Jared Holt was born and raised in Ōtautahi Christchurch. He studied law and classics at the University of Canterbury.

He started his singing career as a baritone. In 2000, he won the Mobil Song Quest before travelling to London to study at the Royal College of Music. He was a Young Artist on Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Jared made his debut as a tenor in April 2018 joining with the New Zealand String Quartet to premiere a new song cycle, In Memoriam, by New Zealand composer Janet Jennings.

His engagements as a tenor since then have included covering the title role in Werther for Opera Australia, performing the roles of Prologue/Peter Quint in Britten’s Turn of the Screw and MacDuff in Verdi’s MacBeth for New Zealand Opera, the tenor solos in Mozart’s Requiem with Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, the tenor solos in Handel’s Messiah for Christchurch City Choir, the role of Melot in Tristan and Isolde in Concert for Auckland Philharmonia, the tenor solos in Verdi’s Requiem with the Auckland Choral Society, and the roles of Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca and Gustavo in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera for Wellington Opera.