Ryan Eggold was born on August 10, 1984 in Lakewood, California. His father is of German descent and his mother is of half Croatian and half Austrian-Jewish ancestry. Ryan is maternal grandmother was born in Vienna. Eggold attended Santa Margarita Catholic High School, where he participated in many school plays and graduated in 2002. He went on to study at USC is esteemed theatre department, graduating in 2006, then landed several recurring television roles on CBS, HBO, Cartoon Network, ABC, The CW, and FX right out of college. He made his professional television debut on Related and his professional film debut on Con: The Corruption of Helm in 2006.