Ryan Kwanten Biography

Ryan Christian Kwanten (born 28 November 1976) is an Australian actor and comedian. He played Vinnie Patterson from 1997 to 2002 in the Australian soap opera Home and Away. After his stint ended, he joined the American teen drama series Summerland, portraying Jay Robertson. In 2008, he was cast as Jason Stackhouse in True Blood.

Early life

Kwanten was born in Sydney, the son of Kris, a Lifeline op shop coordinator, and Eddie Kwanten, a worker at NSW Maritime. His father is Dutch. Kwanten has two brothers, Mitchell, a musician, and Lloyd, a doctor. He attended St Paul's College in Manly and later earned a degree in commerce from the University of Sydney.

Career

Kwanten began acting on the television shows A Country Practice, Hey Dad..! and Spellbinder. In 1997, he joined the cast of the Australian soap opera Home and Away, playing lifeguard Vinnie Patterson. He eventually chose to leave the series in 2002, shortly after his character married and became a father. Kwanten had previously guested on the serial as Robbie Taylor in 1994. Moving to the United States, Kwanten was cast as Jay Robertson in Summerland (2004-05). He appeared in the films Flicka (2006), with Maria Bello, Alison Lohman, and Tim McGraw, and Dead Silence (2007), a horror film in which he played the leading role, Jamie Ashen.

Kwanten appeared in a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode that aired on 2 December 2008, in which he portrayed Dominic Pruitt, a US Marine Corps Master Sergeant accused of raping and murdering a fellow Marine and her unborn baby.

In 2009, he starred in the film Don't Fade Away with Mischa Barton and Beau Bridges.

In 2010, Kwanten role the voice of Kludd in the animated-epic film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. Kwanten played the role of Jason Stackhouse in the HBO series True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris' The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels, which aired from 2008 until 2014. He stars in the psychological thriller Red Hill, which was directed by Patrick Hughes. Kwanten earned one of the lead roles in the Joe Lynch comedy-horror film Knights of Badassdom along with Steve Zahn, Summer Glau, and Peter Dinklage. In October 2010, it was announced that Kwanten will play Charles Manson in an upcoming, yet-to-be-titled biopic, to be directed by Brad Anderson.

In 2012, he appeared in MysteryGuitarMan's video "Dual Action". In 2013, Kwanten played Marvel character Eddie Brock/Venom in the short film Truth in Journalism and portrayed Conall in the action adventure film Northmen: A Viking Saga.

In 2015, Kwanten voiced the role of Blinky Bill, a Koala in Blinky Bill the Movie based on the iconic children's book by Dorothy Wall.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Signal One	Kid
2002	'	Claude Gearheart	Television film
2003	Liquid Bridge	Nick McCallum
2004	American Brown	Ricky Brown
2006	Flicka	Howard McLaughlin
2007	Dead Silence	Jamie Ashen
2010	Red Hill	Shane Cooper
	Griff the Invisible	Griff
	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole	Kludd (voice)
	Don't Fade Away	Jackson White
2012	Not Suitable for Children	Jonah
2013	Mystery Road	Pete Bailey
	Truth in Journalism	Eddie Brock/Venom	Short film
	'	Leo Palamino
	Knights of Badassdom	Joe
2014	Flight 7500	Brad Martin
	Rio, I Love You	Jai Arnott	Segment: "Acho Que Estou Apaixonado"
	Northmen: A Viking Saga	Conall
	Reach Me	Jack Burns
2015	Kidnapping Freddy Heineken	Jan "Cat" Boellard
	Blinky Bill the Movie	Blinky Bill (voice)
	Blunt Force Trauma	John
2016	Who Gets the Dog?	Clay Lonnergan
2017	Supercon	Matt Wheeler	In post-production
	Category 5		In post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	'	Stagecoach driver	Uncredited; episode: "The Boscombe Valley Mystery"
1992	Home and Away	Boogie boarder	Episode 1018
	'	Ben Lloyd	2 episodes
1993-94	G.P.	Scott Browning	2 episodes
1994	Home and Away	Robbie Taylor	Episode 1451
	Hey Dad..!	Richard	Episode: "Rebel Without a Clue"
1995	Echo Point	Nathan Potter	Unknown episodes
1996	Water Rats	Nipper	Episode: "Iron Man"
1997-2002	Home and Away	Vinnie Patterson	Role held: 14 July 1997 - 1 March 2002
1997	Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord	Josh Morgan	Main cast; 26 episodes
2003	'	Barnes	Episode: "Off the Edge"
2004	Tru Calling	Jake Voight	Episode: "Closure"
2004-05	Summerland	Jay Robertson	Main cast; 26 episodes
2008-14	True Blood	Jason Stackhouse	Main cast; 81 episodes
2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Master Sgt. Dominic Pruitt	Episode: "PTSD"
2012	New Girl	Oliver	Episode: "Valentine's Day"
2014	Jake and the Never Land Pirates	Brewster the Beast Trapper (voice)	Episode: "Tick Tock Trap"

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2009	Scream Award	Best Horror Actor	True Blood
	Satellite Award	Best Ensemble, Television
2010	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actor: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
	Australian Film Institute Award	Best Actor
	Australians in Film	Breakthrough Award
2011	Film Critics Circle of Australia Award	Best Actor	Red Hill
2015	Kids' Choice Award	Favorite Voice in an Animated Film	Blinky Bill The Movie