Ryan Lee
Super 8 opens every conversation about Ryan Lee, and fairly: he was one of a group of kids asked to carry a large summer studio film without a single established star among them, and the film worked.
The years immediately after put him in studio comedies, which is what happens to a young actor with a distinctive face and good timing. This Is 40, A Merry Friggin' Christmas, Goosebumps as Champ, and a run on the sitcom Trophy Wife as Warren. Wikipedia describes him as American-British and lists a go90 series and a David Guetta music video that are not among the credits here.
What came next is the more interesting part. Rather than chase the same lane, the later credits are smaller and odder: the drama All Summers End, the high-school comedy Speech & Debate, the anthology series Dimension 404, a role on the period drama The Son, an appearance on Brockmire, and the 2021 horror comedy Black Friday. That is the transition every child performer has to negotiate, and the shape of it here, indies and genre rather than a holding pattern waiting for a franchise, suggests someone making the choice deliberately.
Movies (10)
TV (4)
Where to start with Ryan Lee
Super 8 first, and not out of obligation. The film is built on its child ensemble and holds up much better than most of what it was compared to at the time.
Goosebumps is the broadest, most kid-facing use of him and perfectly good on that level. This Is 40 shows him in a much sharper adult comedy where the tone is doing something quite different.
Trophy Wife is the sitcom worth rescuing: it was cancelled early and was funnier than its ratings suggested.
For the grown-up work, Speech & Debate and All Summers End are the two to seek out, both small and both giving him more to do than the studio films ever did. Black Friday is the late-night genre option.