Blake Anderson Hanley: Ghost Lion, Law Career and Emily Wickersham

Who Is Blake Anderson Hanley?

Blake Anderson Hanley is an American musician and licensed Florida attorney. He is the singer, songwriter, and producer behind Ghost Lion, a music project shaped by life in South Florida. He also practices law in West Palm Beach. Some TV fans know him as the former husband of NCIS actress Emily Wickersham.

A music studio and a law office may seem far apart. For Hanley, both are places where he can give people a voice. His songs explore fear, change, and hope, while his legal career has included work for people who could not afford help. That mix makes his path worth a closer look.

Growing Up With the Sounds of South Florida

West Palm Beach played a large part in Blake Anderson Hanley’s early life. The city sits in a region where people, languages, and music from many places meet. The music he heard there later gave his own work a wide range of sounds.

Yet he also felt that many local groups lived apart. He wanted to understand lives outside his own circle. That wish became a theme in his songs. Rather than use just one type of music, he began to draw from many styles that had touched his life.

His first key spark came from the Buena Vista Social Club album. The sound led him toward classical guitar. Nine Inch Nails made a very different mark on him. One influence was warm and rich in acoustic sound. The other showed him how much force a song could have.

Punk bands such as the Clash also helped shape his taste. Their mix of music and social ideas gave him another way to think about songs. Blake Anderson Hanley did not want each influence to stay in a separate box. He wanted to find a sound that made room for all of them.

The Meaning Behind Ghost Lion

For Blake Anderson Hanley, the name Ghost Lion grew from two sides of his character. Friends used to call him Ghost because he would fade into the background. Lion stood for the courage he hoped to feel. When joined, those words gave his music a name that was personal, not just catchy.

Writing songs helped him deal with shyness and strong feelings. He could say things through music that might be hard to share in a normal talk. The name also fit songs that move between dark thoughts and a wish for something brighter.

According to Ghost Lion’s official artist biography, Hanley built the project around the idea that sounds from many cultures can belong in one song. His mix includes indie pop, calypso, cumbia, South American folk, and electronic music. Those styles do not always meet in mainstream pop, but they make sense within his work.

His tracks use both live and digital sounds. Nylon-string guitar gives some tracks a soft feel. Synth bass, drums, samples, and electronic effects add weight and motion. This blend can make a song feel calm in one moment and tense in the next.

Early Music Wins and a New Direction

Before Ghost Lion took its best-known form, Blake Anderson Hanley won a Live Nation Battle of the Bands contest for employees. The prize was $35,000. He used that money to buy recording gear, which gave him more room to make music on his own terms.

The win also led to chances to play for people at record labels, including Republic/Universal and Vanguard. Those talks did not lead to record deals. Still, the work and gear helped him build a music project that did not need to wait for a major label.

In 2017, Ghost Lion released its first EP, Ballad of St. Panama. An EP is a short set of songs, longer than one single but shorter than most albums. For an artist on his own, it is a way to share new songs without the work of a full album.

The next year, he brought new life to the project with drummer Paul O’Leary. They played shows around Florida and reached audiences at SunFest in West Palm Beach. The live work gave the music another kind of energy. Songs written in private could now connect with people in the same room.

Nuclear Island and the Stories in Its Songs

Ghost Lion’s full-length album Nuclear Island has 13 tracks. It moves through topics such as love, loss, fear, faith, and a search for a place to belong. The songs use bright rhythms at times, but the ideas behind them are not always light.

That contrast is part of what sets the project apart. A track can sound warm while speaking about a hard part of life. The beat may invite a listener in first, then the words reveal a deeper worry. It is a way to make heavy ideas easier to approach.

Got It has a firm beat and a sense of resolve. Sinking Stones takes a softer, more searching path. Running Back To You builds a feeling of motion and need. Each track shows a different side of a project that does not want to stay within one neat style.

