.⁶ In late April 2009 the lawsuit with EMI was annulled and 30 Seconds To Mars decided to re-sign with Virgin Records. They have also promised to have their third album This Is War out sometime in 2009.

Leto directed the videos for the songs "The Kill" and "From Yesterday" under the alias of Bartholomew Cubbins , and "A Beautiful Lie" under the alias of Angakok Panipaq.⁷

For most shows, Leto uses either one of two custom-made Steve McSwain guitars, a white one called "Pythagoras" or a black one called "Artemis". The guitars—one a baritone and the other with a 25 1/2" neck—have the image of a gryphon which he drew for McSwain. Occasionally he plays a white Gibson SG 61' Reissue as seen in the video for "A Beautiful Lie". Jared also play a Gibson Maestro acoustic guitar for acoustic performances. Jared uses Mesa/Boogie amps, more specifically the Triple Rectifier model and matches them with Mesa/Boogie speaker cabinets as well.

Awards

• Leto got the award for "Prince of Darkness" at the Fuse Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. (Aired October 28th, 2006)
• Leto received an award for Breakthrough Crossover Artist given at the 6th Annual Hollywood Life Awards held in December 2006.
• 30 Seconds to Mars won two awards at the Kerrang! Awards in 2008, being the Best International Band, and the best single which was From Yesterday

In 2008, 30 Seconds to Mars won the EMA music awards for best Rock Out and for Best music video, the latter for the video of a Beautiful Lie, which was filmed in Greenland. In October, 30 Seconds To Mars won the Latin American Award "Lengua" or "Tongue" for Best International Rock Artist or Mejor Artista Internacional vs. Paramore, Panic! at the Disco and Metallica

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1994	My So-Called Life	Jordan Catalano	TV show Brother Shannon Leto also has a minor role in some episodes
	Cool and the Crazy	Michael
1995	How to Make an American Quilt	Beck
1996	The Last of the High Kings	Frankie Griffin	Also known as Summer Fling
1997	Prefontaine	Steve Prefontaine
	Switchback	Lane Dixon
1998	Basil	Basil
	Urban Legend	Paul Gardener
	The Thin Red Line	Second Lieutenant Whyte
1999	Black and White	Casey
	Fight Club	Angelface
	Girl, Interrupted	Tobias "Toby" Jacobs
2000	American Psycho	Paul Allen
	Sunset Strip	Glen Walker
	Requiem for a Dream	Harry Goldfarb	Lost 28 pounds for this role.
2002	Panic Room	Junior
	Highway	Jack Hayes	Brother Shannon Leto has a role in this movie as well
2004	Alexander	Hephaestion
2005	Lord of War	Vitaly Orlov	Learned Russian for this role.
2006	Lonely Hearts	Raymond Fernandez
2007	Chapter 27	Mark David Chapman	Gained 62 pounds for this role.
2009	Mr. Nobody	Nemo Nobody

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jared Leto

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jared Leto

• Jared Leto at the Internet Movie Database
• 30 Seconds To Mars Official Site

v • d • e 30 Seconds to Mars Jared Leto · Shannon Leto · Tomo Miličević · Tim Kelleher (touring bassist) Matt Wachter · Solon Bixler · Kevin Drake Studio albums 30 Seconds to Mars · A Beautiful Lie · This Is War EPs Acoustic Live Radio Show · AOL Sessions Undercover · A Beautiful Lie · To the Edge of the Earth Singles "Capricorn (A Brand New Name)" · "Edge of the Earth" · "Attack" · "The Kill (Bury Me)" · "From Yesterday" · "A Beautiful Lie" · "The Story" (only Argentina) Videos A Beautiful Lie · A Beautiful Lie - Deluxe Edition · To the Edge of the Earth Labels EMI · Virgin · Immortal Related articles Discography · List of songs · Awards and nominations The 97X Green Room: Volume 2 · Radio 1's Live Lounge – Volume 2 · Hypnagogic States