Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian and American actor. 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.
Early life
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.
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.
