Hannah Ellis Ryan

Coronation Street now has an Australian character played by an Australian actress.

The character's name is Hannah, AND the actress's name is Hannah.

The character is cruelly conning Liz McDonald (Beverly Callard)  into believing she's Liz's deceased daughter. Hopefully the real Australian Hannah isn't doing the same thing to someone.

Of course she's not.

But what if she was?

That would be pretty wild.

I've been trying to find out more about Hannah Ellis Ryan.

I found an article in a tabloid that gives a small bit of information.  Well, they say she graduated from the University of Southern Queensland with a degree in theatre. Then she moved to Manchester.

I wonder why she moved.

The article provides her Instagram account, and I decided I could learn more about this Hannah Ellis Ryan by stalking examining her account.

Oh!

I forgot.

You know what I was curious about.

I thought Ryan looked familar to me, and then I realized she sort of reminds me of that actress from Neighbours. I forgot the name of the actress AND the character she played.

Shit.

Who is she.

She was dating Daniel, into photography....

Amber! Played by Jenna Rosenow.

I was able to figure out Amber with my own brain, but then I needed to Google to find the actresses name.

Is she related to Ryan?

Probably not.

But if by chance she is, maybe I'll see evidence on her Instagram.

Anyway....

Now I'm going to start my fun.

I peered a bit before on my iPhone. I saw Ryan has a LOT of photos. In the beginning, there are mostly food photos. So maybe she started as a foodie account?

Okay. So here's her account. Seeing her profile photo....I'm thinking more and more that she looks quite like Rosenow.

I'm doing a lot of back-scrolling now.

It's taking some time.

While scrolling, I was thinking that this post seems so fun to me because it involves three of my favorite things—Australian actors, looking at photos, and Coronation Street.

I feel I might be scrolling forever.

Ryan is very prolific on Instagram.

I'm seeing she's probably Vegan.

Or she was at some point.

I wonder how many Corrie actors are vegan or vegetarian.

Okay!  I finally got to the beginning.

Ryan's first Instagram photo (unless she deleted some) is a picture of a sweet potato salad.  It was posted in June 6 2013, which is a few months after we got back from our most recent trip to Australia.  This was also a few weeks before my youngest nephew was born. And it was the day before my oldest niece's 12th birthday.

The salad looks okay to me.  I'm trying to remember if I've ever had sweet potato on a salad.

It reminds me a bit of the Aussie thing of having pumpkin on a salad.

Here's a photo of two men looking out a window. Ryan says, the cast is bored.

I'm guessing this was a theater cast. In Australia? Or Manchester?

Here's a photo of Ryan and a birthday girl that she misses. Maybe she's an old friend from Australia? Or I could be totally wrong. It could be a friend from Manchester that moved to Colorado. Or a friend she met at a camp in the US. Who knows....

Here's a photo of avocado toast. I didn't realize it was a thing back in 2013.  Though I remember hearing it maybe began in Australia. So it was probably a thing there back then. Or it could have been not-a-thing, but a few cool people were already doing it.

OR maybe it was already a thing all over the world, and I just took a long time to catch up.

This smoothie looks SO good to me. It's bananas, flax, dates, and cinnamon. That's much more exciting than my smoothies. I usually just have milk and some kind of frozen fruit.  Either way, though, now I'm crazing a smoothie. That being said, I was actually already planning to have a smoothie today. But now seeing Ryan's smoothie is giving me that extra push.

Here's a political cartoon of a cow being milked for money. It makes me feel kind of bad that I'll be making my smoothie with milk. Sorry.

Here's another smoothie. The bubbles look unappetizing to me.  I think it's because I have this fear of not rinsing our dishes well enough. When I see a lot of bubbles, I imagine it's soap.

I wonder if Hannah Ellis Ryan is going to make smoothies for her Corrie co-stars.

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Here's Hannah's vegan birthday cake. She posted in on December 26, 2013. So...maybe that's her birthday? Boxing Day Girl.  Though her birthday may have been earlier and she took a few days to get around to posting the photo.

I had to take a long break from this very fun Instagram-activity to get my very overdue pap smear.

Now it turns out I have problems with my female bits as well as my brain bits (which is also female, actually).

It's horribly ironic because....

Many years ago, I got in a fight with my mom, dad, and sister. My sister was going through her own epilepsy drama, and I was stressing about traveling with a young child during the Wes Craven days of my period. I was off birth control at the time, and my periods had gotten obnoxiously heavy.

