RYAN SHELTON
BIOGRAPHY
Comedian / Writer / Producer
Ryan Shelton is a comedy writer, performer, producer and artist who began his career in 2003 on Melbourne’s Channel 31 with friends and now longtime collaborators Hamish Blake, Andy Lee and Tim Bartley. Together, as co-directors of production company Radio Karate, they have produced several award-winning TV shows including Real Stories and the Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year series.
The Radio Karate team also created True Story with Hamish & Andy. True Story has since been remade in several territories including France, Germany, Finland, Spain and on Peacock in the USA, all of which involved Ryan’s close creative consultation.
In 2005 Ryan helped Chris Lilley write his debut mockumentary series, We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year. The series won the Logie for Most Outstanding Comedy series in 2006 and was nominated for 4 AFI Awards.
As a performer, Ryan first broke through on Rove Live as a regular cast member between 2007-2009 presenting segments including ‘Rydeas’, ‘Investigationing’ and ’Philosophisationing’. This is where he first developed his left-of-centre comedy style to a broad, primetime audience.
Following Rove Live, Ryan co-hosted national drive radio on Nova (2009-2010), popped up on shows like Spicks & Specks, The Cheap Seats, Crime Night! and Thank God You’re Here, acted in It’s a Date, The Wrong Girl, Spreadsheet and Metro Sexual.
Since 2025, Ryan and comedian Matt Okine have starred in Toyota’s rebooted Legendary Moments campaign, with Australian sporting royalty including Glenn McGrath and Eddie Betts.
In 2015, Ryan created, wrote and starred in How to Life - his own series of online Comedy Blaps for Channel 4 in the UK and in 2020 he starred in the ABC’s Covid-inspired comedy At Home Alone Together, where he not only played himself, but his fictional twin brother, Jason Shelton.
Ryan made his mark on the big screen in 2024 in Peter Farrelly’s feature film, Ricky Stanicky, alongside John Cena, Zac Efron and William H Macy, before being asked back to appear in Farrelly’s 2026 film Ball’s Up, starring Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser.
After a chance meeting with co-founder of The Resilience Project, Hugh van Cuylenburg, the two became friends and in 2019, along with Hugh’s brother Josh van Cuylenburg, launched The Imperfects, a podcast providing tools to help listeners embrace vulnerability and accept their imperfections. The Imperfects consistently sits in the Top 10 Mental Health podcasts in Australia
Following the huge success of the podcast, in 2023, 2024 & 2025, Ryan, Hugh and Josh toured Australia to sold out audiences, with the stage version of The Imperfects.
In late 2025, Ryan added ‘artist’ to his CV when he opened his debut exhibition, All This Work, Just For This - a collection of paintings, sculptures and videos.
Ryan will round out 2026 showing off his acting chops in two highly anticipated comedies: Nazeem Hussain’s comedy series Separated at Birth and Ed Kavalee’s telemovie Cop This.