Ryan Kwanten was born in Sydney on 28 November 1976, and he's a typical Sagittarius. Ryan's family consists of his mother, father, two younger brothers, his poodle PK and cat Sweeny Todd. Acting runs in Ryan's family; his two brothers have always been performers – with one currently in a band and also at the Conservatorium of Music – while Ryan was the sporty one. However, as fate would have it, Ryan fell into acting purely by chance at the age of 15. His first acting job was a minor guest role in, funnily enough, Home and Away as a young surfie. He also had a lead role in the children's TV series Spellbinder II: Land of the Dragon Lords. Ryan's character, Vinnie Patterson, is a bit of a schemer and Ryan describes him as 'a lovable rogue who gets himself into plenty of strife and fancies himself as a bit of a ladies'man with plenty of money-making ideas. He is definitely an ideas man who constantly uses lines such as "I've got plans, I've got ideas, and I'm going places".' The only similarities Ryan can see between himself and his character are that they are both shy with ladies (or so he says!!). He feels that Vinnie talks before he thinks whilst Ryan thinks before he talks. Ryan's interests include fitness (he currently trains with a number of Australia's leading ironmen), ironman events, swimming, tennis, snooker, golf, snow skiing… and the list goes on. Ryan first appeared as Vinnie Patterson as a guest in July 1997 and returned as a permanent cast member in November 1997.