Biografia
Ms. Ryan has captivated audiences for over 30 years as an actress, singer, recording artist, and performer in nightclubs and concerts. She has graced the hottest venues across the Midwest and coasts, from Broadway to the iconic Las Vegas Strip, and aboard some of the most renowned cruise ships in the United States. Her Broadway roles include Effie White in Dreamgirls, Nell Carter in Ain't Misbehavin, Matron Mama Morton in Chicago the Musical, Bertha in One Mo' Time, and The Ghost of Christmas Present in Madison Square Garden’s A Christmas Carol—making her the only woman to perform that role. She also starred as Mabel in Pajama Game. Additional theater credits feature Bloody Mary in South Pacific, performed in Thailand, Australia, and China; Blues in The Night, which earned her both the Carbonell and Zoni Awards for Best Actress in a Musical; The Old Settler; Seven Guitars; and Cole Porter’s Request The Pleasure, for which she won the Carbonell Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2012, Ms. Ryan received the Broadway World Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre production of Saving Aimee, which later moved to Broadway as Scandalous.
Her television appearances include Amelia Heterbrink on NBC’s Amen, Mrs. Dixon on Good News, Flo Anderson on the WB’s All About The Andersons, roles on JAG and Half and Half, Mae Palmer on Showtime’s Barbershop, the Hercules cartoon series on ABC, BET’s Let’s Stay Together in 2012, and Disney’s Crash and Bernstein. Film credits include Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club, Disney’s Hercules (voice of Thalia), Nikita Blues (produced by Roz Ryan and Marc Cayce), Waiting For Forever, The Invention of Lying, I Think I Love My Wife, and Whatever Lola Wants.
Her voiceover work features Thalia in Disney’s Hercules (TV series, feature film, and video games), Bubbie the Blue Beluga Whale on Cartoon Network’s The Misadventures of FlapJack, Ms. Fitzpatrick on Kick Buttowski (Disney XD), Gorgeous G on Scooby Doo, and Witch Lezah on The WB’s Looney Tunes series. In 2013, Ms. Ryan appeared as Charles Barkley’s mother in a nationwide Capitol One Venture Card commercial, and in 2014, she portrayed Aunt Sylvia in season two of The Rickey Smiley Show on TV One, as well as voicing Cake the Cat on Cartoon Network’s animated series Adventure Time.
