Colin Hanks

Colin Lewes Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker born on November 24, 1977. He is best known for his role as Officer Gus Grimly on the FX crime television series Fargo from 2014 to 2015, a performance that earned him critical recognition. Over his career, Hanks has performed in a wide range of film, television, and stage projects, alongside working as a documentary director.

Hanks was born in Sacramento, California, to actor Tom Hanks and producer and actress Samantha Lewes. He grew up with an older sister, Elizabeth, and later gained two younger half-brothers, Chester and Truman, through his father's marriage to stepmother Rita Wilson. Hanks attended Sacramento Country Day School and pursued higher education at Chapman University before transferring to Loyola Marymount University, which he left without earning a degree.

Hanks gained mainstream attention in 1999 when he was cast as Alex Whitmann on the WB science-fiction series Roswell, appearing in its first two seasons and making a brief appearance in the third. During this period, he acted in the teen comedies Whatever It Takes and Get Over It, and portrayed Lieutenant Henry Jones in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. In 2002, Hanks starred in his first film lead as Shaun Brumder in Orange County, followed by a role in the 2005 blockbuster remake of King Kong.

Throughout his career, Hanks has held prominent main and recurring roles on television. He starred as young detective Jack Bailey on the Fox series The Good Guys in 2010 and played Father Gill in the drama series Mad Men. In 2011, he joined the sixth season of Dexter as art historian Travis Marshall, the main antagonist. His other main television credits include playing Greg Short on the sitcom Life in Pieces from 2015 to 2019, Barry Lapidus in the miniseries The Offer, and Bob Broberg in A Friend of the Family. He made his Broadway debut in 2009 in 33 Variations and voiced the lead character in the web series Talking Tom & Friends from 2014 to 2021.

Hanks' film appearances include roles in The Great Buck Howard, Untraceable, The House Bunny, Parkland, and Elvis & Nixon, as well as playing the adult Alex Vreeke in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and its sequel Jumanji: The Next Level. His feature work extends to 2025 roles in Nobody 2 and Nuremberg. As a documentary filmmaker, Hanks directed All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records, which premiered in 2015, as well as Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis (Our Friends), John Candy: I Like Me, and a 30 for 30 short titled The Anti-Mascot.

For his performance on Fargo, Hanks received nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Critics' Choice Television Award. His role in Dexter earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Hanks married former New York publicist Samantha Bryant in Los Angeles on May 8, 2010, and they have two daughters. He is also a sports fan who follows the San Francisco Giants, Liverpool FC, the San Francisco 49ers, the Sacramento Kings, and the Los Angeles Kings.