Ryan is co-director and head curator of San Diego Underground Film Festival (MovieMaker Magazine Top 50 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee), and has programmed for Slamdance Film Festival, taught at CalArts, lectured at SDSU, Stephens College, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and UC San Diego.

Ryan has an MFA in Film/Video from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and a BA in Visual Art from UC San Diego.

As a filmmaker Ryan's films have screened at Ann Arbor Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Slamdance, Chicago Underground, Florida Film Festival, New Orleans Film festival, Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, Artifact Small Format, Antimatter Media Art, Oak Cliff Film Festival, Oxford Film Festival, Athens International, Indie Memphis, Montreal Underground, Winnipeg Underground, Portland Underground, Sydney Underground, Arizona Underground, Moviate Underground, among others..