In Conversation With... Ryan Reynolds

Creator, producer, writer, actor, entrepreneur, and co-owner of one of the oldest football clubs in the world, Ryan Reynolds is a creative force in Hollywood and beyond. Recently named an Officer of the Order of Canada, Vancouver-born Reynolds is proudly Canadian with a healthy dash of global ambition. His journey as an actor started with recurring roles in the YTV teen series Fifteen (also known as Hillside, 1991) and the CBC series The Odyssey (1993), but his breakthrough came in the hit sitcom Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place (1998–2001), which cemented Reynolds’ status as a lead actor with an exceptional combination of charm and wit. While the hit thriller Buried (TIFF ’10) introduced audiences to a different side of Reynolds, it was the role of Marvel anti-hero Deadpool (2016) that supercharged his career. A huge R-rated box office sensation, the subversive take on superhero mania centred on a foul-mouthed Canadian mercenary has spawned two sequels, a video game, and an onslaught of hilarious Deadpool video messages, many written or co-written by Reynolds himself. Over the past years, Reynolds has continually expanded his footprint in the entertainment industry, co-creating and producing the Emmy Award–winning series Welcome to Wrexham (2022–2025) and building a massive social media fan base drawn to his playful and approachable style. As we open this year’s Festival with John Candy: I Like Me, Reynolds joins us to discuss his work as a producer on the film, the influence of John Candy on his own career, and his work in front of and behind the camera at his company Maximum Effort.