Ryan James Eggold was born on August 10, 1984 in the Southern California city of Lakewood and attended Santa Margarita Catholic High School there, where he participated in many school plays and graduated in 2002. He was subsequently accepted into the University of Southern California's School of Dramatic Arts and granted a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2006. His professional television debut came only months later on The WB's series "Related." Other television credits include FX's "Dirt" (2007) with Courteney Cox and a starring role as Tom Keen in the spin-off series "The Blacklist: Redemption." A feature-length film debut followed in 2011 with the release of "Sironia." Eggold wrote, directed, produced and scored the film "Literally Right Before Aaron," which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and was based on his 2011 short of the same name that follows a young man who attends the wedding of his ex-girlfriend. He would go on to play a supporting role in Spike Lee's "BlacKKKlansman." On stage, Eggold starred in a revival of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," opposite Alec Baldwin and Laurie Metcalf, at the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton, N.Y.