Ryan always felt a burning desire to express himself. Growing up as a mixed raced kid, he was never around others who looked like him, never truly fit in and was always chasing validation. He desperately wanted to be understood.

Sports was his first frontier, becoming a world junior olympic champion at age 13, an all American in high school achieving a scholarship to UC Berkeley to compete on the D1 collegiate level. When a hamstring tear and herniated disc ended his Olympic hopes, he turned to acting to fulfill his need for self expression. Upon graduating with a degree in international business, he turned down a career in finance to pursue the arts and landed at USC where he achieved his Master’s in Fine Arts.