29 NOV 2023 · This is your Ryan Reynolds audio Biography podcast. Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe and never miss out on a Ryan Reynolds update. You can also check out our other Audio Biographies, by searching the term Audi Biography wherever you listen. Ryan Rodney Reynolds born October 23, 1976 is a Canadian and American actor, producer and businessman. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen soap opera Hillside (1991–1993), and had minor roles before landing the lead role on the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl between 1998 and 2001. Reynolds then starred in a range of films, including comedies such as National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002), Waiting... (2005), and The Proposal (2009). He also performed in dramatic roles in Buried (2010), Woman in Gold (2015), and Life (2017), starred in action films such as Blade: Trinity (2004), Green Lantern (2011), 6 Underground (2019), and Free Guy (2021), and provided voice acting in the animated features The Croods film series (2013–2020), Turbo (2013), and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019). Reynolds's biggest commercial success came with the 20th Century Fox X-Men films Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018), in which he played the title character. The former set numerous records at the time of its release for an R-rated comedy and his performance earned him nominations at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Reynolds was named People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2010 and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017. As a businessman, he holds an ownership stake in Mint Mobile and is a co-owner of Welsh football club Wrexham A.F.C.; the latter was documented in the TV series Welcome to Wrexham. In 2020, Reynolds sold his ownership stake of Aviation Gin to Diageo for $610 million. He also sits on the board of the Match Group. As of 2023, his net worth is estimated to be $350 million. Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976, in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the youngest of four sons. His father, James Chester Reynolds, was a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman before retiring from the force and going to work as a foods wholesaler. His mother, Tamara Lee (née Stewart), worked in retail sales. Reynolds has two brothers who work in law enforcement in British Columbia, one of whom followed his father into the RCMP. His paternal grandfather, Chester Reynolds, was a farmer who represented Stettler in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1940 to 1944. Reynolds has Irish and Scottish ancestry, and was raised in the Roman Catholic Church in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood and Vanier, Ontario (now a neighbourhood in Ottawa). Reynolds has been involved in acting since age thirteen. He graduated from Kitsilano Secondary School in 1994, which he attended with actor Joshua Jackson. Reynolds played small roles in a number of television series, but became discouraged and quit acting at age 19 to enroll at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. A few months later he ran into fellow actor Chris William Martin, who convinced him to try again and move with him to Los Angeles. Reynolds's career began in 1991 when he starred as Billy Simpson in the Canadian-produced teen soap opera Hillside, distributed in the United States by Nickelodeon as Fifteen. In 1993, Reynolds played a child who moves from India to Canada after the death of his father in the film Ordinary Magic. Between 1993-94, he had a recurring role in The Odyssey as Macro. In 1996, he had a supporting role as Jay "Boom" DeBoom in "Syzygy", the thirteenth episode of the third season of The X-Files, and co-starred with Melissa Joan Hart in the TV movie Sabrina the Teenage Witch. In 1996, Reynolds played Bobby Rupp, boyfriend of murdered teen Nancy Clutter, in a two-part miniseries In Cold Blood, an adaptation of Truman Capote's non-fiction novel of the same name. He also appeared in the anthology The Outer Limits episode "Origin of the Species", which originally aired on November 14, 1998. Beginning in 1998, Reynolds starred in Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place, playing medical student Michael "Berg" Bergen, throughout the show's four-season run. He starred in the National Lampoon movie Van Wilder in 2002, appeared in The In-Laws with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, and also in the Canadian production Foolproof in 2003. Although he had performed primarily in comedies, Reynolds underwent intense physical training to play an action role as the character of Hannibal King in the 2004 film Blade: Trinity. The same year, he made a cameo appearance in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle as a nurse. Reynolds played George Lutz in the 2005 remake of the 1979 horror film The Amityville Horror. Also in 2005, he played a waiter named Monty in Waiting... and appeared as music executive Chris Brander in the romantic comedy Just Friends alongside Amy Smart and Anna Faris. In Just Friends, Reynolds lip-synced "I Swear" over the end credits. Additionally, he played an FBI agent alongside Ray Liotta in the 2006 crime action film Smokin' Aces. Reynolds played the protagonist in the 2008 film Definitely, Maybe. He also appeared in the second-season finale of the television series Scrubs. In 2007, Reynolds guest-starred as Brendan's friend Hams in the episode "Douchebag in the City" of the TBS sitcom My Boys. Reynolds portrayed Wade Wilson / Weapon XI in a supporting role in the prequel 20th Century Fox X-Men film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was released in 2009. He had previously spoken of his interest and involvement in a possible film adaptation of Deadpool with screenwriter David S. Goyer as far back as 2005. 2009 also saw Reynolds portray Andrew Paxton, opposite Sandra Bullock, in The Proposal, and Mike Connell in Adventureland. In 2010, Reynolds starred in the Spanish and American thriller Buried, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival. In June 2010, Reynolds was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Reynolds portrayed the Hal Jordan version of superhero Green Lantern in Warner Bros.' film Green Lantern, which was released on June 17, 2011. The film did not fare well either financially or critically, but his role made him one of the few actors to headline films based on both Marvel and DC characters. In 2011, he co-starred in the comedy The Change-Up, as well as narrating the documentary film The Whale. In 2012, he portrayed an agent in Safe House, alongside Denzel Washington. He then had starring roles in two DreamWorks Animation feature films, The Croods and Turbo, both released in 2013. His next role was portraying Nick Walker in the Universal Pictures film adaptation of Dark Horse Comics' R.I.P.D. (Rest in Peace Department), which was released in 2013. Reynolds went on to star in low-budget films, The Voices and The Captive in 2014, as well as Mississippi Grind the following year. This was followed by a supporting role in the financially successful biographical film, Woman in Gold, before he returned to the thriller genre with Self/Less, also in 2015. In 2016, Reynolds found critical and commercial success with Deadpool, a film that had been in development as early as 2000. After portraying Wade Wilson / Weapon XI, without the name Deadpool, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he became heavily involved in the development of a Deadpool film. Deadpool featured a reboot of the character, ignoring the events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and establishing a new backstory for the character that was closer to the Marvel Comics source material. The film takes place within the larger 20th Century Fox X-Men film universe, being made possible by the reset timeline in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Deadpool made several box-office records, including: a worldwide opening of $264.9 million from 62 markets, which is the biggest of 2016, the biggest for an R-rated film, and the second biggest for Fox, only behind Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith ($303.9 million). It also recorded the biggest IMAX 2D worldwide opening of all time with $27.4 million from 606 IMAX theatres, eclipsing The Dark Knight Rises ($23.8 million). The film's financial and critical success led the studio to move forward with a sequel. Also in 2016, Reynolds had a supporting role in the Ariel Vromen-directed thriller Criminal. On December 15, 2016, Reynolds received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard. Reynolds co-starred with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson in the science fiction thriller Life in 2017, which reunited him with Safe House director Daniel Espinosa. Reynolds began filming Deadpool 2 in June 2017. The film opened on May 18, 2018. In May 2019, he starred as the titular character in Pokémon Detective Pikachu, a live action film adaptation of the Detective Pikachu video game. Reynolds voiced, and was the facial motion capture actor for the CGI detective Pikachu. In January 2019, Reynolds was named the face of Armani Code leading with a campaign for their Absolu scent. Also that year, he starred in the Netflix action thriller film 6 Underground, directed by Michael Bay. The film was released on December 13. Reynolds is an executive producer of ABC's game show, Don't, which premiered on June 11, 20