Ian Ruskin
Actor, Writer and Social Activist
I trained as an actor in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and performed in England for 15 years. I came to Los Angeles in 1985 and worked primarily in television, usually guest-starring as the intelligent bad guy, in shows such as Murder She Wrote, Scarecrow and Mrs. King and MacGyver. This work paid the rent but did not in any way fulfill the dream that I had as a student at RADA – to work in plays that would affect an audience. As a young actor in repertory theatre I was in great classical plays and in the works of the most exciting new playwrights. These plays not only moved audiences, but gave them something to reflect on as they went home. This was not happening on the sound stage of MacGyver…
Biography
Following drama school, I worked in English repertory theatre, and film, theatre and television in London. Among highlights were: a Commedia dell’arte production in Birmingham; playing Jack in Jack the Ripper in London; six weeks in Wales filming Michael Mann’s The Keep; and being part of Laurence Olivier’s King Lear for Granada Television in Manchester.
In Los Angeles, my life-long interest in social justice led me to found The Harry Bridges Project in 2000, for which I produced two radio documentaries and wrote the one-man play From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks: The Life and Time of Harry Bridges. I then produced three documentary films and another one-man play, To Begin the World Over Again: The Life of Thomas Paine, written with a COLA (City of Los Angeles) Fellowship. The film versions of both plays aired for multiple years on PBS. They were directed by Haskell Wexler, five-time Academy Award nominee and two-time winner, because he believed in the power of these two stories.
I have completed my latest play Magic and Lightning: into the Mind of Nikola Tesla, following previews in Los Angeles, Anchorage, Greenville and Philadelphia. Upcoming bookings, pandemic permitting, will include the Serbian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Serbian Consulate in New York. Past performances of the Bridges and Paine plays include the English and Scottish Parliaments in London and Edinburgh, Faneuil Hall in Boston, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre in New York, Grand Performances in Los Angeles, The American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and The Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro.
A core of my work is on-going performances of the Bridges and Paine plays, and soon the Tesla play, at Los Angeles County Community Colleges, including East LA, Harbor, LA City, LA Valley, Cerritos, El Camino and Pierce Colleges. The Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture and the Dolores Huerta Labor Institute have funded many of these performances so that they can be offered free to these and other colleges.