Ryan Kwanten Biography

Ryan Kwanten was born November 28, 1976, in Sydney, Australia, to Eddie and Kris Kwanten. He has two brothers – Mitchell and Lloyd, a doctor and musician, respectively.

Though Kwanten is best known for his acting abilities, he also attended St Paul’s College in Manly and earned a commerce degree from the University of Sydney. He began acting around the age of 16, on Australian television, primarily.

Ryan Kwanten On ‘True Blood,’ Acting

Kwanten is best known for playing Jason Stackhouse on the hit HBO series True Blood, has a theory about why viewers have responded so positively to his character. “Everyone knows someone like Jason. Maybe not the extremes that he takes things, but I think he has that kind of universal appeal in the fact that everyone knows someone who does those silly things,” Kwanten told Uinterview exclusively.

Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, Kwanten didn’t always know he wanted to be an actor. In fact, he spent his younger years participating in various sports — the acting was something his two brothers were more interested in. Kwanten became an actor by accident while accompanying his brother to an agency audition. “The lady came out of the audition for my brother and said, ‘Oh are you here for the audition as well?’ I said, ‘No, I can’t act.’ She said, ‘Look, come in and we’ll audition you anyway.’ To cut a long story short, I ended up getting in and he didn’t. Right place right time,” he told Uinterview. Neither of his brothers ended up becoming actors – one is now a musician, the other a doctor.

Before becoming a household name in the United States on True Blood, Kwanten made a name for himself in Australian television. In 1997, he starred on Spellbinder: Land Of The Dragon Lord’s first – and only – season. Later that year, he picked up a starring role on the Australian soap opera Home And Away as Vinnie Patterson. He stayed with the show until 2002.

Kwanten broke into the mainstream American acting scene when he costarred in the drama series Summerland as Jay Robertson from 2004-2005. In 2008, while developing True Blood, show creator Alan Ball thought of Kwanten and his role in the 2006 film Flicka when casting the role of Jason. “He played the lead character’s hot, sweet, dimwit older brother, so when I was casting for Jason, I thought of him,” Ball told Details. “He has almost zero vanity as an actor. He’s not afraid to play stupid — a lot of actors that play dumb characters have to do subtle things to show they’re not stupid. But Ryan doesn’t have that hang-up. And he is so unlike his character that it’s almost shocking.” In fact, Kwanten earned a business degree from the University of Sydney while he was acting on Home And Away.

In addition to playing dumb, Kwanten is also known for stripping down on the show constantly. “It’s always confronting when you walk into your wardrobe trailer and you just see just a modesty patch hanging from the coat hanger instead of a whole array of clothes,” he said. However, Kwanten believes doing nude scenes are in service of the plot. “With Jason, it was always story points. I never feel like I was exposing myself to the masses. It was always justified.”

Kwanten has no problem masking his distinct Australian accent when playing American roles. “I’ve done a few American dialects now that I’ve been in America for, well, over seven years now,” Kwanten said. “It’s matter of pushing it to the back — position my mouth and tongue and the pallet and all that kind of stuff. It sounds very technical, but really it’s very simple.”

Ryan Kwanten Dating History, Personal Life

Kwanten is notoriously secretive about his personal life. He has been romantically linked to Home And Away costar Bree Desborough, Summerland costar Taylor Cole, and country singer Whitney Duncan.

Kwanten started dating his current fiancee, Ashley Sisino, in 2014.

In addition to True Blood, Kwanten has also acted in several Australian movies, such as Griff The Invisible and Red Hill. He has worked on American films such as 2067 and Section Eight and has also guest-starred on many American television shows, such as Law & Order: SVU and New Girl.

When he’s not filming, Kwanten still likes to work out and play sports. “I actually really enjoy working out,” Kwanten said. “For me, what I get from pushing myself so hard is there’s a real — I’m almost obsessed with — in sports you call it ‘hitting the wall.’ Hitting the wall, gritting the teeth, breaking down the wall, and then overcoming.”

Kwanten also enjoys more cerebral activities like reading. He also likes to “go to the movies, have a couple drinks, and experience the good life” with his friends. Still, he claims, he’s “a bit of a homebody.”

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