Ryan Stiles

Tall (6' 5") and blond, Ryan Stiles played in improvisation troupes and performed stand-up comedy for a decade before getting his first regular TV series gig playing Lewis, the janitor at a pharmaceutical house who seems forever attached to Drew Carey, on "The Drew Carey Show" (ABC, 1995- ). A high school dropout, Stiles crossed from his native Washington to Canada to begin his career performing in Vancouver comedy clubs. Towards the end of this period, he tried his hand at TV a bit, appearing on an isolated episode of the CBS series "Stir Crazy" (1985). In 1986, he went to Toronto to join the famed Second City troupe and when a Los Angeles branch was founded in 1990, he moved to California to be part of it. Stiles' early TV exposure was on "Andrea Martin: Together Again" (Showtime, 1989). He also was a regular on the British-produced comedy series "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" seen in the States on Comedy Central. Additionally, Stiles made three guest appearances on "The John Larroquette Show" (NBC) in three different roles.

He has yet to crack large roles in feature films, but Stiles made his debut in the short subject "Rainbow War" (1986). He played the faceless pilot in "Hot Shots!" (1991) and appeared in an entirely different role--that of Rabinowitz--in "Hot Shots! Part Deux" (1993). Many TV viewers also know Stiles from the Nike commercials he made during the 1994-1995 major league baseball strike. In them, Stiles can be seen alone in the baseball stands, doing a solo version of The Wave.