Ryan Reynolds
Canadian-American actor (born 1976)
From Canadian television to Deadpool
Television beginnings
Ryan Reynolds began acting as a teenager on the Canadian drama Hillside, broadcast in the United States as Fifteen. His next sustained television role came in the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, which began in 1998. Those years established a screen-comedy foundation before he moved into leading film roles.
A wider range of films
National Lampoon’s Van Wilder gave Reynolds a prominent comedy part in 2002. He later appeared in The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and took a very different assignment in Buried, a thriller built around one confined character. He also voiced characters in the animated films The Croods and Turbo, showing that his work was not limited to live-action comedy.
The Deadpool breakthrough
After first playing Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Reynolds returned to the character in the 2016 standalone film and its 2018 sequel. He also produced the first Deadpool film. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce dedicated a Walk of Fame star to him in December 2016, recognizing a career that had crossed television, romance, drama and superhero cinema.