Bailey Hanks

Bailey Noel Hanks was born on February 6, 1988, in Anderson, South Carolina, to Brad and Angie Hanks. She has two sisters, an older sibling named Brooke and a younger sibling named Bradlee. Her father serves as a pastor, youth minister, and highway patrolman, while her mother works as a nurse. Hanks attended Westside High School before transferring to Pendleton High School, from which she graduated in 2006. She subsequently enrolled at Tri-County Technical College in Pendleton, South Carolina, and later at Coastal Carolina University, where she was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority, though she did not complete her degree.

From an early age, Hanks was active in local theater, taking on roles that included Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Gertrude McFuzz in Seussical the Musical, Baby June in Gypsy, and Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, among productions such as Hello, Dolly!, The Music Man, A Year With Frog and Toad, Annie, Bye Bye Birdie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and High Steppin' Country. At age twelve, in 2000, she performed the National Anthem for President Bill Clinton. In 2005, she was crowned Miss Liberty Teen and competed in the Miss SC Teen Pageant.

Hanks became widely recognized after winning the 2008 MTV reality competition Legally Blonde: The Musical – The Search for Elle Woods. Her victory earned her the opportunity to make her Broadway debut in the role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical at the Palace Theatre. She first took the stage in that role on July 23, 2008, and performed in the production through the close of its run on October 19, 2008. Later in 2008, she portrayed Sharpay Evans in a production of High School Musical at the Paper Mill Playhouse, which ran from November 5 through December 7.

In April 2009, Hanks appeared in the daytime television soap opera Guiding Light. The following year, she played the NYU Tour Guide in Step Up 3D, the third installment of Touchstone Pictures' Step Up franchise, which premiered in August 2010.

Hanks married Jason Weidman in 2014, and the couple has two daughters. She resides in Piedmont, South Carolina, where she works as a hair stylist and serves as Worship Leader at Living Hope, the church led by her father.