Ryan Lee Stiles was born on April 22, 1959. He was the youngest of 5(3 brothers, 1 sister) and was born in Seattle, Washington. At the age of 10, his family moved to Vancouver. He went to high school at Richmond Secondary School. He was a good student, but as he said "being a high-school senior gave me too much freedom" and he quit high school just a few months away from graduation. He was able to support himself for several years doing standup comedy.
In 1978, he met his future wife, Pat McDonald. They married in 1989. They have 2 children, daughter Mackenzie(born in or around 1992) and son Sam(born July 3, 1994).
He met his friend and partner in crime, Colin Mochrie, in 1985 when they were both supporting characters on a Canadian short film called "Rainbow War."
In 1986 he joined Second City Comedy Ensemble in Toronto. In 1990 he was invited to join the Second City group in Los Angeles.
He did the UK version of Whose Line is it Anyway? from 1989 to 1998. He has a fear of flying, so commuting to England wasn't all that fun for him. He confessed in an interview that he once had to have a stewardess hold his hand during turbulence.
He had movie parts in "Hot Shots" and "Hot Shots Part Deux" His mother hung his publicity photo from the movie, which he was in an Air Force uniform for, right next the pictures of his three brothers who were all in the real Air Force.
During the 1994-95 baseball strike, Stiles and acclaimed director Joe Pytka made some memorable commercials for Nike. In 1995 he was cast as Lewis Kiniski on "The Drew Carey Show." Recently Ryan directed an episode of "The Drew Carey Show" titled, "Kate vs. Speedy."
In 1998, Ryan & Drew Carey pitched the idea of "Whose Line...?" to ABC.
He and his family spend their time between their house in Custer, Washington and their house once owned by Liberace in California. Ryan sign a contract for Whose Line till 2004 so he's not going anywhere!!!! |
