Jared Padalecki was born in San Antonio, Texas to Gerald and Sherri Padalecki. His father is of Polish descent, while his mother has German, Scottish, French, and English ancestry.
Although he had originally planned to attend the University of Texas after graduating from high school in 2000, Jared decided to move Los Angeles, California instead to pursue an acting career.
Jared won Fox Broadcasting’s 1999 “Claim to Fame Contest”. His first role was a minor role in the 1999 film “A Little Inside”. In 2000, he was cast as Dean Forester on the television series “Gilmore Girls”, a role he played until 2005. Throughout the early 2000s, he appeared in several made-for-television films, including “Silent Witness”, “Close to Home”, and the Disney Channel Original Movie “A Ring of Endless Light”.
Jared had an uncredited role as a high school bully in 2003’s comedy “Cheaper by the Dozen”, which he played after being asked by fellow actor and friend Tom Welling, who played Charlie Baker, and the director of the movie, who wanted someone larger than Charlie to pick on him. In 2004, he appeared in the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen comedy, “New York Minute” as Trey Lipton, a cute boy to whom the Olsens’ characters are attracted. He also landed a role in the thriller “Flight of the Phoenix” alongside Dennis Quaid and Hugh Laurie. In 2005, Jared starred opposite Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton in “House of Wax”. In 2005, he appeared in “Cry Wolf”, another horror film.
That same year, Jared was cast as Sam Winchester on the CW series, “Supernatural”. Sam and his brother Dean (Jensen Ackles) drive throughout the United States hunting paranormal predators. During that time, he also headlined 2008’s “The Christmas Cottage” as Thomas Kinkade, alongside acclaimed actor Peter O’Toole, and played the lead role in the 2009 version of “Friday the 13th” as Clay Miller, a character who heads out to Camp Crystal Lake in search of his sister who has gone missing. He has recently appeared in “Supernatural” castmastes Richard Speight Jr. and Rob Benedict “Kings of Con” show, while season 14 of “Supernatural” is currently airing.