I did my whining and my mom responded by saying, Are you sure you're not talking yourself into it?

Because somehow I was blessed with the ability to control my menstrual blood with my mind. I wonder if there are any X-Men with that skill??

I was quite angry when she said this and lashed out, asking if they said the same thing about my sister and her problem. Now what I was trying to say is that my parents are dismissive and were they also this dismissive with my sister? Because...well, I can't remember for sure, but I think maybe they had said something in front of me, behind her back, and that's why I said that.

My parents and sister misinterpreted what I said and thought I was being a horrible person by comparing brain issues to female reproductive issues.

Cause you know, female bits don't do anything important...like uh...bring new humans into the world. And it's not like anyone ever dies of female issues, right. Like it's so trivial compared to brain issues.

There was yelling.

I was told to get out...like literally leave the house. Though I think things calmed down slightly, and we didn't actually have to make a dramatic exit.

There were harsh emails sent to me.

And now...

I don't know if I should laugh or scream.

Maybe I'll just beg people to PLEASE not be dismissive of female medical issues. Even if they don't turn out to be dangerous, they can be painful and/or debilitating. Despite what the commercials say, periods are not just a matter of riding on a white horse with a short white mini-skirt. Maybe it's like that for some women, but for other women, it's much more intense than that.

Also, if you have one family member with a major medical drama, don't sit there and be dismissive about the medical issues of other family members. There's no rule from the universe that says each family gets a maximum of one medical drama.

Edited to add 10/11-Thankfully it was a false alarm. I just had an ugly-looking donut (cervix). But besides some minor fibroid things, all is well. My pap smear and vaginal ultrasound had lovely results.  

Anyway...back to Hannah Ellis Ryan!

This blueberry breakfast looks kind of good to me. I think it's oatmeal?

I'm confused by this banana picture. Ryan says it's breakfast on the run. But the banana is on the ground. It's almost like she was banana-littering.

I like this lemon picture. According to the hashtags, it was some kind of morning cleanse.

Here's another drink with too many bubbles. I think I really have an aversion to drink bubbles.

Here's a photo of a place called Didsbury. Is that in Australia? England? Elsewhere?

Googled.

It's in Manchester.

Cool.

I just had an idea.

You know what would be cool...if Hannah Ellis Ryan moved to Manchester because she had been a fan of Corrie.

I like that idea.

I ALSO like the chocolate in this dessert. Or I imagine I'd like it. I like how it looks, at least.

Here's a photo of someone taking a photo of food. I like taking photos of people taking photos. One day I should take a photo of someone taking a photo of someone taking a photo.

Actually, I might have already done that.

Ryan has photos of three dimensional city books. Or maybe they're puzzles. I wonder what's up with that. She has a mention of someone named Wilkfield. Does this Wilkfield make these books? Or she might be traveling to one of the cities, because Wilkfield responds, We can officially start the countdown. 21 dayyyys!

If Wilkfield went to one of these cities (Paris, Rome, or New York), I hope she or he had a fabulous time.

Here is a lovely photo of figs and kiwis. Fruit can be so beautiful.

Here's another banana photo. It's quite ripe. I wonder if Ryan prefers ripe bananas. I like them when they're greenish-yellow. But lately we've been using ripe bananas in our smoothies.

And more bananas! Ryan mentions something called mono-mealing. I guess this is where you eat the same thing all day?

Well, no....

This article says it's eating only one kind of food for one meal. And the article says it's bad for you.

I can understand eating one thing all DAY being bad but for a meal?

Well, maybe if you did it for all meals, things might get unbalanced. But maybe it's not so bad if you do it occasionally.

In the photo, there are five bananas. Was Ryan planning to eat all those in one day? One meal?  I'm not sure that would be very healthy.

And here are a bunch of dates.

I think I'd prefer a bowl of dates for a meal rather than five bananas.

There's no mention of mono-mealing on the dates, though. She could have just been eating them in the usual way.

Here's a photo of Ryan's new bike. Though by now, it's no longer new. The picture was posted in September 2014. She mentions it being a Manchester hipster thing.

I wonder if hipsters worldwide are into bikes. Or is it just an England thing?

Googled and saw hipsters are into something called fixed-gear bikes.

