About Daniel Ryan
Daniel is a British stage and screen actor, recognisable from his many roles on some of the nation’s best-loved TV shows. He is known for playing the dedicated, down-to-earth Detective Inspector Tony Manning in all five series of ITV’s ‘The Bay’.
In 2025, he takes on the role of Gary Jenkins in Misper, a film about the lives of employees at a struggling seaside hotel that are turned upside down when a colleague mysteriously disappears. He also stars as Graham in the BBC3 dysfunctional family sitcom Such Brave Girls. Later this year, he will reprise his role as DI Manning in ITV1’s The Bay.
In 2024 he starred as one of the leads, factory-owner Derek Jackson, in ITV’s darkly comic 6-part crime thriller ‘Passenger’. The series sees a small town rocked by a series of inexplicable and strange crimes, including the disappearance of a young local girl who works in Derek’s factory.
In 2022 he starred alongside Keeley Hawes in the 3-part BBC drama ‘Crossfire’ as Ben, one of a group of holiday-makers in a luxury resort when a pair of gunmen open fire on the guests. He finds himself in charge of his friends’ children when he is separated from the rest of the group. Also in 2022 he starred in ITVX’s four-part drama series ‘Litvinenko’ which told the true story of doomed Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko and the complex and dangerous Met Police investigation that followed his death. Daniel played Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commissioner for the Met Police. The series also starred David Tennant and Mark Bonnar.

Daniel Ryan in Litvinenko
He had an ensemble role in the 2022 BBC drama ‘Four Lives’, which tells the true story of the Barking Murders. He plays the role of Adam Whitworth, the father of one of the victims. The crime drama series also starred Sheridan Smith and Stephen Merchant.
Also in 2022, he played the lead part of Gary in ‘Middle’, a new play at The National Theatre by David Eldridge, which explored 21st-century relationships about a couple reaching a crossroads in their marriage.
He had a starring role in the Channel 5 mini-series ‘Cold Call‘ and, since 2011, has starred in all 6 series and the one-off finale of Sky’s ‘Mount Pleasant’ playing the male lead Dan Johnson. He also starred in series one of ITV’s 2018 crime drama series ‘Innocent’ alongside Lee Ingleby and Hermione Norris.

Daniel Ryan in Mount Pleasant
Daniel has also appeared in the BBC’s ‘Death in Paradise’, ITV’s ‘Vera’ & ‘Doc Martin’ and the RTS-nominated ITV period drama series ‘Home Fires’ about a group of women from the W.I. during the Second World War, inspired by the book ‘Jambusters’. He also starred as Wiliam’s dad ‘Mr Brown’ in the 2010 BBC adaptation of ‘Just William’ alongside Caroline Quentin and Lily James.
In 2006 he starred in the powerful BAFTA-winning TV movie ‘The Government Inspector’, which dramatised the story of the Iraq dossier row and the death of government advisor Dr David Kelly. The film won three BAFTAs, including ‘Best Single Drama’ and an RTS Award.
In 2011 he had a part in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Stranger Tides’, and in 2014 he had a role in the submarine disaster movie ‘Black Sea’ which starred Jude Law and David Threlfall.

Daniel Ryan and Claire Rushbrook in Middle.
On stage, he has appeared in a number of productions, including ‘Gethsemane’ at the National Theatre, ‘The Mouse and His Child’ for the RSC, ‘Inadmissible Evidence’ at the Donmar Warehouse and ‘Posh’ at The Royal Court Theatre. He also played the role of ‘Lingk’ in the 2017 West End revival of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’. The play ran for 14 weeks at the Playhouse Theatre and starred Christian Slater and Robert Glenister.
Daniel’s native Northern accent is from Warrington in Cheshire, which is equidistant from both Manchester and Liverpool and so both accents come naturally. He can do an excellent Yorkshire accent too.