About Ryan Philander
Ryan’s parents met working in the ER in Minneapolis, MN. He is the 2nd youngest of four children born to Dennis Philander, a South African immigrant and forensic psychiatrist having fled South Africa because of apartheid, and Eileen McKee, a nurse practitioner, and native Minnesotan. Ryan attended Breck School, gravitating towards Biology, Literature, and the humanities. He played soccer, tennis, and taught sailing in the summer.
Leaving the bitter cold of Minnesota for warmer weather and initially playing soccer at University, Ryan enrolled in a couple of film classes. In one film production class, he made his first short film: a documentary about the homeless. From there, Ryan was hooked on storytelling and began working with others on their productions as well, most notably with cinematography and editing. After years of studying all aspects of filmmaking, including writing, directing, lighting, cinematography, and audio design, Ryan graduated from Chapman University with a degree in Production. Upon graduation, he took a job teaching filmmaking at The New York Film Academy at Universal Studios. He was then offered a position as Assistant Editor on the breakout-hit reality series ‘Joe Millionaire’ on FOX, editing some of the series’ most pivotal scenes.
This paved the way for more editing opportunities in reality, docu-follow, documentaries, narrative features, music videos, web series, commercials, and awards shows. He has produced and edited for a wide variety of networks including, ABC, NBC, FOX, Spike, Sy-Fy, Discovery, History Channel, Discovery +, VH1, MTV, HBO, Netflix, and Amazon.
Having found a niche in producing and editing sizzle reels for projects across so many genres and platforms, Ryan has leveraged his unique perspective and experience to help develop and sell numerous shows currently on-air, in production, and in the pipeline. He has worked creating content for various A-list talent including, Simon Cowell, Gordon Ramsay, Wolfgang Puck, Billy Bob Thornton, Willie Nelson, Ava DuVarney, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Reese Witherspoon, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Ryan’s screenplays have placed in the top fifteen percent in the Nichols, Semi or Quarterfinalist in Scriptapalooza, StoryPros, TITAN, ScreenCraft, Industrial Scripts, Bluecat, Filmmatic, PAGE, and Austin Film Festival Screenplay competitions. He writes in all genres but focuses primarily on Drama, Thriller, and Dark Comedy, though he has written and directed short-form, commercial, sketch comedy, tv pilots/ bibles, and feature films. He is currently working on final drafts of his tenth and eleventh feature-length screenplays. Of the three pilots he has written, one has been independently produced, starring Reid Scott, Andy Dick, and Sonia Rockwell.
Ryan currently resides in Venice, California where he enjoys painting, soccer, traveling, and the occasional surf.
