Jared Martin was born in Manhattan, New York, to Charles E. Martin, a renowned cover artist and cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine, and Florence Taylor, an artist and homemaker. His parents presented him with a unique choice at the age of thirteen: learn to play the piano or act in a local children's theater group. He chose the latter and never looked back.
At fourteen, Jared attended Putney School, where he continued to nurture his passion for theater and discovered a new interest in sports. When he enrolled at Columbia University, he initially planned to participate in the athletic programs, but later decided to focus solely on acting, as balancing both would have been too demanding. His roommate at Columbia was the renowned film director Brian De Palma.
During his time at Columbia and Sarah Lawrence College, Jared acted in various plays and experimental films. He also spent a summer apprenticing with Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park. After graduating, he attempted to break into the newspaper business, working as a copy boy and thumbnail book reviewer for The New York Times' Sunday edition. However, he soon left the Times to join a summer stock company in Cape May, New Jersey, followed by a stint with the Boston classical repertory.
Jared eventually rejoined Papp at his new Public Theater in Manhattan, where he played Laertes in the modern rock-disco Hamlet alongside Martin Sheen and Cleavon Little in the title role. He continued to act off-Broadway and appeared in an unreleased film that caught the attention of a casting director at Columbia Pictures, encouraging him to pursue a career in Hollywood.
Jared waited for his big break for several years, working odd jobs such as a bartender, truck driver, and landscaper. He eventually gained visibility through various roles in the mid-1970s, including the cult classic Westworld, the martial arts thriller Men of the Dragon, and the short-lived science-fiction series The Fantastic Journey, co-starring Roddy McDowell and Carl Franklin.
He is best known for his role as Steven "Dusty" Farlow, son of Clayton Farlow and boyfriend of Sue Ellen Ewing, in the mega-hit television series Dallas. During and after his time on Dallas, Jared alternated between living in Rome, starring in European films, and New York, where he studied under Lee Strasberg, performed in Broadway's Torch Song Trilogy, and appeared in soap operas (One Life to Live).
In 1988, Jared relocated to Toronto to star in the TV version of War of the Worlds as Dr. Harrison Blackwood. After the show was canceled in 1991, he spent the next 2 1/2 years traveling in Africa and China and working on two novels. In 1994, entrepreneur Jeffrey Seder asked him to direct a film for Mayor Ed Rendell's "Heroes of the Streets" campaign in Philadelphia.
During location shooting, Jared and Seder conceived the idea of a film-production themed educational non-profit to serve Philadelphia's inner city and migrant youth populations. Jared moved to Philadelphia and became the Creative Director of the organization, BPA, for the next 15 years, supervising over 2,000 students and producing over 250 student films. He personally directed 30 films, garnering awards from Cine Eagle, Intercom, and the Chicago International Film Festival.
After retiring from BPA in 2010, Jared began another career as a fine arts photographer, studying under the painter Michael David. While in Beijing in 1998, he met Chinese classical dancer Yu Wei, and they corresponded for two years before marrying in 2000. Jared has directed a dozen short films for Wei, who tours extensively.
Jared and Yu Wei live in Philadelphia's East Falls area and support a large collection of animals, including a tribe of freeloading raccoons. His son, Christian, is an executive at AETN, and his two grandchildren, Charles and Emilia Grace, are busy tearing up the block on Baltic Street in Brooklyn.
