Jared Leto by Terry Richardson

 Jared Leto (born December 26, 1971) is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, director, producer, activist, philanthropist, photographer and businessman. After starting his career with television appearances in the early 1990s, Leto achieved recognition for his role as Jordan Catalano on the television series My So-Called Life (1994). He made his film debut in How to Make an American Quilt (1995) and received first notable critical praise for his performance in Prefontaine (1997). Leto played supporting roles in The Thin Red Line (1998), Fight Club (1998) and American Psycho (2000), as well as the lead role in Urban Legend (1998), and earned critical acclaim after portraying heroin addict Harry Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream (2000). He later began focusing increasingly on his music career, returning to acting with Panic Room (2002), Alexander (2004), Lord of War (2005), Lonely Hearts (2006), Chapter 27 (2007), and Mr. Nobody (2009). He made his directorial debut in 2012 with the documentary film Artifact.

 Leto's performance as a transgender woman in Dallas Buyers Club (2013) received critical praise and earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, among numerous other accolades. Leto is considered to be a method actor, known for his constant devotion to and research of his roles. He often remains completely in character for the duration of the shooting schedules of his films, even to the point of adversely affecting his health He is also known to be selective about his film roles.

 Leto is the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and main songwriter for Thirty Seconds to Mars, a band which he formed in 1998 in Los Angeles, California with his older brother Shannon Leto. Their debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars (2002), was released to positive reviews but only to limited success. The band achieved worldwide fame with the release of their second album A Beautiful Lie (2005). Their following releases, This Is War (2009) and Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013), received further critical and commercial success. As of May 2013, the band has sold over 10 million albums worldwide. Leto has also directed music videos, including the MTV Video Music Award–winning "The Kill" (2006), "Kings and Queens" (2009), and "Up in the Air" (2013).

 Jared Leto was born in Bossier City, Louisiana, the son of Constance Leto (née Metrejon). His mother has Cajun ancestry. "Leto" is a 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, William Lee Metrejon and Ruby Russell. His father remarried and died soon after. Leto moved frequently with his family from his native 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. "I was raised around a lot of artists, musicians, photographers, painters and people that were in theater," he stated in an interview with Kerrang!; "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 grew up listening to classic rock from Pink Floyd to Led Zeppelin and 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., but graduated from Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia. He was interested in large-scale visual art and enrolled at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. After developing an interest in film making, 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.