Ryan’s flashy, sometimes controversial, and always entertaining performance work blends cabaret, theatre, music, dance, club-culture, video, text and design. Comfortable in every venue from legit theater to clubs, Ryan has even performed with a live band atop the marquee of Bloor Cinema.
In 2011, Ryan collaborated with Los Angeles’ My Barbarian on Post-Living Ante-Action Theatre for Rhubarb Festival, was in the ensemble cast of 2Boys.tv’s Tightrope at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and acted in Here You Are for Toronto Fringe Festival. In June, he launched a pride festival tour, playing headlining and supporting slots in Los Angeles, Toronto, Peel, Vancouver, and Montreal’s Perverscite.
His 2010 full-length installation pop concert STADIUM, created with Edi and Renald Jean-Pierre closed the 2010 Rhubarb Festival, and songs from the show can be downloaded as an EP. He performed this music on his first US tour, launching with a sold-out date in Los Angeles and continuing to San Diego, San Francisco, and Oakland. A proud Buddies in Bad Times alumni (13 years and counting!), Ryan has grown from a 1998 piano cabaret to producing fundraisers for the theatre, headlining his own shows,acting in other people’s, and twice curating Art Attack, Buddies’ yearly art auction.
In 2007, Ryan was commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario to co-create a continuous 12-hour live-music performance with Ina unt Ina and Will Munro for Nuit Blanche. Creating a site-specific environment and high energy atmosphere, this event set an AGO attendance record: 16, 000 in a single night, earning its creators rave reviews.
A partial list of plays Ryan has been a part of includes: There You Go and Here You at Tarragon; Rejection Rate and Sky Gilbert’s The Bewitching of Max Gunther at Theatre Passe Muraille; The Wiz with David Warrack; as Little Richard in Midnight Revue; and festivals including Fringe and De Colores. Ryan’s film and tv work includes three national commercials; Bojangles and The Red Sneakers , both directed by Gregory Hines; The Gridiron with Debbie Reynolds; and The Day After That and Liza with a Z DVD Special Features, both directed by Liza Minnelli.
Ryan was the first black actor to play Hedwig in Hedwig & the Angry Inch, and also had a blink-and-you’ll miss it part in the movie version, making him one of only a handful to have appeared both in the movie and play.
Aside from multiple appearances at Pride, Rhubarb, Fringe and many other festivals), Ryan is a popular club performer, has performed solo to cheering audiences at Circa, Revival, Gladstone Ballroom, Church on Berkeley, Goodhandy’s, Buddies, and Fly in Toronto and at festivals and cabarets in New York City. In 2008, he completed his first west coast tour, finishing with a sold-out event during Vancouver Pride.
