RYAN REDCORN
Award-winning writer, comedian, and photographer capturing Osage life through humor and portraiture.
Description of Art
Medium format photos of respected Osage elders Mogri Lookout and Everett Waller
Artist Biography
Ryan RedCorn (Osage) was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma into a family of preachers, politicians and salesmen, which are all the same occupation. He is the ilonpa of Raymond and Elizabeth RedCorn, and the object of jealousy from his three younger brothers Jon, Alex and Studebaker, who between them have four masters degrees and two Phd’s. Ryan, however, took six and half years to get an art degree in visual communications from the University of Kansas. To the surprise of many, Ryan wasn’t as stupid as everyone thought, and has been able to translate his education, his ilonpa entitlement, and his family lineage into something some people think is valuable. He co-founded the Indigenous comedy troupe, the 1491s, and started a full services ad agency in the middle of nowhere Pawhuska, Oklahoma called Buffalo Nickel Creative. Sometimes people laugh at him. But he’s ok with all of that. He recently woke one morning and realized he has three daughters. He remarked, “I live a crazy life” and promptly enrolled in an MFA in screenwriting program to test his capacity for stress. He graduated in the Spring of 2020, built his own home, and is presently alive, living on the Osage Reservation in the Pawhuska Indian Village, vaccinated, and fresh off completing two seasons as a writer/story editor and actor on FX’s Emmy nominated Reservation Dogs. Ryan received a 2023-24 Obie Award for co-writing Between Two Knees. In 2024 he returned to the Sundance Film Festival for the second time as an actor in Apple’s “Fancy Dance” alongside Lily Gladstone. He received a Peabody for his writing work on Reservation Dogs and named a top ten Rising Stars for the ImagiNative Film Festival in 2022.
