Ryan Kwanten Biography

Date of Birth: November 28, 1976

Born in Sydney, Australia, Ryan Kwanten got into acting by chance when he was 15 years old. His brother was auditioning to get into an acting agency, while Ryan and his mother waited in the car. Finally, Ryan went in to see how much longer it would be, and when the agent spotted Ryan, she was immediately interested and signed him on (his brother didn't make it).

His first role was as a young surfer on the Australian TV series Home and Away. He then landed a regular role as Ben Lloyd on the long-running series A Country Practice. Kwanten's movie debut was in Signal One (1994).

After playing roles in the TV series Echo Point, Water Rats and Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord, Ryan wound up joining the cast of Home and Away in the regular role of Vinnie Patterson. Overnight, he became a heartthrob in Australia, staying with the show for several years while also attending university to study business.

In 2002, Ryan landed a lead role as a surfer in the motion picture Liquid Bridge (2003), which premiered at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Later that year, he moved to Los Angeles and following guest spots on CBS-TV's The Handler and Fox-TV's Tru Calling, he wound up playing a regular role as an Australian surfer living in Southern California in Summerland (2004 - 2005).

When the series ended, he played a lead role in the major motion picture Flicka before landing the starring role in Universal Pictures' Dead Silence (2007), written and directed by the creators of the successful Saw movies. Ryan also provided the voice of Kludd in the animated feature Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010). On the small screen, Ryan starred as Jason Stackhouse in the popular TV series True Blood. When the series came to an end in 2014, he had more time to devote to feature films, playing roles in Blunt Force Trauma (2015) opposite Mickey Rourke and in The Hurricane Heist (2018) opposite Maggie Grace. He returned to the small screen with the starring role of Steve Hammond on the Crackle series Oath (2018).

In his spare time, Ryan enjoys surfing, skiing, tennis, swimming and playing pool.