John Ryan Jr.

Short Biography

Johnny Ryan Jr. grew up borrowing video equipment to make films in his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. He attended film school in Florida and took on accelerated courses to graduate within a year. At age 19, he moved to Los Angeles to produce some of the biggest Live Red Carpet shows in the world. From The Playboy Mansion to the Oscars, John worked every red carpet in town. This led to John co-creating the ground-breaking Tinseltown TV / Hollywood.TV in 2002. Tinseltown is the first American based television show to tap into the Bollywood market. It launched in more than 250 countries, including the United States. John developed television shows and pilots for The History Channel including Conquest, Fast Cars, Shoots Outs and Wild West Tech and brought in such notable talents as Keith and David Carridine and worked with Bill Goldberg. He went on to develop and produce for a variety of networks including Comedy Central, Discovery, Foods, and HBO. Between 2005 and 2008, John raised more than $150 million for independent films and development. In 2008, John branched out and became a partner at FilmEngine (feature film portfolio includes The Rum Diary, The Butterfly Effect, Lucky Number Slevin) to produce, write and develop projects in the $20 to $50 million range as Vice President of Production/COO. After raising $20 million for the up and coming feature Shrapnel with Director John McTiernan, he exited the company to launch his own ventures. With a $100 million film fund under his belt, John simultaneously launched three companies. One includes a partnership with Producer Gil Adler (Superman Returns, Starsky and Hutch, Valkrie) to co-found Reverie Entertainment where he serves as President of Production. Reverie includes production, finance, development and management branches and is relaunching the legendary horror franchise Tales From The Crypt. Another company John co founded is Creations Media Group where he presides as President. CMG is a motion picture and television finance and foreign sales agency that set up the film commission for Fiji and holds a first look deal with Fremantle Media for world-wide television and film distribution. Also committed to giving back to the community, John serves as Creative Director of Artists for Peace and Justice, a non-profit founded by Writer Paul Haggis focused on rehabilitating Haiti. John works closely with such APJ Board Members as actors Olivia Wilde and Gerald Butler to promote and develop the non-profit. John spends his time speaking at Universities and mentoring film school students.