Here's a photo of a Santa with vodka. Ryan says it's from an acting office. There's a Santa storyline on Corrie right now.  Brian (Peter Gunn) thinks he's very good with kids because they are extremely well-behaved around him. But then it turns out, the kids believe he's secretly Santa Claus.

Here's a lovely bowl of fruit.

I'm going to need to buy some dates soon.

Here is a photo of Ryan drinking a yellow drink while wearing a yellow shirt. Or maybe it's orange? Orange-yellow?

Here is a lovely photo of Ryan with a vegan blogger friend.

I wonder if many of Ryan's friends are vegan.

Here is Ryan with a lovely blue, vegan purse.

She is really into living the vegan life.

Here's a photo of Ryan with a new hairstyle.

Here's a photo of a building amidst snow in Manchester. As an Australian, it was probably not too common for Ryan to see snow...especially if she's a Queenslander.

I was just thinking that, so far, I have not seen any photos to indicate that Hannah Ellis Ryan was in any sort of Coronation Street fandom. Though it is possible that she was sort of in one, and it's just the vegan stuff overshadowed the Corrie stuff.

Here is Ryan looking frighteningly serious. She was working on a short film called "Margot".

I found a short film called Margot on IMDb, but Ryan's not in the cast...and it's an American film not a Manchester film.

I can't find the Manchester film...but I can't say I looked very hard.

I'm feeling lazy.

I thought this might be Vegemite, but no. It's homemade jam.

I wonder if Ryan likes Vegemite. And if she does, would she share it with her Corrie castmates?

Is Vegemite vegan?

I know it doesn't have any obvious animal products, but it might have some subtle ones.

Okay. I Googled. And Google is saying that it IS vegan.

Cool.

Here's a picture of a street in Manchester. Ryan says, Early evening stroll in this amazing city...walking new streets.

It's making me want to go to Manchester...someday.

I also feel maybe a little envious. I think it's such a gift to visit or move to a city that excites you.

Though I have had some good feelings about Fort Worth lately. But those feelings aren't as strong as my feelings for Australia, England, Japan, etc.

Wondered about this photo. It's a girl with a box. Hannah says, What's in the box? Find out tonight? The hashtags and mentions are: Contractions, 53two, and gmfringe.

Maybe it's a TV show? Or a web show?

Well, I just looked up gmfringe. It stands for Greater Manchester Fringe. It's a festival.  The last one was in July. I wonder if any Corrie actors were there.

I just had another long break. This time it was a Thai dinner and then that new Netflix show Maniac. We watched the first episode.

I'm not sure if I like it. I hope I do.

So far, it reminds me a lot of Black Mirror. I love Black Mirror, so I think there's a fair chance I'll like Maniac.

And...back to the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival.

Well, I was going to search the festival website to find Corrie actors, but I didn't know how to navigate that. So I just Googled the festival along with Coronation Street.

I found this article. Sue Jenkins directed two plays at the festival.  I'm not sure I know who she is. Is she still on the show?

No....

She played someone named Gloria Todd.  I think she was probably before my time.

Back to Instagram.

Here's a video of Hannah Ellis Ryan dancing.

And here is Ryan as a bridesmaid. The bridesmaids are all wearing white! I never heard of that before. Did the bride wear white as well? Or a different color?

They do look quite lovely.

Here's a picture of someone named jellybellycarroll. I'm getting from the hashtags that she's a director.

Jellybellycarroll comments on the picture: Clutching them beautiful words.

Ryan was complimenting Jellybellycarroll with the photo and captions. It makes me wonder if JellybellyCarroll was complimenting her back.

Maybe Ryan wrote the play/script?

Well, I'm going to take another long break. Because I need to go to sleep.

And now...

I'm awake.

Here is a photo of set-building action. I think it's of one of Ryan's coworkers.

The location of the photo is Hope Studios. Is that a film thing or a theater thing?

Here's their website.  It's a rental place. People can rent dance studios, piano rooms, rehearsal rooms, etc.

Here's Ryan promoting a play called Days of Wine and Roses. The performance was last October. I'm not sure if Ryan was a part of the play; if she liked the play and was promoting it; or if she was promoting it as a favor for someone.

This post was done in October 2017. So I'm getting a bit closer to the present. And there's a bit less food now. Before it was about 90% food posts. Now it's maybe...half and half?

Here's a promotion for another play. It's called Finding Alice. With this one, I think Ryan WAS involved with, because she writes, It’s a full day of this today.... sifting through countless incredibly talented #Manchester faces and swelling with pride that @manchesteradp is embarking on its first full length production!

