Ryan Murray Biography

Biography

Welcome to the official website of Ryan Murray. It has been a long time coming, and thanks to Chiaroscuro Design, I have now joined the millions who have come before me!

When I first began researching to get ideas and essentially steal from my friends’ awesome sites, I noticed that written biographies were hugely popular. I thought, “I don’t want to write a biography!” Most of them are just a verbal vomiting of a lengthier version of what can be found on your resume. Then I thought, “maybe I can pay someone to write it,” but that thought was fleeting. Then it dawned on me, it’s my website, I can write what I want – so I decided to write much like I hold many of my conversations, stream of consciousness style! I hope you enjoy.

It all began when I was 8 years old. (Don’t worry, I would not torture you with a timeline of my life beginning at the tender age of 8…read on and I promise to hook your interest at some point!)
At 8 years old, my family encouraged, ok practically forced me, to go down to our local children’s theatre, (The Palo Alto Children’s Theatre), and audition for the current show at the time- don’t ask, it was 17 years ago! So, with reluctance I hopped on my MURRAY bike, aptly named, and headed for the theatre. I remember walking inside and having no clue what to do, I was so nervous! They gave me an audition card and told me to fill it out and bring it back, so I took it outside and sat on a bench. All I could do was stare at it blankly in terror. “Should I, shouldn’t I, should I, shouldn’t I?” As I stared at the title of the show - which I still cannot remember - I thought, “there is no way I can do this,” so I got up, threw my card away, and biked home. (Aww, how sad, I know!)

However, 2 short years later I was back and ready to audition for A Christmas Carol! Still petrified, I managed to make it through the rigorous audition process. (Oh how I wish it were as easy now as it was back then- except for the part where we had to audition in front of everyone else in the room, who were silently, or not so silently judging you!) When we were done, having such a sense of accomplishment, they told us they would call us with the results. When I got the call, not only was I excited to learn that I had gotten in, but that I was cast as Caroler AND Peter Cratchet! Woohoo! My first show and I had lines and harmonies and…I just about crapped my pants, which still happens when I get a part. I always think, “the jig is up, now I have to be good!!!” And from then on I was hooked! It wasn’t long before my 3rd show came along and I was cast as a LEAD! Tommy in Pippilongstocking! I was on top of the world.
I went on to do shows there for the next 12 years, eventually graduating to the summer stock level…in between high school shows of course. I guess you could say I found my niche! I consider myself to be pretty lucky. Not many people can say they knew what they were going to do in life at the age of 10!

Once it was time to go to college- of course I had my hopes set on TISCH at NYU, but unfortunately I did not get in on the first go-round. I consider this, only now of course, to be such a wonderful thing. First of all, looking back, I had no idea which philosophy or technique I wanted to study. I had never even entertained the idea of studying musical theatre, even though it was what I had been doing for past 12 years. Second and most importantly, the - temporary rejection – opened my eyes to other options and I ended up in beautiful Santa Barbara at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC). Naturally my ego took a blow because almost everybody I knew from Palo Alto High was going on to an Ivy League institution. If I had only known that I was about to meet the most wonderful group of people, live in a paradise, AND flourish as an artist on top of it all, I am certain I would have jumped at the chance even sooner!
The story that really resonates with me from this time was inspired on my very first day in S.B. My mom and I were touring the beautiful campus of SBCC, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and we found ourselves in The Garvin Theatre. On the wall I spotted a large plaque with many names. There were several columns of categories; Best Actor, Best Actress…and overall, Student of the Year. I called my mom over and uttered with a hopeful confidence, “I’m going to be up there someday Mom!” Well, 2 short years later (I am noticing a pattern) I was approached by my mentors, Rick Mokler and Pope Freeman. To my complete surprise, they informed me that I was chosen to be Student of the Year!!! The award included my name up on the plaque in the Garvin Theatre, YAY, a lifetime membership to all future shows, and a scholarship- which was perfect because I had just been accepted to transfer into NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, Cap21. My 2 years of dedication and hard work had more than paid off!!!

