JERI LYNN RYAN
Jeri
Lynn Ryan, a self-admitted Army brat who grew up near bases ranging from
Germany to Hawaii, didn't know it at the time, but her vagabond years of
moving around the world helped prepare her for a performing career. "You'll
find that lots of actors are Army brats," says Ryan. "That's
because you need to learn to be the new kid in school and play a different
role to fit in. When you're a child and going through the moving, it's
tough, but as an adult now, I realize it taught me to be adaptable."
Ryan is now the new kid on NBC's "Dark Skies", as a mysterious government agent with foreign ties who helps in the secret war against hostile extraterrestrials. She was born in Munich, Germany, and after additional stops in Kansas, Maryland, Georgia and Texas, her family settled down in Paducah, Kentucky when she was 11. Her father, a master sergeant, retired at that time, whereupon her homemaker/mother embarked on a career as a social worker. She later graduated from prestigious Northwestern University as a National Merit Scholar with a B.S. in theater.
Ryan came to Los Angeles and spent her first years portraying "ingenues and nice girls," but she made a radical departure when she guest-starred in two episodes of "Melrose Place" as a lesbian soap opera actress who endured a staged marriage to a gay bridegroom. Along the way, she piled up other guest-starring credits in such series as "Matlock," "The Flash," "Who's the Boss?," "Murder, She Wrote," "Reasonable Doubts" and "Diagnosis Murder." Among her TV movies are "Coed Call Girl," "Nightmare in Columbia County" and NBC's "In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco." Her feature films are "The Last Man" (an independent film that includes her favorite role) and "Men Cry Bullets."
In her latest role, Ryan is armed and dangerous, a la "La Femme Nikita," and often is called upon to get physical. "I start as a kind of 'Jane Bond,' and I have to be tough and very strong. It's definitely good incentive for staying fit."
Even so, Ryan considers her greatest role to be that of mother to her son, Alex, who is 2. "As a mom, I'm more patient and feel more complete," she says. "Nobody could have convinced me while I was pregnant of how magical it would be to be a mother." A world-class commuter, Ryan usually spends weekends flying from her home in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley back to Chicago to reunite with her husband, an investment banker, which she has done for almost six years. In her spare time, she enjoys show skiing as well as cooking and baking ("I make some mean pies!"). Ryan was born on February 22.