Background and career
Chester Marlon Hanks (born August 4, 1990) is an American model, actor, and musician. The son of actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, he has had recurring roles on television series Empire, Shameless, Your Honor, and Running Point as well as guest roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Atlanta.
Chet Hanks is the third child of Tom Hanks, and the first child born to Hanks and actress Rita Wilson. During high school, Hanks's parents sent him to a wilderness therapy program for troubled teens. Hanks later attended the Oakley School, a now-closed therapeutic boarding school in Oakley, Utah, where he played lacrosse. He studied theater at Northwestern University where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He is the younger half-brother of actor Colin Hanks.
Hanks's acting career began with his debut role as Dexter in the 2007 film Bratz. Soon after, his acting career picked up with a string of small film roles in the early 2010s. He was active in television in the latter half of the decade after achieving sobriety. From 2016 to 2018, Hanks appeared as Charlie, the father of character Sierra Morton's child, on the American version of Shameless. He played rapper Blake on hip-hop drama Empire from 2018 to 2019. In 2020, he had a cameo in the World War II film Greyhound starring his father. Starting later that year, he portrayed Joey Maldini, the best friend of a hit-and-run victim's brother, in the Showtime courtroom miniseries Your Honor. In 2025, Hanks appeared as Travis Bugg on the Netflix series Running Point.
In 2011, while a student at Northwestern University, Hanks recorded "White and Purple" under the alias Chet Haze. The song was a remix of Wiz Khalifa's single "Black and Yellow" with the lyrics changed in reference to his school colors. Hanks and Drew Arthur formed the musical duo FTRZ after being introduced in 2016. In 2018, they released two singles ("Models" and "NowhereLand") as well as the Ocean Park EP. The duo released two tracks in 2020, "Harley" and "Ticket Out My Head" under the new name Something Out West. On March 26, 2021, Hanks posted a video to Instagram declaring a "White Boy Summer". This post was a prelude to the release of a music video and merchandise of the same title during the following two weeks. While the initial video was mostly received with good humor, the merchandise was criticized for using a font similar to those favored by white nationalist groups. Later that year, he released the song and music video "DAMN!" and the song "I FUX WITCHA" featuring Soulja Boy. In October 2023, on an episode of The Adam Friedland Show, Hanks and Adam Friedland end the episode with Hanks performing a yet to be released song by Something Out West called "Leaving Hollywood".
Hanks has a daughter, Michaiah, born in 2016, with former partner Tiffany Miles. Hanks credits his daughter and his parents for helping him to overcome his struggles with substance abuse. Along with his parents, Hanks was granted Greek citizenship in 2020 in recognition for his parents' work raising awareness for the 2018 Attica wildfires. In October 2023, Hanks stated that he is two years sober in an interview on The Adam Friedland Show. In 2026, Hanks lives in Nashville.
In the summer of 2020, Hanks posted on Instagram in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. That October, he announced a social media hiatus, saying that "pro-Trump conspiracy theorists" were targeting his family. QAnon believers had accused his father of engaging in pedophilia and practicing Satanism earlier that year. Following his return to Instagram (less than a month later), he posted a video insulting Donald Trump on November 7, the day that news outlets called the 2020 United States presidential election for Joe Biden.
