Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski (born May 3, 1968), known professionally as Amy Ryan, is an American actress. She began her professional stage career in 1987 and made her Broadway debut in 1993 as a replacement in the original production of Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performances in Uncle Vanya (2000) and A Streetcar Named Desire (2005), and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Doubt: A Parable (2024).
For her breakthrough film role as a troubled single mother in the thriller Gone Baby Gone (2007), Ryan was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other films include You Can Count on Me (2000), Capote (2005), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), Changeling (2008), Birdman (2014), Bridge of Spies (2015), The Infiltrator (2016), Beautiful Boy (2018), and Beau Is Afraid (2023).
On television, she played Beadie Russell in the HBO crime series The Wire (2002–2008) and Holly Flax in the NBC sitcom The Office (2008–2011), and has also featured in the HBO drama series In Treatment (2010), the Hulu mystery comedy series Only Murders in the Building (2021–2024), and the Apple TV+ neo-noir mystery series Sugar (2024).
Early life Ryan was born Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski in Flushing, Queens, in New York City, the daughter of Pamela (née Ryan), a nurse, and John Dziewiontkowski, a trucking business owner. She is of Polish, Irish, and English descent. Growing up in the 1970s, Ryan and her sister Laura delivered the Daily News by bike. At a young age, Ryan attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Center in upstate New York. At 17, she graduated from New York's High School of Performing Arts. Hired for the national tour of Biloxi Blues right out of high school, Ryan worked steadily off-Broadway for the next decade. She chose her mother's maiden name as her stage name.
Career 1987–2005: Broadway debut and early roles Ryan made her off-Broadway debut in the Westside Theatre's 1987 production of A Shayna Maidel, playing the role of Hanna. The following year she was seen in the Second Stage Theatre Company's revival of The Rimers of Eldritch.Review/Theater; Brooding Look at Dismal Lives in Wilson Revival, NY Times Additional off-Broadway credits include As Bees In Honey Drown, Crimes of the Heart and Saved.As Bees in Honey Drown. (Lucille Lortel Theater, New York), Variety July 28, 1997.Crimes of the Heart, CurtainUp She also worked in regional theater, where she originated roles in new plays by Neil LaBute, Arthur Miller and Neil Simon. On Broadway she has appeared as Tess in The Sisters Rosensweig, Natasha in the 1997 revival of The Three Sisters, and Peggy in the 2001–2002 revival of The Women.
Following a brief stint playing a runaway on As the World Turns, Ryan was cast in television series such as I'll Fly Away, After roles on ER and Chicago Hope, Ryan became a series regular on The Naked Truth as Téa Leoni's spoiled stepdaughter.Tucker, Ken (November 3, 1995). "The Naked Truth" . Entertainment Weekly.Amy Ryan In 1993, she made her first appearance on NBC's Law & Order, appearing in several episodes over the years.
Ryan was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play twice: in 2000, for her portrayal of Sonya Alexandrovna in Uncle Vanya, and in 2005, for her performance as Stella Kowalski opposite John C. Reilly in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Because of the deletion of the scene where she played Eric Stoltz's wife in Allison Anders's Grace of My Heart, Ryan made her 1999 film debut in Roberta. She then briefly appeared in You Can Count on Me, which starred Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, and the mystery/thriller Keane. By 2001, director Sidney Lumet cast her in 100 Centre Street playing three different roles (Ellen, Paris and Rebecca).Spotlight on Amy Ryan , Comingsoon.net From 2003 to 2008 Ryan went on to feature prominently in HBO's crime drama series The Wire, playing Port Authority Officer Beadie Russell. two.one.five magazineActress Amy Ryan keeps things interesting, taking parts on stage, on screen and on TV , Monterey Herald Albert Brooks chose her to play his wife in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World in 2005, and 2007 brought both Dan in Real Life and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Her role as a star-struck sheriff's wife in Capote earned her positive reviews, but it was playing a hardened welfare mom in Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone that finally brought her national attention.
2006–2017: Breakthrough and acclaim
After being voted Best Supporting Actress for Gone Baby Gone by the National Board of Review, as well as the critics circles in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., Ryan's performance was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award,Amy Ryan, Screen Actors Guild Award nominee and an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting role at the 80th Academy Awards.
Ryan appeared in Changeling (2008), directed by Clint Eastwood, and opposite Matt Damon in Paul Greengrass's Green Zone (2010).Q&A – Amy Ryan on What Affleck, Eastwood, and the Green Zone Director Have in Common , FilmCritic.com In September 2010, she completed filming a role in Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial film debut, Jack Goes Boating, taking over the role of Connie originally played by Beth Cole in the stage version. Ryan received strong notices for her performance in Tom McCarthy's Win Win the next year, winning Best Supporting Actress awards from multiple regional critics groups. She appeared in a six-episode arc on The Office as dorky HR rep Holly Flax. She reprised her role on The Office in seasons 5 and 7.Amy Ryan Returning to The Office, TVGuide.com Ryan joined the cast of HBO's In Treatment for its third season in 2010, playing the therapist of Dr. Paul Weston.
