Academy Award® nominee AMY RYAN (Carol Dexter) has made her mark working with some of today’s top directors

Academy Award® nominee AMY RYAN (Carol Dexter) has made her mark working with some of today’s top directors and talent in the industry. Between many high-profile stage projects and television roles such as HBO’s The Wire, Ryan is still just getting started.

Ryan hit the big screen in October 2007 in Miramax’s Gone Baby Gone. Directed by Ben Affleck, Ryan co-stars with Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris in a breakout performance as a Boston mother whose child is kidnapped. The film has received rave reviews, particularly for Ryan’s standout performance. Most notably, Ryan received Academy Award®, Golden Globe and SAG award nominations for her performance in the Best Supporting Actress categories. Additionally, she won Best Supporting Actress awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association (Critics’ Choice Awards), New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review and the Boston Society of Film Critics, Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association and San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards.

Ryan also appeared in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead with Ethan Hawke and directed by Sidney Lumet. Ryan was a part of Best Ensemble awards for this film from the Gotham Awards, New York Film Critics Online and the Boston Society of Film Critics, and she received a Best Supporting Actress award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The cast was also nominated for a Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics’ Choice Award.

Following these two acclaimed performances, Ryan recently completed filming Paul Greengrass’ adaptation of the novel “The Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” opposite Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as well as two independent films due out in 2008: Bob Funk, by writer/director Craig Carlisle and The Missing Person, by writer Noah Buschel.

Through her steady film career, Ryan has worked with some of today’s top directors in a number of extremely noted films such as Keane, directed by Lodge Kerrigan; Capote, by Bennet Miller; and War of the Worlds, directed by Steven Spielberg. She also appeared in Dan in Real Life with Steve Carell, directed by Peter Hedges.

In addition to her film credits, Ryan has been quite a success on the Broadway stage. In 2000, she was nominated for her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in the Broadway hit Uncle Vanya. A few years later, she astounded critics with a moving portrayal of the character Stella, and was nominated again for Best Featured Actress opposite John C. Reilly in A Streetcar Named Desire. She also starred in Neil LaBute’s play The Distance from Here in London’s West End.

Ryan’s television credits are extensive, with over 30 guest-star performances and over eight series-regular or recurring characters on primetime television shows.