Van Hansis

Evan Vanfossen Hansis is an American actor born on September 25, 1981. He is best known for his role as Luke Snyder on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, a character he played from December 14, 2005, until the series ended on September 17, 2010. His character's storyline was widely recognized as one of the first gay romantic storylines on American daytime television, featuring the first gay male kiss in the history of American daytime drama.

Hansis was born in North Adams, Massachusetts. In the third grade, he relocated to Greenfield when his mother took a position as a principal in the Gill-Montague Regional School District. He attended Four Corners School and Greenfield Center School, beginning his involvement in acting through theater camps during his childhood. He completed high school at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, Massachusetts, and subsequently earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama in 2004.

Early in his career, Hansis appeared in stage productions. In 2002, he performed in the play The Laramie Project in Pittsburgh. In 2005, he worked at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, appearing in productions such as On the Razzle and The Witching Hour.

Hansis assumed the role of Luke Snyder on As the World Turns in December 2005, succeeding actor Jake Weary. The character, son of long-running characters Holden and Lily Snyder, came out as gay in May 2006. The character was paired romantically with Noah Mayer, played by Jake Silbermann, leading to an August 17, 2007 episode featuring the first gay male kiss on American daytime television. The pairing was hailed as the first gay supercouple in American soap opera history.

From September 2007 to mid-January 2008, Hansis performed off-Broadway as Lance Sussman in Charles Busch's Die, Mommie, Die!. In December 2012, he began playing the role of Thom in the dark comedy web series EastSiders, which portrays the impact of infidelity on a gay couple living in Silverlake, Los Angeles.

Hansis has appeared as a guest actor on television series including Psych as Adrian Viccellio in 2011, Nikita as Yuri Levrov in 2011, and The Mentalist as Derek in 2012. In film, he starred as Danny Hill in the 2011 thriller Occupant, which premiered at the Gotham Screen Film Festival & Screenplay Contest. He later played Jess Gibson in the 2013 horror film Devil May Call and Dusty in the 2015 film Kiss Me, Kill Me.

Hansis earned Daytime Emmy Award nominations in 2007, 2008, and 2009 for his work on As the World Turns, as well as a Daytime Emmy nomination in 2016 for EastSiders. He was also nominated for Indie Series Awards in 2014 and 2016 for EastSiders. In September 2024, he was cast as Lucas Jones on General Hospital, making his initial episodic appearance on October 4, 2024.