The song 6th Wave places more weight on Hanley’s voice and nylon-string guitar. Its theme of feeling apart from others took on added meaning during the pandemic. For a listener new to his music, it offers a good view of how he pairs a personal theme with a simple sound.

Why Blake Anderson Hanley Chose Law

Blake Anderson Hanley’s path did not stop with music. He studied law at Southwestern University School of Law and graduated in 2016. The Florida Bar admitted him on May 23, 2018. That gave him a way to use his skills in work far from the stage.

Legal work calls for close reading, clear writing, and care with facts. A lawyer must also listen to people who may be under stress. These tasks are not the same as making an album, but both kinds of work need patience and trust.

The artist biography says Blake Anderson Hanley worked with the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County from 2018. Legal aid groups help people who may have little money and need help with civil legal issues. That work gave his career a clear link to the wish for fairness that appears in his music.

Blake Anderson Hanley kept writing and playing songs while building his legal career. Rather than leave one part of his life behind, he made space for both. The two fields put different demands on his time, yet each offered its own way to help someone feel heard.

His Florida Legal Career Today

The Florida Bar’s member profile lists Blake Anderson Hanley as a member in good standing who is eligible to practice law. It places him with The Grantham Law Firm & Standard Title in West Palm Beach.

His listed practice sections are Real Property, Probate & Trust. Real property law deals with land and buildings, while probate work deals with legal steps after a death. Trust work involves legal plans for holding and managing assets. These areas are distinct from the family-law focus often found in older summaries of his career.

The Bar lists his role as an associate. It also records his 2018 admission date and Southwestern law school training. The license and law firm role mark a full second career.

A lawyer may change firms or areas of practice over time. What is most useful for someone seeking legal help is the attorney’s current license and firm listing. For anyone who needs counsel, those details matter more than an old story about where a person once worked.

His Marriage to Emily Wickersham

Blake Anderson Hanley was married to actress Emily Wickersham, best known to many viewers as Eleanor Bishop on NCIS. They married on November 23, 2010. Their marriage ended in divorce in December 2018.

Wickersham joined NCIS in 2013 and became a familiar face on the long-running CBS series. That rise brought more interest in her life away from the screen. Hanley’s name began to appear in searches about the cast, even though his own work was in music and law.

The two careers had very different forms of public attention. A TV actor can be seen by millions of viewers each week. A songwriter may reach a smaller group of fans who care deeply about the music. An attorney works most often in a setting that calls for focus rather than fame.

After their divorce, Wickersham built a family with actor James Badge Dale. The pair married in 2024 and have two sons. Her later family chapter is separate from Hanley’s music and law career.

Two Careers With a Shared Human Side

A song is not a legal brief, and a courtroom is not a concert hall. Yet Hanley’s work in both fields has a common thread. Each can begin with a person trying to be understood. In one setting, he uses melody and words. In the other, he uses evidence, rules, and legal skill.

That link does not mean one career proves success in the other. It does help explain why he may have stayed close to music while taking on a job with a very different pace. Both offered a way to act on ideas that mattered to him.

His music also shows how varied influences can fit together. Listeners can hear live guitar beside electronic sounds or a folk rhythm beside indie pop. None of those parts needs to erase the others. The result has room for many moods and backgrounds.

What Makes His Story Stand Out

Some people know Blake Anderson Hanley because of NCIS. Others find it on a Florida law page or in the credits for Ghost Lion. Those paths lead to the same person, but they show quite different parts of his work.

His music grew from a love of many sounds and a wish to cross social lines. His legal career grew through formal study and work that helped people deal with serious problems. Each path took years of effort, and neither can be summed up by his former marriage.

Blake Anderson Hanley shows that a creative life does not have to fit one job title. He can write a song, play a show, and work in law without one role making the others less real. That range is what gives his story its depth.

For another look at a person whose work in music and family life spans different generations, read Owen Vanessa Elliot’s music and family story on Turquoise Moon Homes.