Ryan Kwanten (born 28 November 1976) is an Australian actor.

Kwanten was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He began acting on the television shows A Country Practice and Spellbinder. In 1997, he joined the cast of the Australian soap opera Home and Away, playing lifeguard Vinnie Patterson. Kwanten starred on the show for several years, becoming a sex symbol. He eventually chose to leave the series in 2002, shortly after his character married and became a father.

Moving to the United States, Kwanten was cast as Jay Robertson in the Lori Loughlin-starring series Summerland, which ran from 2004 to 2005. He most recently appeared in the films Flicka, with Maria Bello, Alison Lohman and Tim McGraw, and Dead Silence, a horror movie in which he played the leading role. Kwanten has also been cast in True Blood as Jason Stackhouse, a television series based on Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries, also starring Anna Paquin and Sam Trammell.

Filmography

• Signal One (1994), Kid
• Spellbinder 2: Land of the Dragon Lord (1997), Josh Morgan
• Home and Away (1997-2002), Vinnie Patterson – TV series
• Liquid Bridge (2003), Nick McCallum
• Summerland (2004-2005), Jay Robertson – TV series
• America Brown (2005), Ricky Brown
• Flicka (2006), Howard McLaughlin
• Dead Silence (2007), Jamie Ashen
• Don’t Fade Away (2007), Jackson White
• True Blood (2008), Jason Stackhouse – TV series

Footnotes

1. ^ The Hollywood Reporter (2007-02-25). “Anna Paquin Learns True Blood”, MovieWeb. Retrieved on 2007-03-18.