Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. Hawke was born in Austin, Texas, to Leslie (née Green), a charity worker, and James Hawke, an insurance actuary. Hawke’s parents were high school sweethearts in Fort Worth, Texas, and married young, when Hawke’s mother was 17. Hawke was born a year later. Hawke’s parents were students at the University of Texas at Austin at the time of his birth, and separated and later divorced in 1974.
He has been nominated for four Academy Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed two feature films, three Off-Broadway plays, and a documentary, and wrote the novels The Hottest State (1996) and Ash Wednesday (2002). His other films include the science fiction drama Gattaca (1997), the contemporary adaptation of Hamlet (2000), the action thriller Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), the crime drama Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007), and the horror film Sinister (2012).