Ryan Trecartin (born 1981) is an American artist and filmmaker currently based in Athens, Ohio. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA in 2004. Trecartin has since lived and worked in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Miami. His creative partner and long-term collaborator is Lizzie Fitch, an artist with whom he has been working since 2000.

In 2006, the Wall Street Journal included Trecartin in a selection of ten top emerging US artists including Dash Snow, Rosson Crow, Zane Lewis, and Keegan McHargue. Frieze named his 2007 film I-Be Area, No.17 on their list of "The 25 Best Works of the 21st Century". In 2009, Trecartin was the recipient of the inaugural Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts, the world's largest juried individual fine art prize, awarded by Tyler School of Art; he received the New Artist of the Year Award at The First Annual Art Awards hosted by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and he was awarded a 2009 Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

His work is featured in the Saatchi Gallery collection and has appeared in many museum exhibitions including The Generational: Younger Than Jesus at The New Museum in New York City, Queer Voice at the ICA in Philadelphia, Between Two Deaths at the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, and the 2006 Whitney Biennial, as well as in recent solo exhibitions at The Power Plant in Toronto, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, among others.

Ryan Trecartin was born in Webster, Texas, and spent most of his childhood in Ohio. His mother was a homemaker and then a teacher, and his dad was a steelworker. Although he was not exposed to the world of high art until college, Trecartin was interested in performance from a young age. In high school, he would build sets and costumes, write music, and dance and act with his friends.

After graduating from high school, Trecartin "decided to apply to art school because it seemed like a place where people can have creative freedom and easily move between different mediums and cultural discussions." In 2000, Trecartin enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design, where he met Lizzie Fitch, who would become his longtime collaborator and creative partner. Trecartin graduated in 2004 with a BFA. Fitch appears in many of Trecartin's early videos, such as Wayne's World (2003).

Trecartin's first major work, A Family Finds Entertainment, was finished his senior year of college and first screened at the college's auditorium. The video was posted on his Friendster page and DVD copies were sold. Although there are several versions of this story, one of the DVDs made it to artist Sue de Beer's hands who then showed it to New Museum curator Rachel Greene. In 2006, Trecartin was the youngest artist to present at the Whitney Biennial. The film stars Laura Colella, Patrick Thompson, Lizzie Fitch, Lindsey Beebe, and others.

Trecartin's second major work, and his first feature-length film, I-Be Area, starring Trecartin himself, frequent collaborator and friend Lizzie Fitch, along with Mecca Vazie Andrews, Jasmine Albuquerque, Tara Brook, Samuel Adrian III, and more, was finished in 2007. Trecartin completed the film while obtaining his master's degree at RISD. Elizabeth Dee worked as well to co-produce eight films with Trecartin, including I-Be Area.

The work debuted in 2007 at Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York City. The film was also displayed in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum collection. It was greeted with a "joyous critical consensus rarely seen in the art world."