I WAS thinking that the pride could refer to being proud of her friends. But then someone comments, Congratulations and good luck.

You know I'm wondering if Ryan is liking being on Coronation Street. Since she's used to working on smaller projects, I'm wondering if she usually has more creative control.

She might have been a big fish in a small pond. And with Corrie, she's a small fish in a big pond.

What I'm wondering is, does she hope to someday be a big fish in the big pond? Or might she be content with the small pond? She seems very happy with her theatre projects.

But...

A) You can't really get a true sense of someone's emotional well-being on Instagram

B) Someone can be happy with what they have but still want something different and/or more.

Here's a photo of one of Ryan's young cousins. She's very cute. I wonder if she's in Australia? Or maybe Ryan has family in Manchester? Maybe that's the reason she moved there?

Well, now I've learned that Ryan turned 29 last December. So she'll be having her 30th birthday in a few months. I hope she has a fun one.

I'm thinking this Japanese food looks really good.  Yesterday, while I was at the doctor, Tim and Jack went to an Asian food store. Jack bought and ate some ramen. That made me want ramen. But Tim said he hadn't seen any vegetarian ones.

For dinner we had Thai, though, and that was very good.

I'm wondering about this photo from a trailer of something called Wasp.

Well, I was wondering if it was for a play or short film; then I looked closer and saw it was a theater thing.

Here's a photo of Ryan playing Stella in a play called Things We Want. According to the theater's website, Things We Want is a black comedy. It involves three brothers meeting an apartment neighbor. Ryan is the Smurfette of the story, it seems.  It kind of reminds me of Big Bang Theory. Except in that, the guys aren't brothers.

Here is Ryan's vegan freak shake.  I finally had one a few weeks ago. Our neighborhood ice-cream shop has them now. I think they're going to be pretty much popping up everywhere. We had a s'mores one, and my favorite part about it was the actual s'more.  I thought the milkshake itself was a bit too sweet.

Here is Ryan's first post about Coronation Street!  It was posted on July 18.  I wonder if they had started filming by then. Also, how long did she know she had the part? How long did she have to keep it secret? When did she tell close friends and family?  I'm guessing it was a bit before she posted it on Instagram?

I went a bit backwards to see if there were hints earlier that I might have missed. I clicked on a random photo—a laptop. There are no hints about Corrie, but Ryan mentions having a break after being very busy and wanting to use that time for writing. So, she acts, writes, prepares food.....

I wonder what else.

Here is a photo of Hope Mill Theatre. I think it's a place that's important to Ryan.  I imagine she's going to try to balance her Corrie work with her theater work. I don't think it will be impossible. Corrie has a large ensemble cast, and each character can't be central to the storylines each day.  So I imagine on some days, actors have no work or very little work.

Also, Corrie characters are very often going to visit some relative somewhere out there. They sometimes disappear for weeks or months at a time.

Who will Hannah (the character) visit? Well, probably someone in Australia.

There is a chance Hannah won't stick around. After her scam is discovered, she might be sent packing. BUT she could end up becoming one of those characters who ends up redeeming themselves. Or at least their misdeeds are forgotten. Years later, Hannah might be a main character, and we'll have to remind ourselves that she once cruelly conned Liz McDonald.

Here is Hannah's first Instagram selfie with another Corrie actor. It's Kate Ford who plays the horrible and wonderful Tracy Barlow. She's one of my favorites. That might not be saying much, because I probably have 20-30 favorites on Coronation Street.

I don't think I've seen any scenes with Ford and Ryan yet. From where I'm at, their characters haven't met yet. But I'm about two weeks behind...via Hulu.

I used to be years behind!

Here's a photo of a cat. One thing I've noticed is that Ryan doesn't have a lot of animal photos. I saw a dog. Then there's this cat. I think there were also some goats.  I'm guessing she doesn't have any animal companions. I wonder how she feels about pets. I think vegans typically support adopting cats, dogs, and other rescue pets. They are probably not supportive of buying pets from pet stores or breeders. I don't think they'd support the pet trade.

Here's Ryan's laptop in the Corrie green room. I'm really curious about what it would be like to be a newbie on a soap opera. Is she making friends? Are people being nice to her? Does she feel left out? Are people making an effort to make her feel included? Are there any Corrie actor that are standoffish or cliquey?