Ryan was a part of the core ensemble of the 2014 Best Picture Academy Award winning film Birdman, sharing in the cast's Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture victory. In 2015, she starred as Mary Donovan opposite Tom Hanks in the film Bridge of Spies, and reunited with her In Treatment co-star Gabriel Byrne in Louder Than Bombs, the English-language debut of Joachim Trier. Early the next year, Ryan was cast as Tracy, her first on-screen leading role, in Abundant Acreage Available, a rural family drama from Junebug screenwriter Angus MacLachlan. Upon the film's premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, Ryan drew universal acclaim for her performance, with The Wrap noting that she "holds the screen no matter what she's doing and who she's with" and Flavorwire raving that Ryan "sounds notes that are quietly dazzling in their complexity." Variety chief film critic Peter Debruge dubbed the performance a career highlight:
It's a pleasure to see such a fine actress navigate the nuances of her role ... Only on the big screen are we able to fully appreciate the minutely detailed nature of Ryan's performance, revealing Tracy's soul via the slightest narrowing of the eyes or the almost-subliminal tensing of her cheekbones. As we know, Junebug earned Amy Adams an Oscar nomination, and if the world were fair, this role would bring another Amy similar attention.
Ryan received some of the best reviews of her career for her leading role in the Roundabout Theater Company's 2016 production of Love, Love, Love. Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised her "smashing comic performance," The Hollywood Reporter called her work "emotionally vital," and The Associated Press raved that "Ryan is absolutely magnetic ... nailing her charming, unpredictable character with perfect comedic timing." In an article exploring various famous actresses working on the stage, The Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks highlighted Ryan's work in the play:
The revelation is not that Amy Ryan is good. It's that she's this good ... Ryan, whose range has been apparent for years, in dramatic performances nominated for Tonys (Uncle Vanya) and Oscars (Gone Baby Gone), as well as in nuanced comic turns on television shows like The Office, manages a feat in Love, Love, Love that she's never accomplished so fluidly before: taking charge. She delivers a front-and-center performance of such beguiling dynamism (in a thoroughly convincing English accent) that you feel this Roundabout Theatre Company production has done for her precisely what was intended. It exposes a new facet of her talent — and leaves us with that uplifting itch, to be there the next time she's on a stage.
For her performance in Love, Love, Love, Ryan won the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress, and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play and the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance.
2018–present
In 2018, Ryan co-starred in Beautiful Boy for Amazon Studios, a dark family drama, with her The Office co-star Steve Carell, and Timothée Chalamet. She was then among the ensemble cast of 2019's Late Night, the Mindy Kaling-penned comedy about a female late-night talk show host (Emma Thompson); and Strange but True, a noir-thriller based on the novel by John Searles. In 2020, Ryan starred as Mari Gilbert, a real life woman searching for her missing daughter, in Netflix's mystery thriller Lost Girls.
In 2021, Amy Ryan played Jan Bellows, a main role, in the first season of Hulu series Only Murders in the Building co-starring with Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. In 2023 she appeared in Ari Aster's A24 black comedy psychological horror film Beau Is Afraid starring Joaquin Phoenix. In the film she played Grace, who, alongside Nathan Lane's Roger, takes Beau in for a brief period of time.
Personal life Ryan married Eric Slovin in 2011. They have one daughter born in October 2009.
Acting credits Film Year Title Role Notes 1999 Roberta Judy 2000 You Can Count on Me Rachel Louise Prescott A Pork Chop for Larry Beth Short film 2004 Keane Lynn Bedik 2005 War of the Worlds Neighbor with Toddler Capote Marie Dewey Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World Emily Brooks 2006 Marvelous Queenie 2007 Gone Baby Gone Helene McCready Neal Cassady Carolyn Cassady Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Martha Hanson Dan in Real Life Eileen Burns 2008 Changeling Carol Dexter2009 The Missing Person Miss Charley Also executive producer Bob Funk Ms. Wright 2010 Jack Goes Boating Connie Green Zone Lawrie Dayne 2011 Win Win Jackie Flaherty 2013 Breathe In Megan Reynolds Escape Plan Abigail Ross Devil's Knot Margaret Lax 2014 Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Sylvia 2015 Don Verdean Carol Louder Than Bombs Hannah Goosebumps Gale Cooper Bridge of Spies Mary McKenna Donovan 2016 Central Intelligence Agent Pamela Harris The Infiltrator Bonni Tischler Monster Trucks Cindy Coley 2017 Abundant Acreage Available Tracy Ledbetter 2018 Beautiful Boy Vicki Sheff 2019 Late Night Caroline Morton Strange but True Charlene Chase 2020 Worth Camille Biros Lost Girls Mari Gilbert 2023 Beau Is AfraidGrace 2024 WolfsMargaret / Pam 2026 A Statement Annemarie Crocetti Completed
Television