Beau Ryan

Background

Ryan was raised in Albion Park and played junior football with Wests Illawarra. In 2003, Ryan was selected to represent in the New South Wales Schoolboys team. In 2005 he won the Jersey Flegg Cup with the St. George Illawarra Dragons team under coach Steve Price, but left the club as he was behind centres Matt Cooper, Mark Gasnier and Wes Naiqama.

Wests Tigers

Ryan joined the Wests Tigers and made his debut in round 16 of the 2007 NRL season. He played a further two games that year, scoring a try in his second appearance. The next season, he played in 15 games.

From 2009 onwards, Ryan was a regular winger for the Wests Tigers. He scored a personal best 13 tries that year, including seven tries in the last 4 games. Soon after, Ryan signed a contract to remain with the Tigers until the end of the 2012 season.

Injury hampered Ryan's season in 2011, and he didn't take his regular position on the wing until round 14. He scored 8 tries in the remaining 13 games, including the last try of the qualifying final match against St George as the Wests Tigers came from 12-6 down at half time to win 21-12.

Ryan started the 2012 season by scoring 4 tries in his first 3 games. Later in the season he played games in the centres and at fullback (two after late withdrawals by Tim Moltzen), and it was said, "many good judges rate him the most improved player in the game." He was one of the few players to play in all 24 games for the club in 2012, scoring 9 tries. He made 310 runs during the year, among the NRLs top twenty performers, and was named in the Prime Minister's XIII at the end of the regular season.

Having previously announced a contract extension on The Footy Show, Ryan later signed a three-year contract with the Cronulla Sharks. Ryan said, "I agreed to a three year deal but never received any formal documentation...I never got the opportunity to sign anything."

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks

Ryan started playing for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the 2013 NRL season, during which the club was being investigated by ASADA. In the finals for this season, he scored a controversial 7th tackle try against the North Queensland Cowboys. This try would soon decide the match and retrospectively, knocked the Cowboys out of the competition.

On 5 June 2014, Ryan announced his immediate retirement from rugby league on The NRL Footy Show, due to an ongoing neck injury.

Television career

From 2009, Ryan began making regular "comedic" appearances on The Footy Show, and in 2010 started his own "comedy" segment, "Beau Knows...". He has also created two popular characters; DJ Yallah, a Lebanese-Australian DJ from Bankstown and Donnie Palmer, a Titans trainer who is obsessed with doing stretches.

Former coach Tim Sheens said of Ryan's television appearances, "Some players play golf on their day off. He goes and has some fun doing some television. At the moment, TV is his interest and good luck to him as long as it doesn't overtake his football." Ryan continued on The Footy Show, with a larger role in 2012.

During the 2013 Footy Show, Ryan has a new segment called "Footy Show Multi-Channel network" which 'interrupts' the show. The segment shows Ryan sending up various players or celebrities including Sonny Bill Williams (SBW TV), Cronulla team mate Paul Gallen (PG TV), Former South Sydney player Sam Burgess (SB TV, which often involves Ryan also doing a parody of singer Susan Boyle), the former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd (KRUDD TV), as well as a parody of his close friend and former Wests Tigers team mate Benji Marshall (B TV) and occasionally he appears as himself (BR TV, usually after Sonny Bill Williams says a comment about him).

2014–present: Where You From?

Ryan released his debut single titled "Where You From?" featuring Justice Crew on 19 September 2014. It was released through Sony Music Australia. It debuted at number 19 on the ARIA Singles Chart.

Personal life

Ryan and longtime partner, Kara Orrell announced to Woman's Day they were expecting their first child and engaged to be married in August 2012. The couple married on 14 October 2012, and Kara gave birth to their daughter Remi in January 2013.

Ryan has advertised products for Adidas, Tuffys underwear, Nena & Pasadena and Arnotts Shapes.

In September 2015, it was rumoured that Ryan had cheated on his wife with former Hi-5 member Lauren Brant. It has been alleged the two engaged in sexual encounters on two occasions during their time performing in the production of Aladdin and his Wondrous Lamp. Reports suggested Ryan had stood down from his role on The Footy Show due to the matter but those reports were later found false.