Screenwriter Ryan O’Connell was a social media star before ‘influencer’ became a thing. His wry texts attracting followers by the thousands. Meanwhile he was also writing scripts and was urged by a friend to shop them around to producers. He had one about a gay boy being called queer and ugly in school because of his spastic body due to his Cerebral Palsy (CP) which in his words range “from mild to wild” he says.
He put up with the bullying and If success is the best revenge, as F. Scott wrote, by his early 20s, Ryan was riding a successful career as a novelist, playwright, screenwriter on hit queer TV shows ‘Will and Grace’ and Showtime’s ‘Queer as Folk’ reboot.
But at 25 his career was put on hold after he was hit by a car and hospitalized with sustained injuries and sidelined for months. When he recovered he had written a pilot for a show called ‘Special’ a series about a character with CP and Netflix picked it up, but wanted him to play the part, but he didn’t think he could pull off a fictional version of himself. Until he did. He was natural in front of the camera and ‘Special’ enjoyed a 2 season hit run.
He tells it all in his latest book ‘Inspiration Porn’ an essay collection that chronicles his life, his career and his uninhibited reflections of gay love, affection and gymnastic sex, lots of sex.
Indeed, his iron will and un-censorable humor hurtles over any obstacles knock he has faced in every arena, private and public, and he lets it all hang out (sorry) in the writing. One of his ongoing missions is not defining or explaining his CP and reminding people that any preconceived notions his limitations because of said CP is in the mind of the beholder, not his.
O’Connell is a gifted comic writer, satirist, and GLBTQueer polemicist in the essay- ‘Body of Work’ Millennilol’ ‘Are Straight People Okay’ ‘P-Town.’ Et al. And then there is ‘The Slut Diary’ his unblushing chronicle of hook-ups du jour reminiscent of John Rechy’s classics from the 60s.
“O’Connell’s energy of the hunt for sexual encounters anytime on any coast, in any setting, is spirited, farcical, satiric and a panoramic travelogue of a queer sex guru reminiscent of legendary hustler John Rechy’s novels ‘City of Night’ and ‘Sexual Outlaw’ of the e 60s By his early 30s, O’Connell met his husband, fellow author Jonathan Parks-Ramage (whose book ‘It’s Not the End of the World’ is a post scathing satire set in 2040 after ….well you can guess) anyway, the couple have an open relationship that has sustained for several years now with just a few kinks (emotional) to work out
. Now in the age of book banning over anything GLBTQ, O’Connell fearlessly takes it to the bawdy limit without pulling any punches- from his heartbreaking breakups with boyfriends to ‘you are there’ descriptors of his on and off screen sex-scene some moments in luridly forensic close-ups, some obsessively emotional, but Ryan always, however porny for effect, writes with humor, heart and mighty realness.
