E. A. Hanks, born Elizabeth Anne Hanks, is an American writer and journalist and the only daughter of actor Tom Hanks. Born in 1982, she grew up between two very different worlds: her mother’s difficult circumstances and her father’s increasingly prominent Hollywood career. Although she briefly appeared in several films as a child, E. A. eventually chose writing rather than acting as her primary creative path.
She studied English at Vassar College and went on to build a career as a writer and editor. Her connection to Tom Hanks remains an important part of her public identity, but her own work has increasingly given her a distinct voice. In 2025, she published The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, a deeply personal account of family, childhood, memory, and her relationship with her parents. Her story offers a more personal look at growing up as Tom Hanks’ daughter while developing an identity and career of her own.

Quick Bio

Detail	Information
Full Name	Elizabeth Anne Hanks
Professional Name	E. A. Hanks
Known For	Writer, journalist, and author
Famous Connection	Tom Hanks
Relationship	Daughter
Father	Tom Hanks
Mother	Susan Dillingham, also known as Samantha Lewes
Date of Birth	May 17, 1982
Birthplace	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	The Archer School for Girls; University of St Andrews; Vassar College
College Degree	Bachelor’s degree in English
Profession	Writer, journalist, editor, author
Siblings	Colin Hanks, Chet Hanks, Truman Hanks
Notable Book	The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road
Public Status	Active as a writer and author

Who Is E. A. Hanks?

E. A. Hanks is the professional name of Elizabeth Anne Hanks, an American writer and journalist born to Tom Hanks and his first wife, Susan Dillingham, who was also known professionally as Samantha Lewes.

While her surname immediately connects her to one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, E. A. Hanks has developed a career that is substantially different from her father’s. Her primary work has been in writing, journalism, editing, and publishing rather than acting.

She did have a brief connection to the screen during childhood. She appeared in her father’s 1994 film Forrest Gump and later in That Thing You Do! Her early appearances, however, did not turn into a long-term acting career.

Instead, Hanks pursued English and writing. Her career eventually led her to contribute to publications and develop her own voice as a writer, culminating in the publication of her 2025 memoir.

E. A. Hanks’ Early Life and Family Background

Elizabeth Anne Hanks was born on May 17, 1982, in Los Angeles, California. She is the second child of Tom Hanks and Susan Dillingham, following her older brother, Colin Hanks.

Her parents separated when she was young and eventually divorced. During her childhood, Hanks spent significant periods living with her mother and brother in Sacramento while her father continued building his career in Los Angeles.

That arrangement meant that her childhood was divided between different family environments. Her father’s career was becoming increasingly successful, while her mother’s personal struggles created a very different experience at home.

The circumstances of those years became an important part of Hanks’ later writing. Rather than presenting her childhood simply as the experience of growing up in a famous family, she has described it as a complicated mixture of love, instability, hardship, and privilege.

Growing Up With Tom Hanks as Her Father

Being Tom Hanks’ daughter meant that E. A. Hanks grew up alongside a rapidly changing Hollywood career.

By the 1980s and early 1990s, Tom Hanks had moved from television comedy into major film roles. Movies such as Big, A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, and Philadelphia helped establish him as one of the industry’s leading actors.

For E. A., however, he was not simply the actor known to audiences around the world. He was her father.

Her memoir later offered a more personal perspective on that family dynamic, particularly the contrast between her father’s public image and the private realities of her childhood.

That distinction is central to understanding E. A. Hanks’ story. Her connection to Tom Hanks brought her a famous family name, but her own experiences were more complicated than the polished image associated with celebrity families.

The Role of Susan Dillingham in Her Story

E. A. Hanks’ mother, Susan Dillingham, was an actress who also used the professional name Samantha Lewes. She was Tom Hanks’ first wife, and the couple had two children together.

Hanks’ relationship with her mother became a major subject of The 10. In the memoir, she examines her childhood and her mother’s struggles with addiction, mental health difficulties, and periods of emotional and physical violence.

These are deeply personal claims about a deceased family member, and they are presented here specifically as matters Hanks herself has discussed publicly in her memoir and interviews.

Dillingham died from cancer in 2002 at the age of 49. By that time, Hanks was an adult, but the experiences of her childhood remained important to how she understood her family and herself.

When E. A. Hanks Moved to Her Father’s Home

One of the major turning points in Hanks’ childhood occurred during her teenage years.

According to accounts surrounding her memoir, an incident involving her mother’s physical violence led to a change in custody, after which Hanks moved to Los Angeles to live with her father, Rita Wilson, and her younger half-brothers.

The move represented more than a change of address. Hanks went from a relatively private life in Sacramento to living within the household of one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

She has described the adjustment as difficult. Her memoir recalls the contrast between the quieter environment she had known and a Los Angeles household in which her father’s fame meant constant activity, visitors, and public attention.

Her Relationship With Rita Wilson

Rita Wilson became an important figure in E. A. Hanks’ life after marrying Tom Hanks in 1988.

Rather than describing Wilson simply as a stepmother, Hanks has publicly spoken about her as another mother. That distinction became particularly meaningful as she reflected on her childhood and the family she joined after moving to Los Angeles.

Hanks has also described the relationship between her father and Wilson as an enduring part of her family life. The couple had been together for years by the time she moved into their household, and their marriage provided a stable family environment during a complicated period of her adolescence.

Her relationship with Wilson illustrates why E. A. Hanks’ family story cannot be reduced simply to being “Tom Hanks’ daughter.” Her upbringing involved several parental relationships and family transitions that shaped her later perspective.

E. A. Hanks’ Relationship With Her Siblings

E. A. Hanks has three brothers: Colin Hanks, her older full brother, and Chet Hanks and Truman Hanks, her younger half-brothers from Tom Hanks’ marriage to Rita Wilson.

Colin also entered the entertainment industry, becoming an actor and later working as a director and filmmaker.

Chet and Truman pursued their own careers, with both becoming connected to entertainment in different ways.

E. A.’s own career took a different route. While she briefly appeared in films, she ultimately developed her professional identity through writing.

The Hanks siblings therefore represent several different approaches to growing up within a famous family. Some pursued acting and filmmaking, while E. A. developed a career largely centered on words, journalism, and books.

E. A. Hanks’ Education

Education became an important part of E. A. Hanks’ transition into her own professional life.

She attended the Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles and graduated in 2001. She later spent a year studying at the University of St Andrews in Scotland before attending Vassar College.

At Vassar, Hanks studied English and graduated in 2005.

Her academic background provides useful context for the career she eventually chose. Rather than pursuing Hollywood acting after her childhood appearances, she developed expertise in literature, language, and writing.

Her later work as a journalist, editor, and author grew naturally from that educational foundation.

From Child Actor to Writer

E. A. Hanks’ earliest connection to Hollywood came through acting.

She appeared as a child in Forrest Gump, the 1994 film in which her father played the title character. Her role was small but memorable: she played a young girl on the school bus who refuses to let young Forrest sit beside her.

She later appeared in That Thing You Do!, another project associated with her father.

Those appearances could have been the beginning of an acting career, but Hanks ultimately chose another direction.

Her later professional life demonstrates that she did not rely on acting to establish her identity. Writing became the field in which she developed her strongest and most sustained career.

Her Career as a Writer and Journalist

E. A. Hanks has worked as a writer and journalist, contributing to publications including Vanity Fair and The Huffington Post.

Her work has covered a range of subjects, reflecting an interest in culture, personal experience, and storytelling.

Writing also gave Hanks a way to engage with the public without becoming a conventional celebrity personality. Her professional identity could stand on the quality and perspective of her work rather than simply on her family name.

That distinction became even more important with the publication of her memoir, where she used her own experiences as the foundation for a longer and more personal piece of writing.

E. A. Hanks and The 10

In 2025, E. A. Hanks published The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road.

The book examines her childhood, family relationships, and the experiences that shaped her understanding of her parents. Rather than functioning as a conventional celebrity memoir focused on Hollywood anecdotes, the book is centered on memory, family, identity, and the complicated process of making sense of childhood.

The memoir also gave Hanks an opportunity to tell her own story in her own words.

Its publication marked an important moment in her career because it moved her from being known primarily as Tom Hanks’ daughter toward being recognized as an author with a personal narrative of her own.

What The 10 Reveals About Her Childhood

A central theme of The 10 is the contrast between public perception and private experience.

Hanks grew up with a father whose career eventually made him one of the most beloved actors in America. Yet her childhood also included difficult experiences involving her mother’s struggles and the instability of family life.

The memoir does not present her childhood as simply good or bad. Instead, it examines the contradictions within it: privilege alongside hardship, love alongside fear, and celebrity alongside deeply personal family problems.

That complexity is one reason the book attracted attention beyond the usual audience interested in Tom Hanks’ family.

Who Is Tom Hanks?

Tom Hanks is an American actor, filmmaker, and producer whose career spans more than four decades. He became a major Hollywood star through films such as Big, Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, and many others.

He won Academy Awards for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump and has received numerous additional nominations and honors throughout his career.

Beyond his film work, Hanks is known for voice roles such as Woody in the Toy Story franchise and for portraying real historical figures and public personalities.

His connection to E. A. Hanks is especially significant because she is his only daughter and one of the two children from his first marriage. Her memoir has also provided a rare perspective on the private family experiences behind one of Hollywood’s most familiar public figures.

E. A. Hanks and Tom Hanks Today

E. A. Hanks and Tom Hanks have remained connected as father and daughter, although she has increasingly established a public identity separate from his career.

Her memoir also reflected on the support she received from her father and the family she joined after moving to Los Angeles.

Tom Hanks has publicly supported his daughter’s writing. Following the publication of The 10, he spoke positively about her willingness to examine difficult parts of her childhood honestly.

Their relationship is therefore an important part of Hanks’ story, but it is not the entirety of it. Her own writing career has given her a platform through which she can discuss family on her own terms.

Life Beyond the Hanks Family Name

One of the defining characteristics of E. A. Hanks’ career is her movement away from the expectation that she should become an entertainer.

She had access to Hollywood from childhood and appeared in films associated with her father. Yet she eventually pursued higher education, journalism, editing, and authorship.

That choice allowed her to build a career based on writing rather than performance.

Her professional path is particularly notable because she has not attempted to hide her connection to Tom Hanks. Instead, she has acknowledged that family history while developing a distinct voice and body of work.

E. A. Hanks’ Approach to Privacy

Although Hanks has become more visible through her memoir, much of her personal life remains private.

She has written openly about her family history, but that does not mean every aspect of her current life is publicly documented.

Information about her current romantic relationships, finances, and other private matters should therefore be treated cautiously unless she has personally disclosed them through reliable public channels.

Her public work is much easier to establish: she is a writer, journalist, and author whose career has developed independently of her father’s acting profession.

E. A. Hanks’ Net Worth and Financial Life

There is no authoritative public figure that establishes E. A. Hanks’ current personal net worth.

She has earned income through writing, journalism, publishing, and related professional work, but those activities do not provide enough information to calculate her personal wealth accurately.

Tom Hanks’ considerable earnings and estimated wealth also should not be used as a substitute for information about his daughter’s finances.

A responsible profile should therefore leave her personal net worth unquantified rather than repeat unsupported figures from celebrity-estimate websites.

E. A. Hanks’ Public Identity Today

Today, E. A. Hanks is best understood as a writer and author who happens to come from one of Hollywood’s most recognizable families.

Her 2025 memoir significantly expanded public understanding of her life by allowing her to discuss experiences that had previously been known only in fragments.

At the same time, she has not abandoned the professional identity she built before becoming a memoirist. Her background in journalism and English remains central to how she approaches storytelling.

Her public identity now sits at the intersection of two worlds: the Hanks family legacy and her own career as a writer.

Why E. A. Hanks’ Story Matters

E. A. Hanks’ story is compelling because it complicates the familiar idea of the Hollywood celebrity child.

She was born into extraordinary privilege, but that did not mean her childhood was simple. Her memoir demonstrates that families can contain very different experiences behind a public image.

Her decision to become a writer also allowed her to examine those experiences rather than simply inherit her father’s public identity.

Instead of becoming known only as Tom Hanks’ daughter, E. A. Hanks has increasingly become known for her own words.

Conclusion

E. A. Hanks, born Elizabeth Anne Hanks, has built a distinctive life alongside one of Hollywood’s most famous families. As the daughter of Tom Hanks and Susan Dillingham, she experienced both the privileges of growing up around a major movie star and the difficult family circumstances that shaped her childhood.

Although she appeared in Forrest Gump and That Thing You Do! as a child, acting was never the lasting center of her career. She studied English, became a writer and journalist, and eventually published The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road in 2025.

Her relationship with Tom Hanks remains an important part of her story, particularly because his fame formed such a strong contrast with the private realities she describes. Yet E. A. Hanks’ career demonstrates that she has developed an identity beyond her father’s name.

Today, she is best recognized as a writer and author whose work gives her the opportunity to tell her own story, on her own terms.

FAQs

Who is E. A. Hanks?

E. A. Hanks is the professional name of Elizabeth Anne Hanks, an American writer and journalist. She is the only daughter of actor Tom Hanks and his first wife, Susan Dillingham.

Is E. A. Hanks Tom Hanks’ daughter?

Yes. E. A. Hanks is Tom Hanks’ only daughter. She is the younger sibling of actor Colin Hanks and the older half-sister of Chet and Truman Hanks.

What does E. A. Hanks do for a living?

E. A. Hanks is a writer, journalist, and author. She has written for publications including Vanity Fair and The Huffington Post and published her memoir The 10 in 2025.

Did E. A. Hanks act in movies?

Yes. E. A. Hanks appeared as a child in Forrest Gump and later appeared in That Thing You Do! She ultimately chose writing rather than acting as her primary career.

What is E. A. Hanks’ book The 10 about?

The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road examines Hanks’ childhood, family relationships, and experiences growing up between different family environments. It also reflects on her relationship with her parents and the process of understanding her past.

Who is E. A. Hanks’ mother?

Her mother was Susan Dillingham, an actress who was professionally known as Samantha Lewes. Dillingham was Tom Hanks’ first wife and the mother of both E. A. and Colin Hanks.

Does E. A. Hanks have siblings?

Yes. Her older full brother is actor Colin Hanks. Through her father’s marriage to Rita Wilson, she also has two younger half-brothers, Chet Hanks and Truman Hanks.

What is E. A. Hanks’ net worth?

There is no reliably verified public figure for E. A. Hanks’ personal net worth. Online estimates should not be treated as authoritative without a documented financial source.