Shane Ryan began making films at the age of only seven, after his father introduced him to video editing at the early age of five. He made action films in the hopes of being like and appearing in Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, but at the age of 14 decided to delve into dramas and movies about troubled kids. Ryan directed his own films simply as a means for being able to act and write. He initially never wanted to direct.

When Ryan was 19, he saw Tim Roth‘s The War Zone (1999) and the explicit and confrontational Rape Me (2000). After that, Ryan realized he could have an impact with film regarding things like rape, a subject which has haunted him since childhood. This caused Ryan to become a controversial figure in his hometown, when he began making violent films involving sexual abuse. Soon followed underground and indie appeal via the internet before Ryan debuted his first theatrical release in 2007. Academy Award nominated actress Lesley Ann Warren was so outraged by the promotional materials of Ryan‘s film displayed by the Laemmle Theatres that she successfully argued that Ryan‘s promotions be banned. Then in 2009 the mainstream news and Associated Press attacked Ryan for announcing plans to make a movie about Stockholm Syndrome, loosely inspired by the current real-life rescue of Jaycee Dugard, with Lia Marie Johnson set to star. Ryan dropped the project to make My Name Is ‘A’ by Anonymous (2012), a film about convicted killer Alyssa Bustamante, who Ryan felt was getting unfair treatment in the media as well. Ryan makes frequent posts via his Facebook page insisting on Bustamante‘s possible innocence.

Times changed in 2014 when director Albert Pyun (Cyborg 1989) cast Ryan in his first starring role (in a film other than his own) for The Interrogation of Cheryl Cooper (2014) which then landed Ryan a role in Gregory Hatanaka‘s Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance (2015) and the upcoming Interstellar Civil War: Shadows of the Empire (2017), now placing Ryan in the action category of actors who inspired him to make movies in the first place.