Jared Padalecki

Jared Padalecki
Padalecki at the 2008 Comic-Con.
Born	Jared Tristan Padalecki July 19, 1982 (1982-07-19) (age 27) San Antonio, Texas, United States
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1999—present

Jared Tristan Padalecki (born July 19, 1982) is an American actor. He grew up in Texas and came to fame in the early 2000s after appearing on the television series Gilmore Girls as well as in several Hollywood films, including New York Minute and House of Wax. Padalecki appears as Sam Winchester on the CW television series Supernatural starring alongside Jensen Ackles.

Early life

Padalecki was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Sharon L. "Sherri" (née Kammer), a high school English teacher at East Central High School, and Gerald R. Padalecki (nicknamed Gerry), a tax supervisor and accountant.^[1][2] He is of Polish and other European American ancestry.^[3][4] He has an older brother, Jeff, and a younger sister, Megan. He started taking acting classes at the age of 12.

School

He attended James Madison High School in San Antonio and was named a candidate for the 2000 Presidential Scholars Program. In 1998, Padalecki and his partner Chris Cardenas won the National Forensic League national championship in Duo Interpretation.^[5] Padalecki won FOX's 1999 "Claim to Fame Contest"; he subsequently appeared at the Teen Choice Awards, where he met his current manager. After graduating from high school in 2000, he moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue an acting career, although he had originally planned to attend the University of Texas.^[1]

Career

Padalecki's first credit was a minor role in the 1999 film A Little Inside. In 2000, he was cast as Dean Forester on the successful series Gilmore Girls, a role he played until 2005. Throughout the early 2000s, he also appeared in several made-for-television films, including Silent Witness, Close to Home, and A Ring of Endless Light.

Padalecki (right) with his Supernatural co-star Jensen Ackles in 2008

Padalecki had an uncredited part 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 the part of Charlie Baker, and the director of the movie, who both wanted someone bigger than Welling to pick on him. Padalecki originally auditioned for Welling's role, but gave it up in order to film a pilot titled Young MacGyver which was never picked up.^[6] In 2004, he appeared in the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen comedy New York Minute, and also had a role in the thriller Flight of the Phoenix. In 2005, Padalecki starred opposite Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton in the horror film House of Wax, and appeared in another horror film, Cry Wolf.^[7] The same year, Padalecki was cast as Sam Winchester on the WB series, Supernatural. The fifth season began broadcast on September 10, 2009 on the CW. The show is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Padalecki also served as the host of MTV's horror reality series, Room 401.^[8]

He appeared in 2008's The Christmas Cottage, in which he played Thomas Kinkade.

Padalecki had the lead role in the new Friday the 13th film alongside Danielle Panabaker, which opened on Friday, February 13, 2009. He plays Clay Miller, a character who heads out to the doomed Camp Crystal Lake in search of his sister who has gone missing.^[9]

Filmography

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jared Padalecki

• Jared Padalecki at the Internet Movie Database
• Jared Padalecki at TV.com
• Interview with Jared Padalecki at SuicideGirls.com