Jared Tristan Padalecki born July 19, 1982  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. He has an older brother, Jeff, and a younger sister, Megan. He started taking acting classes at the age of 12.

Jared 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. He 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.

Jared’s 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 also appeared in several made-for-television films, including Silent Witness, Close to Home, and the Disney Channel Original Movie A Ring of Endless Light.

He 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 wanted someone larger than Charlie to pick on him. Jared originally auditioned for Welling's role, but gave it up in order to film a pilot titled Young MacGyver which was never picked up. 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 short 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 the horror film House of Wax in which he plays Wade, one of five teens who are slashed and killed. In the same year, Jared appeared in yet another horror film, Cry Wolf in which he played Tom.

The same year, he 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, sometimes with their father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The ninth season is to begin broadcast on October 8, 2013 on the CW. The show is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Jared also served as the host of MTV's horror reality series, Room 401 which was discontinued after only 8 episodes due to poor ratings.

He had the lead role in 2008's The Christmas Cottage, in which he played Thomas Kinkade.

Jared also had the lead role in the horror remake 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.

Jared married his former Supernatural co-star Genevieve Cortese on February 27, 2010 in Sun Valley, Idaho. He and his wife are currently residing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. On October 10, 2011, he announced they were expecting their first child. The couple's son, Thomas Colton Padalecki, was born on March 19, 2012. On July 21, 2013, via Jared's twitter, it was confirmed that the couple are expecting their second child.