Biography
Ryan O'Connell is an American writer, actor and producer. Born on 2 September 1986 in Ventura County, California, he studied at The New School and began his career as a blogger and editor at Thought Catalog before moving into television writing.
He is known for creating, writing, executive producing and starring as Ryan Hayes in the Netflix series Special (2019–2021), adapted from his 2015 memoir I'm Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves. O'Connell has also written episodes of Awkward. (2014–2016), Will & Grace (2017–2018), The Baby-Sitters Club (2021) and Queer as Folk (2022), in which he also appeared as Julian Beaumont.
He has received Emmy nominations and a GLAAD Award, and has published a second book, the novel Just by Looking at Him (2022).
