Jared Padalecki Biography

Born in San Antonio, Texas as the middle of three children, Jared Padalecki knew at an early age that he wanted to become an actor. He began taking acting lessons at 12 and appeared in school plays. In 1999, he entered a Claim to Fame contest at a local Planet Hollywood. The prize was a trip to Los Angeles to present awards and escort celebrity winners offstage at Fox's Teen Choice awards. While there, he caught the attention of a talent manager who told him to look him up if he decided to make acting his career. After graduating from high school the next year, Jared, who had considered going to the University of Texas, instead moved to Los Angeles to take up the talent manager's offer.

Jared immediately landed a starring role in the TV movie Silent Witness (2000) and a recurring role as Dean, Rory's boyfriend, on the WB TV series Gilmore Girls. The show quickly became a huge hit. Padalecki found himself becoming a famous face, especially among teenage girls when teen magazines began featuring his photo and publishing articles about him.

In 2001, Jared made his film debut in the independent baseball movie A Little Inside. He continued to appear on Gilmore Girls for two more seasons while making TV movies such as Close to Home (2001) and A Ring of Endless Light (2001), as well as a guest appearance on ER during breaks from Gilmore Girls. In the major motion picture Cheaper By the Dozen, he landed a small role as a bully who picks on Charlie Baker, played by Tom Welling (Clark Kent on WB's Smallville). Jared's first major role in a big budget picture was playing Trey, a laidback young man in New York Minute (2004), starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. In the film, the sisters break into his hotel room and he ends up falling for one of them.

With his movie career heating up, Jared landed a starring role in Flight of the Phoenix (2004), opposite Dennis Quaid. He has also returned for several guest appearances as Dean on Gilmore Girls' 2003/2004 season and continued on in that role for the 2004/2005 season. Padalecki played a role in the horror film House of Wax opposite Elisha Cuthbert (24) and Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill) and starred in other horror films such as Cry Wolf (2005) and Friday the 13th (2009). On the small screen, he stars on the hit CW series Supernatural.

Jared played the character of Sam Winchester for a staggering 327 episodes, spanning from 2005 to 2020. He also voiced Sam in the animated series Supernatural: The Animation, which was a single season anime that covered the events of the first two seasons of the live-action series.

On the film side, Jared lent his voice as Lt. Alex in the English dub of the French animated film Phantom Boy (2015).

For the next few years, Jared took a step back from acting outside of a guest appearance on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life on which he reprised his role as Dean Forester, and another guest appearance on Kings of Con.

In 2021, he made his return to acting on the CW show Walker, the reboot series of Walker, Texas Ranger. Jared played the lead role of Cordell Walker for four seasons, with the series ending in 2024. That same year, Jared guest-starred for three episodes on Fire Country with the possibility of headlining a spinoff.

In 2025, Jared teamed up once again with Supernatural creator Eric Kripke for the final season of The Boys, where he will also reunite with his co-stars Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins.

Jared has been married to Genevieve Cortese since 2010. The two were co-stars on Supernatural and have three children.

Filmography:

Phantom Boy (2015)
Friday the 13th (2009)
Cry Wolf (2005)
House of Wax (2005)
Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
New York Minute (2004)
Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)
A Little Inside (2001)