How Jared Leto went from being an art-school dropout to playing the Joker in 'Suicide Squad'

Before Jared Leto broke hearts as a teenage dreamboat on "My So-Called Life," he was a serial college dropout who traveled the country and dreamed of being a painter.

Now the Academy Award-winning actor takes on the iconic role of the Joker in next summer's highly anticipated "Suicide Squad."

In honor of Leto's success, we're taking a look back at how he became a cultural icon.

Born December 26, 1971, Jared Leto grew up a nomad. His family lived in Haiti, a Colorado commune, his grandmother's house, and places in between.

Source:The New York Times

They didn't have much. "My mother crawled out of the muddy banks of the Mississippi with my brother and I in one hand and a fistful of food stamps in the other," Leto jokes.

Source: Interview Magazine

His mother's vagabond spirit was a product of the '70s, he says. She surrounded her boys with artistic influences — "people who made things to make them," Leto says.

Source: Mr. Porter