Life for actress Gabrielle Ryan couldn’t be better these days but there’s a price tag: not being able to visit her Saint Lucian grandmother as often as she once did, for one thing. (Photo by: Anthony Chatmon.)
Gabrielle Ryan loves that her family’s roots are right here in Saint Lucia. This fact affords her the opportunity, unlike most British students, to escape to the island’s golden sunlight every summer. “Who doesn’t want to come to Saint Lucia? It’s like paradise. I just love everything Saint Lucian and that’s it!” That’s what Gabrielle told the STAR on her latest visit, to see her grandmother. “She is the most sprightly person with the best spirit and you’ll always find her wanting to party and with a strong drink,” Gabrielle laughed.
There was a time when Gabrielle visited annually but she’s far too busy these days to manage that. Her latest visit was her first in two years. Since she last featured in our sister publication, SHE Caribbean, about three years ago, she’s had nothing but good luck. For one, there’s Bonding, produced by Anonymous Content, famous for such shows as 13 Reasons Why. Gabrielle is one of the main actors in Bonding, due for release on Netflix next year, and in which she plays the role of Portia.
“I actually auditioned for the lead role and when they called me back I was told, ‘I just saw you as the role of Portia.’ I guess they were happy with what they saw.” Gabrielle could not share much about the show before its release but she said: “This show, it was so much fun, it was amazing. As for the show advancing my career, it’s definitely been one of the funnest roles I’ve got to play so far. They’ve described it as a drama; its very clever writing.” Bonding was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Soon after Netflix announced plans to pick it up. “I’ve always joked that I want to be on Netflix,” said Gabrielle, “so that all my friends and family can see it. It’s the only platform where everyone can see it.”
She had more good news: “I also am joining the cast of the Tyler Perry show, The Have and Have Nots, but I’m not allowed to talk about it yet. I can say I’m going to be in the next season, which is amazing. It airs on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Tyler Perry directed me, which was great because he’s such a force.” Gabrielle’s acting career is also expanding into movies. She will be appearing in an August-September movie release, Faraway Eyes, starring Christina Ricci.
Since her last visit to Saint Lucia, Gabrielle has put in hundreds of hours travelling back and forth between Europe and the United States, attending scores of auditions and rehearsing thousands of lines to advance her full-time acting career. But although she describes her passion for acting as reminiscent of an “abusive relationship”, she would not change a thing.
Obviously happy beyond words, she said: “I think that there is nothing more fun than being able to dress up and play characters and be people that maybe you wouldn’t ever have the guts to be in real life, and to do illegal things legally. To just be somebody else is amazing and fun.”–
