Ryan Reynolds (placeholder)

A rising young actor, Canadian-born Ryan Reynolds first caught audience’s attention as Billy, the younger brother of one of the leading characters, in the Nickelodeon teen drama “Fifteen” (1991-94), He landed the lead in the children’s film “Ordinary Magic” (1993), as a boy raised in India who must move to Canada with an aunt after his parents’ death. Appearances as the teenage son of such actresses Donna Mills (“My Name Is Kate”, CBS 1994) and Glenn Close (“Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermyer Story”, NBC 1995) followed before the handsome light-haired actor was cast as the medical student Michael ‘Berg’ Bergen on the surprise hit sitcom “Two Guys and a Girl/Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Parlor” (ABC, 1998-2001). Reynolds also delivered a finely tuned comic turn as Kate Capshaw’s overgrown son in the dark comedy “The Alarmist/Life During Wartime” (1998). Following on the heels of his TV success, he was cast alongside Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams in the feature comedy “Dick” and in support of Mia Farrow in “Coming Soon” (both 1999).

Reynolds would probably like to forget his next movie, “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder” (2002), a mess of a movie that failed to make audiences laugh, or even show up to theaters. In this “Animal House” rip-off, Reynolds played the title character, a seven-year college student who starts a shady business after his father refuses to pay tuition. Tacky, unfunny, and crude were some of the more respectful words used by critics to describe this dreary campus comedy. Next, Reynolds was the son of a CIA agent about to be married in “The In-Laws” (2003), a limp slapstick comedy starring Albert Brooks and Michael Douglas. After a small role as a male nurse in the ganja comedy “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” (2004), Reynolds played the wisecracking Hannibal King in “Blade: Trinity” (2004), co-starring Wesley Snipes and Jessica Biel. Reynolds’ performance was considered to be one of the few highlights in a movie that appealed more to videogame geeks than mainstream moviegoers.

In the remake of the horror classic, “Amityville Horror” (2005), he played a father who moves into a dream home on Long Island with his wife (Melissa George) and three children. Based on a true story, the house possessed evil spirits that prompted its previous occupant to commit a series of grisly murders. Reynolds was accused of being over-the-top in his portrayal of the father whose mind is taken over by the same demons still lurking in the basement. He went on to appear in the low-budget comedy, “Waiting” (2005), playing a dead-end restaurant employee who cares for nothing but partying and getting laid. Reynolds shifted gears to mainstream comedy with the lead role in “Just Friends” (2005), playing a suave music executive whose former life as a shy and overweight high school senior is resurrected when he runs into the best friend (Amy Smart) he had a crush on. Meanwhile, he began production in late 2005 on “Smokin’ Aces,” an ensemble comedy about the disappearance of a semi-famous Las Vegas magician.

Also Credited As: Ryan Rodney Reynolds
Born: on 10/23/1976 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Job Titles: Actor

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