Spartan Profiles: Ryan Devlin
Television viewers have noticed an actor who is playing major characters in two ABC shows. In the sitcom Cougar Town, he plays Smith, a young lawyer who gets involved with actress Busy Philipps. In the drama Brothers and Sisters, he plays a law student who catches the eye of a professor portrayed by Calista Flockhart. Previously, he played the husband of Mandy Moore in Grey’s Anatomy.
This rising star is Ryan Devlin, ’03. “It pays the bills doing what I love,” says Devlin. “I've always loved acting and did theater productions since I was 10 years old.” At MSU Ryan majored in business because, as he puts it, “a degree from MSU in hospitality business—the top HB school in the nation—is a great safety net.”
A Lansing native who grew up in Grand Rapids, Ryan says his college choice was easy. “I was born with green and white blood,” he notes. “I chose MSU because the great mix of academics, beautiful campus and great parties!”
At MSU, he was very active with MSU Telecasters, where he did grunt work like running the camera and hanging the lights to learn about the business. “It was also just a ton of fun to pull together student TV shows with little time and resources,” Ryan says, adding “Fortunately not too many people were watching.”
Ryan also worked as an R.A. in Akers Hall. He was a member of the Izzone and had a prime seat when MSU won the 2000 NCAA championship in Indianapolis. “What shaped me the most at MSU was the Spartan Spirit,” he says. “In my freshman year I was in the Brody complex and made some incredible friends who I still stay in touch with. You make your own community. We moved to a house on Beal Street—it was like Animal House with triple secret probation.” Ryan promptly adds that his house also emphasized academics.
