Jared Leto is an American actor and singer-songwriter. Let’s see some amazing facts and trivia about him!
1. His middle name is Joseph.
2. He was born on December 26,1971.
3.He was born in Bossier City, Louisiana, to Constance Leto (née Metrejon).[6][7]
4. His mother has Cajun ancestry.
5. “Leto” is the surname of his stepfather.
6. His parents divorced when he was a child, and he and his older brother Shannon Leto lived with their mother and their maternal grandparents, William Lee Metrejon and Ruby Russell.
7. His father remarried and committed suicide when Jared was eight.
8. Jared Leto moved frequently with his family from his native Louisiana to different cities around the country.
9. Leto has two younger half-brothers from his father’s second marriage.
10. After dropping out briefly in the 10th grade, Jared 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.
11. He was interested in large-scale visual art and enrolled at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
12. After developing an interest in filmmaking, he transferred to the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
13. While he was a student there, he wrote and starred in his own short film, Crying Joy.
14. In 1992, Leto moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in directing, intending to take acting roles on the side.
15. He found minor roles on television shows but his first break came in 1994, after he was cast opposite Claire Danes as Jordan Catalano, her love interest, in the short-lived but well-reviewed ABC teen drama My So-Called Life.
16. In 1997, Leto starred in the biopic Prefontaine in which he played the role of Olympic hopeful Steve Prefontaine. For the preparation of the role, Leto immersed himself in the runner’s life, training for six weeks and meeting with members of his family and friends.=
17. Jared Leto formed the rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars in 1998 in Los Angeles, California with his brother Shannon.
18. When the group first started, Jared Leto did not allow his position of Hollywood actor to be used in promotion of the band. Their debut album had been in the works for a couple of years, with Leto writing the majority of the songs.
19. In August 2008, during the recording process of their third studio album, Thirty Seconds to Mars attempted to sign with a new label, prompting EMI (the parent label of Virgin), to file a $30 million breach of contract lawsuit.
20. In 2012, Jared Leto made his directorial debut with the documentary film Artifact. It chronicles the modern music business as it charts the legal dispute between Thirty Seconds to Mars and record label EMI, after the band tried to exit its contract over a royalties dispute.
21. After the strong relationship between Thirty Seconds to Mars and its audience, Leto launched the social media management and digital marketing company The Hive. It is based in Studio City, Los Angeles and focus on creative community building.
22. In recent years, it has expanded to other artists such as Jessie J and Semi Precious Weapons.
23. In 2010, Jared Leto launched The One and Only Golden Tickets, a full service company which operates worldwide and manages exclusive services for concerts, festivals, and events.[100] In 2013, the company was renamed Adventures In Wonderland.
24. In 2011, Jared Leto launched the online platform VyRT. Created as a live video streaming service, it also features social networking and official merchandise.
25. Its idea came from some frustrating experiences Leto faced with Thirty Seconds to Mars in streaming their own live events.
26. In June 2012, VyRT was awarded Best Online Concert Experience at the O Music Awards.
27. In 2012, Leto became an investor in Surf Air, a California-based air service.
28. He is also a funder for Reddit and Robinhood Markets.
29. Jared Leto lives a vegan lifestyle and supports animal rights.
30. In 2008, he supported the California Proposition 2 regarding treatment of farm animals.
31. In the 2008 presidential election, Jared Leto supported Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.
32. In 2012, he chaired a Gen44 event, a campaign set up by Obama to energize voters under 40.
33. Jared Leto is a gay rights activist.
34. He spoke out in support of LGBT rights group Freedom Action Inclusion Rights (FAIR).
35. In May 2012, he expressed support after hearing that Barack Obama had endorsed same-sex marriage.
36. Jared Leto has supported Aid Still Required, a non-profit corporation committed to bringing attention and humanitarian aid to areas suffering from natural disasters or human crises.
37. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he released a book of photographs taken during his trip to the Caribbean country in 2011, in a bid to raise funds for the earthquake-ravaged country. He has connected with and helped various organizations since arriving there, including J/P Haitian Relief Organization. Leto spent a year in Haiti during his childhood, and returned there in January 2011 to “reconnect” with his former home following the tremor of January 2010.
38. On September 30, 2014, Jared Leto hosted the event Haiti: The Journey Is the Destination in New York City, benefitting those affected by the 2010 earthquake in the Caribbean country.
39. In February 2015, Jared Leto was named a global ambassador for World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
40. Bartholomew Cubbins is his pseudonym with which he signs the videos/films he directs (including most of his band 30 Seconds to Mars’s video clips starting with “The Kill”.
41. He was engaged to Cameron Diaz.
42. He is the third actor to have won an Oscar and play the Joker in live-action. The first two are Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger.
43. The first actor to play The Joker in a film that wasn’t centered around Batman.
44. He lost 35 pounds for his Oscar winning role as Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club.
45. As of 2016, Jared has been in two films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture of the Year: The Thin Red Line (1998) and Dallas Buyers Club (2013).
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