- Ron Hanks was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and graduated from Little Rock Central High School, where he performed in both his first play, Oklahoma!, and his first film, the Walt Disney television movie The Ernest Green Story (1993). The film was based on the 1957 integration crisis at Central, and Ron's involvement in the reenactment of those events, especially the emotionally-charged race riots, had a major impact on his desire to pursue acting.
He received a Bachelor Degree (BA) in Theatre and English from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas, and then went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts Degree (MFA) in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University, one of the country's most-respected theatre conservatories, located in Chicago, Illinois. He performed in over twenty plays, musicals, and operas in those years, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Lie of the Mind, The Beggar's Opera, Yerma, and The Selfish Giant. He also appeared in commercials and films, including Chasing the Dragon (2000), Sunset Town (2003), and Uncle Nino (2003).
Ron moved to New York City immediately after graduate school, and (to his amazement) had booked his first National Tour as "Peter" in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe within a few short days. He loved getting to travel the country and perform, and once back in New York, he continued to act in various productions, including The Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan. He also became one of the founding writers of the comedy group, "The Serious Theatre Collective."
While in New York, Ron began to develop another passion of his: Chocolate. He helped open stores in Manhattan for two different high-end companies, and it was his love of chocolate that initially brought him to Los Angeles. Once settled in LA, Ron continued to help open chocolate stores in California and across the Southwest, working for a Belgium-based chocolate company.
Ron returned to acting in 2011 in the short film Two Tickets to Paradise (2011) along with his performance as a doctor in the television show Killer Outbreaks (2011) for Animal Planet.- IMDb mini biography by: Elizabeth Purvis
- Ron Hanks completed the Los Angeles Full Marathon five times: in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2016.
- An accomplished writer, Ron Hanks was the editor of the school newspaper at Little Rock Central High School, as well as at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas, and was an intern writer for Mara Leveritt at the "Arkansas Times" newspaper in Little Rock. Ron is a vocal advocate of the Freedom of Information Act as well as a defender of the rights of free speech. His efforts and personal testimony in the Arkansas State Legislature directly spurred new legislation protecting the First Amendment rights of high school students, making Arkansas only the sixth state in the country (at the time) to do so.
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