For Ryan's aliases, click here.
Description
Ryan Bergara is one of the two main co-hosts for BuzzFeed Unsolved along with Shane Madej. He believes in ghosts and other paranormal forces strongly, and fans that believe as well are called Boogaras.
Life
Ryan was born to Steve Bergara, who is a dentist, and Linda Bergara, in Los Angeles, California.
As a child, Ryan once fell into a pile of bricks and hit his head. He and some others were playing hide and seek, and he climbed into a tree and fell.
Ryan sometimes "felt like something was watching [him] in the dark when [he] was little."
As the product of watching Inspector Gadget as a child, Ryan had recurring nightmares of "an evil version of [his] dad looking in through [his] window," a parody of the character Inspector Gadget and the "evil" Inspector Gadget.
In first grade, likely around seven years old, Ryan created several issues of a comic he entitled "Sausage Man."
Ryan described himself as a "little bit of a freaky kid," as he often frequented a Houdini's Magic Shop when young.
At around twelve or thirteen, Ryan was playing with Airsoft guns with some other neighborhood kids. Their dad was hosing down their porch, which happened to have a bench press, and as Ryan ran across the porch, he slipped. He hit the pole of the bench press, which forced the Airsoft mask to cut into his face, causing "an enormous scab and scar for all of seventh grade." Ryan still has some scars today.
Ryan attended Arcadia High School and took Advanced Film Productions, which he made many videos for, including the rap video "Just Another Day," and published them on his YouTube.
At some point in high school, during class, a rat fell from the ceiling, hitting a classmate's desk. The teacher then pushed another student out of the way, declaring that it was "every man for himself."
At sixteen, Ryan applied for an apprenticeship at Warner Brothers, which he did not receive. In 2008, Ryan graduated from Arcadia High School.
There was a set of abandoned train tracks near Ryan's hometown (assumed to be Arcadia), where people "would sometimes hang out." Ryan had previously visited these train tracks, describing the people as "interesting characters."
On September 5, 2009, Ryan stayed overnight at the Queen Mary with his friends Casey and Alvin, where he taunted the spirits to show themselves and shouted at them to hurt him, saying, "this whole ship [was] all bullshit." Throughout the night, he was repeatedly poked by an invisible force, and in the morning, his toothpaste fell off the counter by itself. Ryan then started to believe in ghosts.
Ryan also attended Chapman University and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Television and Broadcast Journalism. He famously created "I Love Finals Week" with Byron Martin during this time, posted on his Vimeo, and created a sequel years later titled "A Holiday Miracle" with Byron Martin and Shane Madej, posted on his YouTube.
Sometime in college, Ryan had a large stuffed Minion in his dorm, which he liked to sing to.
Ryan also may have had a roommate in college that he disliked, named Roland, who may have listened to loud music when Ryan attempted to study, and cooked Top Ramen in the microwave when Ryan tried to sleep.
In an interview, Ryan stated that "[He] went to film school for directing, and figured out [he] didn’t really like it that much. It just gave [him] a bunch of anxiety. And then [he] went into cinematography — [he] thought maybe [he] wanted to be a [Director of Photography]. That was fun for a little bit. So [he] did that toward the end of college." He graduated in 2013.
At an unknown point in time, Ryan had a neighbor with a lime tree that hung over his own property, and Ryan was legally allowed to pick limes from it.
In 2016, Ryan launched BuzzFeed Unsolved. He dated Helen Pan during this time.
Ryan has confirmed he has Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), which may flare up in paranormal investigations.
By late 2018, Ryan was dating Marielle Scott.
In January 2020, Ryan launched Watcher Entertainment, a new entertainment company, with Shane and Steven Lim, a colleague from BuzzFeed who had hosted the famous web-series Worth It.
On April 26, 2021, Ryan posted photos to his Instagram confirming that he was engaged to Marielle Scott.
In August 2022, Ryan married Marielle Scott.
Work Before BuzzFeed: Unsolved
Note: please assume all information in this section is provided by his since-deleted LinkedIn unless otherwise stated.
