Chet Hanks

Hanks’ acting career began 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.[6] From 2016 to 2018, Hanks appeared as Charlie, the father of character Sierra Morton’s child, on the American version of Shameless.[2] He played rapper Blake on hip-hop drama Empire from 2018 to 2019.[7] In 2020, he had a cameo in the World War II film Greyhound starring his father.[8] Starting later that year, he portrayed Joey Maldini, the best friend of a hit-and-run victim, in the Showtime courtroom miniseries Your Honor.[3]

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.[9]

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.[10][11] The duo released two tracks in 2020, "Harley" and "Ticket Out My Head" under the new name Something Out West.[12]

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, citing "pro-Trump conspiracy theorists" targeting his family.[16] QAnon believers had falsely accused his father of pedophilic and Satanic activity that year.[17] Following his return to Instagram earlier in the month, 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.[18]

Hanks has described himself as the black sheep of his family due to the contrast between his public controversies and his father’s clean-cut image as "America’s dad".[6]

In 2015, Hanks was wanted by British police after damaging a hotel room, incurring $1800 in damages.[9] He entered rehab for cocaine addiction that year[19]

Hanks is known for speaking in a Jamaican patois. This first garnered public attention in January 2020 when he accompanied his father to the that year’s Golden Globes ceremony. Videos of the event circulated on social media and Hanks was widely criticized for cultural appropriation.[20] In December 2020, Hanks attempted to defend the practice in a chatroom on the social media app Clubhouse. There, he was met with further backlash from users, with some likening the accent to blackface.[21][22]