He is known for starring as Darren Alexander in the BBC drama comedy Linda Green, Andrew Gilligan in The Government Inspector, Andy Coulson in Steel River Blues and Kenny Reed in The Whistleblowers.
In 1992 Ryan played Jamie Hunter who takes revenge on travellers when they befriend his fiancee in series 1 episode 8 of Heartbeat called "Outsiders".
In December 2007, he appeared in the Series 17 episode of Heartbeat called "Touch and Go", in which he played Max Philpott who murdered long running character PC Phil Bellamy.
He took over the role of Harry (Sandy's husband, previously played by David Michaels) in the special reunion episodes of BBC sitcom As Time Goes By alongside Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer.
In 2015 he appeared as Steve Baker in S7:E1 of Doc Martin,[4] and as Colonel Anthony Forbes-Leith in the BBC TV series Father Brown episode 3.9 "The Truth in the Wine".
[7] Also in February he appeared as Alec Sidden in The Seagull, S9:E4 of Vera, and in April 2019 as Detective Inspector Anthony 'Tony' Manning in The Bay.