Jared Tristan Padalecki (b. July 19, 1982) was born in San Antonio, Texas to Gerald and Sherri Padalecki. He is of half Polish descent on his father's side. He is a rarely well-documented Sasquatch and star of CW show Supernatural, and he portrays the younger, broody, angst ridden Winchester brother, Sam, alongside his real-life friend, Jensen Ackles. At 6'4" and change, he towers over pretty much everybody, but is known to be a goofball on set, and extremely friendly, even to his many crazed fangirls. He's known to be a big supporter of animal welfare, and often talks about his rescue dogs, Harley, Sadie, Arlo, and Koda. He has gained the Fan Nickname "Moose" thanks to a line from the series.
He's also known for playing long time love interest of Rory Gilmore, Dean Forrester, in Gilmore Girls, and his roles in movies such as New York Minute and the remake House of Wax. He helped to beat Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th remake. He is currently starring in The CW reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger, known simply as Walker.
In 2010, he married his Supernatural co-star Genevieve Padalecki (née Cortese), who played the demonic love interest Ruby to his character Sam on the show. They share three children: Thomas Colton (born in 2012), Austin Shepherd "Shep" (born in 2013) , and Odette Elliott (born in 2017).
In 2013, he went public about his struggles with depression and anxiety, beginning a charity campaign called Always Keep Fighting that contributes to several mental health-related causes.
Selected filmography (works with TV Tropes pages)
- Gilmore Girls (2000-05) as Dean Forrester
- ER (2001) as Paul Harris
- Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) (2003) as Bully
- New York Minute (2004) as Trey Lipton
- The Flight of the Phoenix (2004) as John Davis
- House of Wax (2005) as Wade Felton
- Supernatural (2005-20) as Samuel "Sam" Winchester
- Cry_Wolf (2005) as Tom Jordan
- Friday the 13th (2009) as Clay Miller
- The Hillywood Show (2015) as Dancer
- Walker (2021-present) as Cordell Walker
Tropes associated with this actor's career:
- Creator Breakdown: Jared has been struggling with depression since season 3 of Supernatural. This inspired him to launch the "Always Keep Fighting" campaign and raise awareness of mental health.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Given that he's 6'5, pretty much all his onscreen relationships with women fall into this trope with many actresses having to wear heels or stand on boxes next to him. Adrianne Palicki was one of the few exceptions at 5'11 and even she just came up to his shoulders.
- Old Shame
- During an interview, he mentioned that he met a friend of his on the set of New York Minute, "which we will not talk about". It's hard to tell how serious he was, but he has gone on record saying that it's the one role he wishes he could erase from his resume.
- He showed a similar level of potentially-joking dislike for a Young MacGyver pilot which was never picked up. He deemed it the worst acting he had ever done at a con in Boston in 2011. When a fan told him that she had watched the movie for him:Jared: Did you really? I'm so sorry!
- Romance on the Set
- He briefly dated Alexis Bledel during his time on Gilmore Girls.
- He met his ex-fiancée Sandra McCoy on Cry_Wolf. She also made an appearance on Supernatural during Season 3, before they'd broken up, where his character proceeds to interrogate her, and then shoot her in the head. Awkward.
- He met his wife Genevieve Cortese on Supernatural during Season 4. They married a couple years later, making the sex scene they filmed during that season a bit weird to watch. In the commentary for that episode, the director says that when they were shooting the scene, he was thinking, "There's something going on there..."
- Star-Making Role: He got on Gilmore Girls when he was seventeen as a regular, and it launched his career. Leading Supernatural, however, is what propelled him into near-stardom. To this day, it's a fifty-fifty chance that he'll be recognized in public either as Dean Forrester or Sam Winchester.
- Typecasting: In the late 2000s Jared was briefly known for starring in horror films, which coincidentally was also around the time that Supernatural was at its peak of popularity (though the first of these, House of Wax, was made before Supernatural was greenlit).