I wonder if the other actors and crew make a big deal out of Ryan being Australian. I don't think Corrie has a lot of international actors...at least not since I've been watching.

Here's a photo of Ryan with Beverly Callard. She's another one of my favorite Corrie people.

In the caption, Ryan says, And I can now check "getting papped" off my bucket list I guess.

What does that mean?

Oh!

Okay Googled. It's being followed by paparazzi.

 Here's a photo of a Coronation Street/ITV building. I'm guessing its their studio.

Ryan has a Harry Potter related post. It's a fan-theory thing about Mad Eye Moody being the only wizard who is able to see the true form of Boggarts.

Interesting.

I wonder if Ryan is a Harry Potter fan.

From her Instagram, I get the idea she's not a huge one, or at least she hasn't been a huge one in the last few years.

But she might have been a big fan once upon a time.

I just read the caption on this photo and learned Ryan had a 11 hour filming day. That's pretty intense. And she was probably on screen for less than 10 minutes.

Here is a photo of Ryan with her onscreen NOT-dad (Charlie Lawson).  In the caption, she says,
Well today some paparazzi photos went out of me filming and they are all out and about. Already the comments are flooding in about my looks - how old I look, attractiveness etc. Wow - I thought I prepared myself for the madness on the horizon but clearly not.

I've seen some comments from Corrie viewers. They can be really harsh.

I'm not sure I've seen any about physical appearance, but I have seen comments about acting ability.  I mean in terms of actors in general. I haven't seen any comments yet about Ryan—good or bad.

Well, here is a photo of Ryan with an animal. It's a black dog, and she's wearing a black shirt. So the dog is kind of invisible. It's pretty cool.

Oh! Here is yet another dog.

Here's another play promotion post. It's called the Effect.

The play is about a clinical drug trial and deals with love, neurology, and other things. It sounds interesting to me.

I don't see Ryan on the cast list. She might have helped offstage. Or she might have been promoting as a fan or to be supportive.

Oh! I just saw the play actually ended yesterday.

Here is another freak shake. It looks quite yum.

I'm wondering about this photo caption.  Ryan says,
Most people would brush their hair or put some mascara on when going into one of the biggest TV shows. Not me folks. Meet Hannah - hitting your screens this week.

I'm guessing she means that she didn't get her hair or make-up done, because of the character she's playing. Or if she trying to say that, unlike other soap opera actors, she's not worried about appearance. That would be fine...and kind of cool. But announcing it? I think it kind of ruins the effect.

Here's another animal post. It's a black dog again. The same black dog?

I see that Ryan got a hair cut.  I guess I'll be seeing it in a week or so on Corrie. Unless she wears a wig.That would be a bit tedious. I wonder if Corrie actors have ever gotten in trouble for getting an unexpected haircut. Do they have to get permission?  I mean it might not be in a rulebook. But maybe it's expected.

I'm sure a trim is perfectly fine. But if it's something more drastic?

Ryan's is not a trim, but also not drastic. It's different, but not very different.

Here's another Corrie photo. Ryan says, Just another one of the outfits of Hannah that the UK has to look forward to.

Hello?? UK? What about the rest of us?!  There are some of us here in the US, and I'm pretty sure there are many people in Australia and elsewhere that watch the show.

I imagine Australia will also gain some new watchers because of Ryan.

You know, I don't think I've seen Ryan mention Australia OR her family that much. I wonder if she had unhappiness there.

That being said, I've read the caption of only about 5-10% of her photos. There's a lot of stuff I didn't click on. So I very likely could have missed some things.

Anyway...back to the outfit. I don't like it, but at the same time, I kind of do.

I like Ryan's new red glasses here. She looks very cute with them.

AND...

Now I'm looking at Ryan's most recent Instagram photo; taken yesterday. It's a photo of drinks—orange juice and chocolate not-milk.

The not milk is called mylk. I wonder what it's made from.

Well, the company is called Rebel Kitchen. Their flavors are chocolate, coffee. chai, and matcha.

It's coconut milk.

We had been buying coconut milk a lot a few months ago. Then we stopped. I think it's because Tim didn't like how it tasted when hot, so he started buying almond milk. But then he also stopped with that.

Anyway...I guess I'm done.

I feel like I learned a lot, but I probably learned close to nothing. Because no matter how much people post on Instagram, it really never tells the full story. I don't think it ever even comes close.

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts