Van Hansis (born Evan Vanfossen Hansis on September 25, 1981 in North Adams, Massachusetts) is an American actor. Hansis, who uses the name Van professionally, currently stars on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns as Luke Snyder, the son of one of the show's signature supercouples, Holden and Lily Snyder (played by Jon Hensley and Noelle Beck); although the character's biological father is Damian Grimaldi. Hansis made his first appearance on December 14, 2005, taking over the role from Jake Weary. Shortly after taking over the role, the character came out as a gay man in a storyline in spring 2006. Luke has since become romantically involved with Noah Mayer (played by Jake Silbermann), a pairing hailed as the first gay male soap opera supercouple despite controversy about their storyline.

Biography

Hansis is originally from North Adams, but moved to Greenfield in the third grade when his mother became a principal in the Gill-Montague Regional School District. He attended Four Corners School and later the Greenfield Center School. Hansis began acting in theater camp as a child. He attended high school at a boarding school called Walnut Hill, in Natick, because, he says, he knew by then he wanted to be an actor "and it was a good school for that." He was able to flex his early acting muscles performing at the Shea Theater.

Hansis graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the School of Drama. Prior to joining ATWT (As The World Turns), he starred in the Broadway play The Laramie Project in Pittsburgh, among other stage shows. In 2006 he also starred in the short film The Time Machine. He has worked professionally at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, in productions of On the Razzle, Twelfth Night, and The Indian Wants the Bronx. From Sept. 2007 to mid-January 2008 he appeared off-Broadway in a production of Charles Busch's Die, Mommie, Die! In 2007, he was nominated for his first Daytime Emmy Award. He received a second nomination in 2008 and a third in 2009 (and lost).

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