Now it was on to The Big Apple, which I had never even visited, but I just knew I was going to love it! When my mother and I stepped off the plane in mid August, the hottest and muggiest, and worst possible time to be in New York City, I thought, we’re certainly not in California anymore. But I had been right all along, I LOVED IT! We moved me into the dorms and I was off to transfer orientation. Much to my surprise, even though I was 3,000 miles away from California, the first group of people I happened to stumble upon were ALL transfers from CA just like me!!! Just another sign that I was in the right place! There we were, Jacky, Zoey (Liz at the time), Nick, Sari, Lauren, John, and myself, the California Dream Team ready to take New York by storm! Once our parents were gone, boy did we learn the New York “way of life” quickly. Don’t smile at anyone, remain speed walking en route to your final destination, eyes cast down, no matter who or what you may see along the way, always stand to the right of the escalator and walk up the left, never just run onto the subway train before looking to see which direction it is going, never eat street meat, always carry everything you need for the day, plus some, “just in case,” because going home is not an option, and when it is time to grocery shop you better be prepared to buy only what you can carry, and since I was used to buying in bulk and driving it home in my car, I was always the one stuck carrying 13 bags of groceries down into the subway and then up a 5th floor walk up…I still haven’t learned. Then we were introduced to the lovely burden of looking for an apartment in NYC, that was both affordable and spacious, what most New York brokers would call a miracle! Searching Craigslist on a daily basis, walking the entirety of the city with nothing to show for it at the end of the day, never knowing which broker to trust, finally finding something, but that does not match the criterion of ALL of the roommates, needing all of our parents to be guarantors because we are from CA, being charged first, last, and 2 security deposits…I could go on forever.

However, in spite of all of these hardships, not to mention the constant rejection we get as actors in our business, we have all managed to stick it out for the past 7 years! I have always tried to remind myself of what an amazing place I live in, a place that offers me so much stimulation, and if channeled in the right way, can be a never-ending source of inspiration for me! I am also constantly reminding myself to go against many of those things which we became accustomed to early on, like learning to pull focus up from the dirty streets of New York and open my eyes to the amazing architecture, the “people watching,” the avenues of lights and marquis...again, I could go on forever. I have managed to create a world for myself that I am very happy with. I know it seems like nothing has ever gone wrong and that I am the eternal optimist and that is not true. But why focus on those things that bring us down? I feel that so many people have much more to complain about. I am in a place in my life where huge things are happening and I feel prepared. I also have learned that you cannot expect New York to open its arms to you and invite you in. In order to survive in NYC, especially as an artist, you have to constantly reinvent yourself, pat your own back, and get to a place where you enjoy the pursuit of this career and enjoy it, in between gigs. One of the best ways, I think, is to find work that fulfills you, which is not an easy task.

One of the projects that I absolutely love being apart of is KidZone T.V. My friend and brilliant director Mary Geerlof is a weekend producer for KidZone T.V. AOL/Time Warner donated approx. 2.5 million dollars to Mt. Sinai hospital and with the funds they created The Kid Zone, within the Kravis Children’s Cancer Center. It is complete with a huge play zone for the kids, ranging anywhere from the ages of 5-21, a screening room for films, a reading room, and a T.V. studio. Within the studio Mary is in charge of all of the programming that is broadcast throughout the entirety of Mt. Sinai. It is also the only hospital in the world to offer live broadcasting to its patients!!! So, when Mary called me and asked me to become apart of the team, I immediately said yes. THIS is fulfilling work! I have the honor of doing my own 30 minute Musical Notes show where I piece together songs to tell a story. I also get to play “Ryan Seacrest” in Mt. Sinai Idol where we bring in singers to compete. Sometimes we are even lucky enough to get the kids to come down and watch in our studio audience or even sing with us! It is the best feeling to see their faces light up or to hear the joy in their voices when they call in and share their comments with us. Getting to be apart of a moment in their lives that is not focused on their illness and that helps them to escape in any way possible is, to me, the best feeling in the world!!! I am in this business to ultimately do cathartic work and I can think of nothing more life changing!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my bio! If you made it this far you deserve a medal! Please check out the rest of my site and if you have any comments please feel free to shoot me a quick email. We are in the beginning stages and could always use some helpful hints.

Come back soon!

(Oh yeah, and if you haven’t figured it out already, I LOVE exclamation points!!!)

-Ryan

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