RYAN BERNSTEN

Ryan Bernsten is an award-winning speaker, writer, theatre-maker, and creative. Ryan received his master's degree from the University of Oxford, where he graduated with honors and received a distinction for his narrative nonfiction account of his American travels, 50 States of Mind: A Journey to Rediscover American Democracy, which won a Readers' Favorite International Book Award for travel nonfiction. Onstage, ATLANTIC – a collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and his alma mater Northwestern University – won critical acclaim at Edinburgh Fringe and DREAM TICKET (Players Theatre, off-Broadway) won the NY Fringe Excellence Award and was recommended by The Huffington Post and TimeOut. Other credits include WE ARE BLOOD (Olathe Civic Theatre, Kansas City Public Theatre, Angels Theatre Company, ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition Finalist; Jewish Theatre Project Play Competition Semifinalist); BAD PRESS (Cherry Lane Theatre); THE NEW ORDER (Kansas City Horror Play Festival, Corkscrew Theatre Festival, Oxford University Dramatic Society Best Play for Voices); NOVEL (Kansas City Public Theatre, Charlotte Street Foundation). As an actor, Ryan has appeared as Toby Darling in the regional premiere of The Inheritance at Unicorn Theatre and Jim in The Glass Menagerie at Musical Theatre Heritage in Kansas City, as well as in educational theatre at Northwestern and Oxford. Ryan is a contributor for The Infatuation and has been published in The Kansas City Star, USA Today, The Fulcrum, and The Oxford Political Review, and worked with CONAN and The Onion. The companion podcast 50 States of Mind won the King’s Hall Grant and can be heard where podcasts are found. You may have seen him chatting with Helen Mirren as a Slytherin contestant on the quiz show HARRY POTTER: TOURNAMENT OF HOUSES hosted by Helen Mirren on MAX. Ryan has won Webby and Gold Telly Awards with The Trevor Project creative team where he oversees storytelling strategy to end suicide among LGBTQ young people.