Katherine Ryan Biography

Katherine Ryan was born Katherine Louisa Ryan, on June 30, 1983, in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, to Julie McCarthy and Finbar Ryan. Her father comes from Irish ancestry while her mother is a British-Canadian. Her father had immigrated to Canada from Ireland and worked as an engineering technician who also owned an engineering firm. Meanwhile, her mother happens to be an owner of an IT consulting company.

Katherine was born as the eldest one among three sisters. The family lived in Sarnia throughout Katherine’s childhood. However, during the holidays, Katherine travelled to Cork, Ireland, to visit her paternal grandparents.

Katherine had a satirist sense of humour since she was younger. However, she mentioned that no one in her town understood her sense of humour and she was known as a weirdo. She also faced some bullying in school. She credits her strength to face bullying to her upbringing.

When she was 15 years old, her parents divorced. Following her high school graduation, she enrolled at Ryerson University, in Toronto, and studied city planning. While in college, she aspired to become a comedian and began doing some comedy stints in nearby venues

While in college, she also found out that she had skin cancer. A golf-ball-sized cancerous lump was there, which led her to undergo surgery for the same.

At college, she worked as a waitress at a local restaurant called Hooters. She befriended two co-workers at Hooters, who became her lifelong friends. She was also made to travel to different cities in Canada, to train other waitresses.

She also performed as a dancer in the show Electric Circus, produced by MuchMusic.

While she was attending the university, she had begun her stand-up comedy career, albeit on a small scale. She performed at many open mic events. However, it was just for her personal entertainment and in that time, she did not think of making a full-time career as a stand-up comedian.

Following her college graduation, she did not quit Hooters. She was promoted to an executive division of the restaurant chain. She also helped the company launch a branch in Nottingham, which was Hooters’ only branch in the UK.

Her boyfriend at that time liked London and in 2007, they explored London. Katherine liked the city and the stand-up comedy scene there was also quite promising. This led Katherine to contemplate moving there permanently and she did, in 2008.

However, back in Canada, she had already begun working in television with the comedy show titled Video on Trial, in the mid-2000s. The show was a big success on MuchMusic. It featured a panel of musicians and comedians criticizing five music videos on the video quality, song quality and even the personal lives of the artists. The show was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed shows on the channel and has over time gained a cult following.

Katherine remained associated with the show for the first three seasons. After that, she moved to London, in 2008, after making her last appearance on Video on Trial in the third season.

After moving to London in 2008, she performed comedy routines at various venues across London, and other parts of the UK. In 2010, she made her first appearance on UK television with the TV series titled Big Brother’s Big Mouth.

She further made appearances on two documentary films, titled The 50 Funniest Moments of 2012 and The Boyle Variety Performance. She later appeared as herself on the comedy show titled Just for Laughs: All Access

In 2012, she also made an appearance as herself on the British comedy panel show titled 8 Out of 10 Cats.

In the next year, she gained recognition in the UK when she appeared as Nicki Minaj, dancing on stage to Nicki’s song Starships for the show Let’s Dance for Comic Relief. The show gained good ratings when it was aired on BBC One. Katherine’s performance helped her gain entry into the finals, where she lost to other finalists. She ended her stint at the fourth position.

In 2013, she further appeared in Just for Laughs Gala, presented by Whitney Cummings, one of the most popular American comedians. It is an annual comedy show which is held in Canada and is known as the biggest international comedy festival in the world. It was performed in July 2013 in front of a massive live audience.

Katherine had yet another breakthrough around the same time when she took her fresh stand-up comedy routines to perform at the Edinburgh Festival, which takes place annually in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In 2015, she became the presenter of the British television reality show titled Hair. She replaced ace comedian Steve Jones for the second season of the show. The second season was also the last season of the critically and commercially acclaimed show.

In the same year, she also appeared as herself on the comedy panel game shows, titled Bring the Noise and Safeword.

Further in 2016, she appeared on yet another comedy panel game show titled Taskmaster. In the show, she participated with five other comedians and competed in various challenges. Katherine emerged victorious by the end of the season.

In the same year, she embarked on a comedy tour across the UK, titled Kathbum. During the tour, she performed at a famous live performance venue called Hammersmith Apollo, located in London. Netflix taped her performance and launched her first stand-up comedy special, with the title Katherine Ryan: In Trouble.

She and Jimmy Carr joined hands in 2017 to present the rebooted version of the popular game show from the early 2000s, titled Your Face or Mine.

In 2019, Netflix released her second stand-up comedy routine titled Katherine Ryan: Glitter Room. The special was shot in Los Angeles.

In 2011, she made her British television debut as an actress when she appeared in the sitcom titled Campus. She played George Brown in the sitcom for four episodes.

In 2016, she appeared in the TV movie titled Katherine Ryan in Ireland, in which she played herself. She has also made appearances as an actress in comedy series’ such as The Duchess, Beyond Bionic and Counterfeit Cat.

In addition to her comedy and television work, she also writes a column every week for the British entertainment magazine named NME.

Katherine Ryan previously dated actor Jeff Leach and comedian Alex Adelman. As of present, she is in a civil partnership with actor Bobby Kootstra. Bobby happened to be her childhood crush, with whom she was reunited recently. She also has a daughter named Violet from one of her previous relationships.

Katherine has suffered from skin cancer twice. She was successfully treated both times.

Katherine has also had two breast augmentation surgeries, one in her early 20s and the second one after a bad breakup.

Although Katherine is a proud Canadian, she has quipped that she will not move back to Canada unless she was terminally ill.