Ryan Early (born 2 May 1979 Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom) is a British actor. He has appeared in various roles on TV and theatre and he is best known for his roles as young Probationary PC Tom Nicholson in Heartbeat, as regular character Dan in BBC series Almost Never and as Lee Bryce in The Archers. He was trained at Drama Centre London. He has also appeared in Will Young's music video for Leave Right Now. He has appeared in theatre roles for The Royal Court, Shakespeare's Globe, The Young Vic, The Lyric Hammersmith, Soho Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Royal Exchange Manchester, The Barbican, Hampstead Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Stephen Joseph Theatre. After leaving Drama Centre London went straight into a Channel 4 produced season at The Bush Theatre. After leaving the role of PC Tom Nicholson in Heartbeat, he has played several roles on television appearing in Casualty, Love Soup, Soup Kitchen, Doctors, The Bill, Coronation Street, The Jason Phillips Show, Emmerdale Holby City. In 2016, he appeared in The Crown, the 10 part Netflix series written by Peter Morgan and directed by Stephen Daldry. Feature films include Beseme Mucho, An Acre of Moon and Red Tails directed by Anthony Hemingway and produced by George Lucas for Lucas Films. In 2016 he featured in The Foreigner starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan, star in William Boyd's debut original play The Argument at Hampstead Theatre and join the cast of Knightfall (TV series) the new A&E/History Channel series for the US starring and Executive Produced by Jeremy Renner In January 2018 he joined the BBC Radio 4 Company for a 6 month contract. In July 2018 Ryan joined the iconic The Archers as new regular character Lee Bryce. In January 2019 his new series Almost Never made by SaltbeefTV for the BBC begins. Ryan plays series regular Dan alongside Kimberly Wyatt, Emily Atack, Colin Hoult and Michelle Gayle. Series 2 and 3 have been confirmed. Early is signed up with Winterson's Agency and Harvey Voices.