All About Jared Leto's Brother, Thirty Seconds to Mars Drummer Shannon Leto

Jared Leto formed the band with his older brother

Jared Leto and Shannon Leto are more than just brothers — they're bandmates.

Shannon Leto was born on March 9, 1970, to Constance Leto and Tony Bryant in Bossier City, Louisiana. Jared entered the world soon after, on Dec. 26, 1971. According to a 2022 interview with The Telegraph, Bryant left the family when the brothers were infants.

Their mother married Dr. Carl Leto, an ophthalmologist, in 1979 and moved the family to Virginia. After Carl and Constance welcomed their daughter, Jamie, the doctor adopted Jared and Shannon. The couple went on to have another boy named Mateo, and the brothers also have a brother named Matthias, whom they met at their father's funeral.

Constance and Carl divorced in 1981, and the family moved to a commune in Colorado. They also lived in Haiti for a year before returning to Virginia.

During their childhood of moving around, Jared and Shannon started making music together. They created their rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars in 1998 and have since released six albums with Jared as the frontman and Shannon on the drums.

"Sometimes life is easy," Jared posted on X (formerly Twitter) in 2023. "Sometimes it’s not. But I’m lucky because I have my brother to share this journey with. No matter how hard life might seem at times we always have each other to turn to. Feeling grateful for that."

So, who is Shannon Leto? Here's everything to know about Jared Leto's brother and his relationship with the actor.

They were born in Louisiana

Shannon and Jared were born in Bossier City, Louisiana.

Jared told The Telegraph that their father left them when he was an infant and that his last words were: “I'll see you, kid, just going to the store to get a carton of milk."

"We came from a very humble blue-collar background, with a vagabond hippy mother," the Oscar winner said. "It's an experience that informs us to this day."

In a 2013 interview with James Franco for Interview Magazine, Jared said that his family moved around every couple of years and that he grew up around creative people. "Creativity, for us, was always a way of life," he said. "It was never a job."

He's a drummer

Jared told The Standard in 2014 that music saved his brother's life. In their teenage years, the siblings experimented with drugs and while Jared eventually stopped to study art in Philadelphia, Shannon fell deeper into addiction and got into trouble with the police.

It wasn't until he joined his younger brother, who had gotten cast in the teen series My So-Called Life, in Los Angeles that he got sober. After a few years of making music together, the pair formed Thirty Seconds to Mars in 1998.

"It was either that or prison," Jared said. "It saved both of us really. Shannon started drumming on pots and pans from an early age; I played a broken, second-hand piano."

Before forming Thirty Seconds to Mars, the brothers played together under a different name every night. They told Ink 19 in 2005 that their band names included Boiled Hard, Boiled Cabbage and Boiled Boiled.

They were both on My So-Called Life

After appearing in a few minor roles, Jared got his first break starring opposite Claire Danes in the 1994 ABC drama My So-Called Life. But he wasn't the only Leto brother on the series, as Shannon appeared in two episodes as Shane.

The older Leto brother also had small appearances in a few of Jared’s films, including the 1997 biopic Prefontaine and the 2002 crime drama Highway.

He's a photographer

Shannon's creativity isn't limited to his drum kit. He told The Denver Post in 2010 that he's also a photographer, though he doesn't currently share his photos. However, his younger brother has bragged about his work.

"My incredibly talented brother Shannon Leto took this photo of me at our old place in Hollywood, California," Jared wrote on Facebook in 2016, alongside a photo of him sitting in a bathtub. "We were living together in a beat up little house with two dogs and we would rehearse relentlessly for hours and hours in a dilapidated garage that seemed to always be either flooded, freezing or 110 degrees."

The drummer also started his own coffee line in 2016 called Black Fuel Trading Co. Shannon told NBC News that he was inspired by his grandfather, who was "very serious about his coffee." According to its website, the company has since stopped production.

He's dating Cara Santana

Daughter of the Bride actress Cara Santana was rumored to be dating Shannon after the couple were photographed kissing. Though they didn't confirm their relationship at the time, Santana regularly posts photos of her and Shannon on her Instagram.

In 2023, Santana shared on Instagram that they had adopted a puppy together named Cali.

Jared joked that Thirty Seconds to Mars could never break up

During a 2023 interview with Forbes, Jared said he was asked if Thirty Seconds to Mars would ever break up. His answer? "It's kind of impossible."

"We could decide we're not gonna continue touring or doing it or something, but it's kind of hard to divorce your brother," the frontman joked.

He also talked about how impactful the band had been on his relationship with Shannon. "I don't think we would have the relationship we have as brothers if we didn't have Thirty Seconds to Mars, and I don't think Thirty Seconds to Mars would still be here if we weren't brothers,” he said. “It's a family project. It's like having a f------ pizzeria or something."

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