In 2009, Ryan founded Jamexi Productions, his own company.
Ryan worked at Sony Pictures Entertainment as a Digital Picture Editorial Intern from November 2010 to February 2011, and worked at Viacom as a Production Management Intern.
Ryan also cameo'd in NCIS: Los Angeles in the second episode of the fourth season, which aired October 2, 2012. His college roommate had won a contest to appear as a featured extra, but gave it to him.
He also interned and then later worked as an official videographer/editor at Whalerock Industries from January 2013 to January 2014.
Ryan recounted in an interview that after graduating in 2013, he "worked on sets doing lighting and grip work. [He] did that for about two years, figured out this was definitely not how [he] wanted to live [his] life either. And then after that, [Ryan] ... went to public access, did a lot of video production. [He] worked on filming professors from USC essentially giving PowerPoint presentations on like…IBS, and really fun things like that."
From March to August 2014, he worked as a camera operator, editor, and producer at Take One Productions until moving on to BuzzFeed.
In the interview from above, he continued that "And then, from there, [he] decided that [he] would take a chance on the internship at BuzzFeed. And also, at that point, [Ryan] was very close to joining the union for lighting and grips. So [he] was dabbling in a bunch of different things. But ultimately, [he] left all those avenues and decided to put all [his] eggs in the BuzzFeed basket.
So, [he] did the internship. [Ryan] met Shane there. [Ryan] made a bunch of weird taste test videos and, basically, content that they wanted [them] to make. And out of that, the idea of Unsolved came to [his] mind. It wasn’t exactly what BuzzFeed was doing, but it was something that [he] thought might be worthwhile, even though it was very much just a germ of an idea. So [he] made a pilot, it was like three minutes long. There was a good response to it, so [he] made another one, which [Ryan thinks] was like five minutes long. And then a seven-minute video after that, and that video exploded. And then BuzzFeed [was] like, 'Maybe this is what you should do.'"
Ryan worked as a Video Intern from August 2014 to January 2015, when he became a Video Fellow. Ryan's first video was the "Mother-Daughter Tequila Taste Test," released October 16, 2014. Maycie Timpone, current Executive Director of Video & Social Media at BuzzFeed, and her mother, were also featured in the video.
When Ryan came up with the idea, he "rounded up a bunch of moms around the office." The idea of familial drinking was "taboo" at the time, and Ryan thought that the video would prove to be very relatable. At the time, Ryan was still hoping to become a cinematographer, and used the video as a way to show off his skills with lighting.
He then became a Junior Video Producer in April 2015. At this time, he was "lighting, shooting, directing and editing" BuzzFeed content, as well as producing his own. Most notably, he appeared in BuzzFeed's Test Friends, which ran from June 2015 to July 2016.
Ryan refused to make "AFV videos," videos in which America's Funniest Home Videos would allow BuzzFeed to use their footage as part of a "compilation video," as he "[looked] down on them" and considered them the "lowest form of content."
The Birth of BuzzFeed: Unsolved
In a since-deleted interview from VidCon 2018 titled "Shane Reveals A SHOCKING Detail About One of Buzzfeed Unsolved's Cases," Ryan states that he and Brent Bennett would argue back and forth about unsolved cases during their commute to work, and eventually they decided to create BuzzFeed Unsolved.
In a Reddit Q&A, Ryan stated that the reason Brent eventually left the show was "As the show became bigger and more time consuming Brent didn't really have time to do it anymore since he's also a video producer that had other obligations. Plus, he truly was not a fan of investigating crime so he decided to step away."
Ryan then asked Shane to co-host with him. In an interview, he said that "It was very unceremonious. [They] were just friends, [they] had hosted a different show before called Test Friends — where we tested health and fitness trends — and [Ryan] needed a host, so [he] was just like, 'Hey, would you like to do this?' And [ Shane ] looked at his Google calendar, saw that there was some time open, and was like, 'Yeah, sure.' And then he locked it in."