Ryan O'Connell is an American writer, actor, director, comedian, LGBTQ activist, and disability advocate.
[3] He has a mild form of cerebral palsy (CP) since birth, which affects the right side of his body with a noticeable limp.
[4] Because of his CP, he had ten or eleven surgeries as a child, spending time in the hospital, and received much physical therapy.
[3][5] Growing up, O'Connell requested TV scripts for Christmas, and watched shows with the closed captioning on to learn more about writing.
[8] On discovering his sexuality, O'Connell said, The moment I realized I was gay was—truly—[seeing] Ryan Phillippe's ass in Cruel Intentions.
[3] In April 2015, Jim Parsons, who had read O'Connell's Thought Catalog article, optioned the book through his company That's Wonderful Productions which he runs with husband Todd Spiewak.
[3][18][19] O'Connell was assured with Parsons and Spiewak; he felt he could not trust a network with the gay content, fearing that they would let the project die after buying the option.
[20] In 2016, O'Connell received a go-ahead from Stage 13 to develop a script for Special, based on his memoir, with eight 15-minute episodes for Netflix.
[2] He started doing media work for Special while writing full-time on BH90210, a Fox comedy-drama reboot of Beverly Hills, 90210 which debuted in August 2019.
"[2] In Special, the lead character Ryan misleads his coworkers that his limp was the result of a car accident instead of his cerebral palsy.
[23] A 2016 Ruderman Family Foundation study found that "about 95% of characters with disabilities on television are played by able-bodied actors".
[24] Including actors with disabilities is still rare in entertainment industries; in 2018 Ali Stroker was "the first person in a wheelchair to win a Tony Award"; in July 2019, Marvel made history announcing a deaf superhero, a first; and AMC's The Walking Dead and HBO's Years and Years are among the few opening their casting.
"[29] USA Today called the episode a landmark for disability representation and noted "O'Connell hope(s) to destigmatize sex work with the graphic scene, but also normalize gay sex for mainstream audiences who aren't used to seeing it in Hollywood movies or popular TV shows".
[16] That month, Queerty named him one of the Pride 50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people.