Ben Ryan-Steele

Ben was born in Dover, Kent, the son of actress and photographer Karol Steele and former journalist Andy Steele. Ben became a member of the newly-founded Blackfish Academy in Dover in 2005, and won a small role in their first show, "The Musical Hood". From there, Ben won starring roles in the Academy's productions of "Alice the Musical", playing "the March Hare"; "Scrooge", playing "Topper"; "The Jungle Book", playing "Colonel Haithi"; "Fame", playing "Goody"; and "The Runaways", playing "Rocco the Pimp". He has also been in a number of Dover Youth Theatre productions, including "The Boy Who Fell into a Book", playing "Rockfist Slim"; Agatha Christie's "An Appointment With Death", playing "Colonel Carberry"; and three workshop productions which allowed him, in 2010, to be the first actor to play "Shrek", on the English stage, in a scene from "Shrek the Musical". Ben was an original member of The Canterbury-based Unfinished Business Theatre Company, and was a huge hit in their debut production, "The Penis Monologues". He also starred, to great acclaim, in their subsequent shows, "The Best Panto Ever" (as "Grumpy" and "Jack"), and their 2011 hit play, "The Last Theatre", playing "Job". He was a member of the Dover Pageant Society, playing a number of roles in their open-air productions in 2002, 2005 and 2008. Ben's filmography includes the award-winning shorts, "Marty's Project" (playing "Ben the Red Carpet Presenter"), which won 2011 Seriac Best Acting Award; "Playground" (playing a Gang Leader); and The 2008 Prix Europa film, "Washed Up" (playing a Czech Castaway). He has also finished filming the London School of Communication short film, "Frequenze"; and is working on the KETV/CBBC short film series, "Davey and ..." by Anne Perry, in which Ben plays a number of historical characters encountered by time-traveling schoolboy "Davey Smith". Ben is an undergraduate at the Christ Church University in Canterbury, studying BA Drama, and where he recently headlined and was the critically- acclaimed act in the university's three variety nights, where he performed his own unique mixture of stand-up and impressions. He is a former student of the Dover Grammar School for Boys and Canterbury College, where he also performed in a number of productions. Ben was lucky enough to be one of the hopefuls picked from a line-up of 4,500 people who attended the casting in Chatham, Kent for the new film, musical version of "Les Miserables", starring Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. Ben is working on a comedy double act with fellow university student, Jack Blundell, and their first show, "They've Landed", at Quarterhouse Theatre in Folkestone was a critically-acclaimed success. The pair are working on a second show to be performed in Canterbury, and are planning to take their shows to The Edinburgh Fringe in the future. He is also worked on his first feature film, produced by his own production company, "A World Called My Mind Productions", and written by himself, called Merry Z-Day (2013), which was released, straight-to-video, in October 2013. Ben is also an accomplished Jazz and Blues pianist (having passed his Grade Five Jazz Performance exam) and singer, and is learning to play the guitar.