Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian and American actor, entrepreneur and film producer. Known for starring in comedic and superhero films, he was the world's second-highest-paid actor in 2020 and 2024. Reynolds has received numerous accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as nominations for two Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. His films as a leading actor have grossed $6.6 billion worldwide.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Reynolds began acting at the age of thirteen, taking on small roles in various television series. He had his first lead role in the teen soap opera Hillside (1991–1993) then played the lead role in the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl (1998–2001). Reynolds later starred in a range of films, including the commercially successful romantic comedies National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002), Waiting... (2005), and The Proposal (2009), the critically unsuccessful superhero films Blade: Trinity (2004), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and Green Lantern (2011), and the biographical drama Woman in Gold (2015).

Reynolds achieved his greatest commercial success with the Deadpool franchise, starring as the titular character in Deadpool (2016), Deadpool 2 (2018), and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). His performance in the first received a Golden Globe nomination, while the lattermost emerged as his highest-grossing release. He has since appeared in the sci-fi horror Life (2017), and action films like 6 Underground (2019), Free Guy (2021), and The Adam Project (2022). Reynolds has also lent his voice to animated films, including The Croods franchise (2013–2020), Turbo (2013), and the animated character Pikachu in Detective Pikachu (2019).

In 2017, Time included Reynolds in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was named People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2010, and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017. A businessman, he holds an ownership stake in Mint Mobile and is a co-owner of Welsh soccer club Wrexham; the latter is documented in the Emmy Award-winning television series Welcome to Wrexham (2022–present). Divorced from actress Scarlett Johansson, Reynolds has been married to Blake Lively since 2012; he has four children with the latter.

Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on October 23, 1976. His father, James Chester Reynolds, served as a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman before retiring and transitioning to work as a foods wholesaler. His mother, Tamara Lee (née Stewart), worked in retail sales. Reynolds has three older brothers and has described himself not as a younger brother to them, but a "moving target" due to his brothers often getting physical, and him being unable to retaliate. He has also shared that his brothers "protected him" from their father, with whom he had a complex and somewhat estranged relationship. Reynolds's paternal grandfather, Chester, was a farmer who represented Stettler in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1940 to 1944. Reynolds is of Irish descent and was raised Catholic in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood as well as in Vanier, Ontario (now part of Ottawa).

Reynolds has been involved in acting since the age of thirteen. As a teenager, he attended acting classes—which he failed—and briefly held a day job as a busboy at a restaurant, while also working night shifts at a local grocery store in Vancouver. He described his co-workers in the latter as "the funniest people on Earth" and called them "some of my biggest impressions [...] as a performer". Reynolds attended Prince of Wales Secondary School for grades nine and ten before getting expelled for stealing a teacher's car. He attended grades eleven and twelve at Kitsilano Secondary School alongside actor Joshua Jackson, graduating in 1994. Reynolds initially took on minor roles in various television series but became discouraged and left acting at nineteen to enroll at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. A few months later, he encountered fellow actor Chris William Martin, who encouraged him to give acting another chance and relocate with him to Los Angeles.

Reynolds began his career in 1991 in the Canadian teen soap opera Hillside (1991–1993), which was distributed in the United States by Nickelodeon under the title Fifteen. He portrayed Billy Simpson—a character who turned to bullying to cope with family issues and romantic rejections. He made his feature film debut in the coming-of-age drama Ordinary Magic (1993) by playing Jeffrey, an orphan raised in India, who is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi to go on a hunger strike in a small town in Canada. Directed by Giles Walker, the film generally received both mixed and disappointing reviews; Variety's Paul Lenti thought that the script's "overall facile characterizations and predictable plot development detract from real tension". Between 1993 and 1994, Reynolds took on the dual roles of Macro and Lee in the children's half-hour television series The Odyssey.

In 1995, Reynolds made his first The Outer Limits appearance in "If These Walls Could Talk". In 1996, Reynolds made cameo appearances in television shows The X-Files and The John Larroquette Show, playing in the episodes "Syzygy" and "Napping to Success", respectively. That year, he co-starred with Melissa Joan Hart on the television film Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996)—based on the comic book series of the same name—in which he played the titular character's love interest, Seth. Reynolds portrayed Bobby Rupp, the boyfriend of murdered teenager Nancy Clutter, in the two-part miniseries In Cold Blood (1996), an adaptation of Truman Capote's 1966 nonfiction novel of the same name. He returned to feature films with the dark comedy The Alarmist (1997), portraying Howard, the teenage son of Gale (Kate Capshaw). After both are harmed at their home, Tommy (David Arquette) begins to suspect Heinrich's (Stanley Tucci) involvement. The film received mainly negative reviews from critics. Reynolds appeared twice more in The Outer Limits, playing the character Paul Nodel in episodes from 1997 and 1998.