Biography

Bryan Ratushniak was born in a small Northern Ontario mining town wanting to grow up to be a professional hockey player. When his talent didn't pan out on the ice he directed his energies to his first love, the arts, becoming a professional musician at the age of fifteen.

He moved to Toronto to become a firefighter where he continued to pursue his passion for the film industry as an actor booking dozens of television commercials over the next decade.

Wanting to create his own work to perform he began writing and producing material.

His first effort as producer was the award winning children's video Firetrucks and Firefighters recently celebrating twenty years in distribution and re-released in the U.S. by Marshall Publishing under the title Lots'n'Lots of Fire Trucks. Bryan's next production a documentary entitled Iron Men, Wooden Ladders, a story of heroism during the Great Toronto Fire of 1904, was broadcast on Canadian Learning Television on the centennial of the disaster.

Over his 32 year career as a firefighter Bryan was awarded three citations for life saving rescues performed on duty. One such rescue was caught live, on television, when a man set himself on fire inside his rented van at a protest in front of the Ontario Provincial Legislature.

In keeping with his role model activities, Bryan is an avid drug-free bodybuilder and in 2005 won Natural Mr. Canada. In 2004 he was awarded Canadian Drug-Free Athlete of the Year by Neutron Sports and Fitness Organization, a leader in drug-free sports advocacy.

Since retiring from firefighting life, Bryan, an accomplished writer, has had his memoir Aftermath: A Firefighters Life published by Cormorant Books in 2021.

He continues to develop screenplays for film and television working both in front and behind the camera.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bryan Ratushniak