Susan Blanchard Ryan (born January 12, 1967) is an American actress. After working in MTV and other minor parts on television and independent film, she went on to star in the 2003 film '' Open Water'', for which she won the 2004 Saturn Award for Best Actress. She has since starred in the films '' The Brooklyn Heist'' and '' It's Complicated''.

Early life

Ryan was born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. She grew up in Andover. Her mother, Brenda, is a French teacher, and her father, Ron Ryan, was President of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Well ...

, and former Coach and General Manager to the

Hartford Whalers The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut. The club played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972 until 1979, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1979 to ...

, which moved to

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

and were renamed the

Carolina Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference ...

. Ryan is an avid

ice Hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

fan. Ryan graduated from the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, m ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

Career

After graduating from college, Ryan worked at MTV in its

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wo ...

department. She started acting in commercials while studying acting and improvisation in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Since someone called Susan Ryan was already registered with the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

, Ryan used her middle name instead. In 2000, she appeared in an episode of ''

Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO. An adaptation of Candace Bushnell's newspaper column and 1996 book anthology of the same name, the series premiered in the United Stat ...

''. She was in the

Broken Lizard Broken Lizard is an American comedy troupe that comprises Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske. They collaborate on the screen-writing, acting and productions of their films, with Chandrasekhar and Hef ...

films '' Super Troopers'' and ''

Beerfest ''Beerfest'' is a 2006 American comedy film directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and starring the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, which comprises Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske. The film co-stars Nat Faxon, ...

'', as well as '' Big Helium Dog'' and several independent films. Ryan's most notable film role was in the 2003 film '' Open Water'', for which she won the 2004 Saturn Award for Best Actress. Despite the film's success, she made only one film in the next five years (''

''). She appeared in four films in 2008 and two in 2009, including ''

Under New Management ''Under New Management'', also known as ''Honeymoon Hotel'', is a 1946 British comedy film directed by John E. Blakeley and starring Nat Jackley, Norman Evans and Dan Young. The screenplay concerns a chimney sweep inherits a hotel and calls on ...

'' and '' It's Complicated''.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Blanchard 1967 births 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses American film actresses American soap opera actresses American television actresses Actresses from Boston Living people University of New Hampshire alumni