Ryan is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Texas-Austin living in São Paulo. He graduated from Kenyon College in 2010 and got his Master's at UT-Austin in 2012. He went to Brazil in 2014 to do his dissertation fieldwork and liked it so much he decided to stay.

He enjoys teaching languages, having taught both English and Spanish, editing, translating, and writing, as well as soccer, Porta dos Fundos, the musical stylings of Tim Maia, and playing with his cats, Lola and Gil. He is also a native of Delaware, the U.S.'s answer to Roraima.