Ryan Focht

Ryan Matthew Focht was born on September 26th, 1997 at St. Rita's Medical Center (Now Lima Mercy @ St. Rita's MC). He is the second son to William Roy Focht and Gail Ann Lawrance-Focht of Lima, Ohio and Alger, Ohio in order. In early life, his mother and father divorced and remarried; William married Jane Louise Nartker-Focht of Elida, Ohio, and Gail never officially re-married. He has 7 siblings; 4 biological and three via re-marriage who are Caleb, Joshua, and Layne Focht; Ryan Stalder, Matthew Windau and Katie Windau-Shannon. Until 7th grade, Ryan attended local Lima City School District schools in the north of the city. These schools respectively are Irving-Horseman Elementary (rebuilt and moved; now Independence Elementary School), Lima North Middle School, Lima West Middle School (a result of a divisionary project by the district to funnel similar student groups together) and then later moved to Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, he attended Seneca Valley Middle School, Seneca Valley Senior High School, and Butler Area Vocational-Technical School. During his childhood, Ryan developed skills that would aid him in pursuing his later film career. These skills stemmed from an interest in animated video and branched out into more focussed areas of interest. Upon deciding against a pursuit in animation, Ryan moved toward graphics and advertising. A fate random encounter with a high school colleague helped to shape Ryan's interests more toward the camera. Austin Ayers, a local director, and news media entrepreneur reached out to him for last-minute assistance with a coverage event following the Tree of Life Massacre in Pittsburgh, PA. This experience solidified Ryan's decision to embrace camera media. Today, Ryan helps a long-standing colleague Austin Ayers in a mutual production environment which became an independent news start-up; KNNP-TV in Pittsburgh which is a television establishment in Kittanning, PA. Additionally, both Ryan and Austin are pursuing and continue to pursue a career in production and acting.