Warning: This investigation contains themes of a sexual nature that some readers may find upsetting.
EXCLUSIVE: Nikki was like many young actresses with a screen dream: freshly graduated from Britain’s world-class performing arts education system, but needing to professionalize her résumé without any notable credits. Nikki, a pseudonym we are using to disguise her identity, asked for recommendations and thumbed through social media in search of someone who could help her film acting scenes for a showreel.
She alighted on Ryan Kirwan, a man whose business was booming at the height of the post-pandemic production frenzy. With a sharp eye for self-promotion and breezy self-confidence, Kirwan transformed himself from an actor holding puppies in pet store ads to one of the UK’s go-to showreel producers. He’d barely picked up a camera before throwing himself into a business that became a six-day-a-week job, filming scenes in the service of hundreds of Hollywood hopefuls.
Kirwan stood out from the competition by producing glossy two-handers using a 12K camera. He boasted on social media about his work being featured on the BBC, while his curated Instagram page, where he had thousands of followers, gave shoutouts to clients who went on to secure credits in Netflix’s Sex Education and Damsel. He collaborated with top drama schools to help students shoot acting scenes, while he was also involved in making short films, including Dysthymia, which was selected for the Lisbon Film Rendezvous.
“Just be nice,” was a work value he espoused when reflecting on his success in an industry podcast last year. And Kirwan was nice — to a point. Actresses who worked with the filmmaker commented on his professionalism during shoots, his helpful direction, and the quality of his work on delivery.
But Nikki says she soon saw a different side of Kirwan over WhatsApp. After filming her showreel in June 2022, Kirwan started sending her unsolicited dick pics. At first, the 33-year-old weaved an elaborate story as a way of gaining her consent for sending nude images. Later, he appeared to expose himself to Nikki in unsolicited body shots sent in the small hours of the morning. She was not alone in receiving this kind of attention from a man whom young actresses felt was a gateway to the film and TV industry.
Deadline has spoken to and reviewed evidence from a total of six women, four of whom accuse Kirwan of sending them unsolicited nude images between 2021 and 2024. The two other women, including a former employee of Kirwan’s, allege that he sent them inappropriate and sexualized messages. The women were aged between 19 and 44 at the time of receiving these messages.
Cyberflashing is a criminal offence in the UK under Section 66A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the Metropolitan Police has confirmed that it is investigating Kirwan following complaints from two women who have spoken to Deadline. Meanwhile, Kirwan has shut down his business, deleted the majority of his social media accounts, moved out of London, and spent recent weeks apologizing to those who have accused him of misconduct after rumors of his behavior circulated online.
The filmmaker has not denied the allegations against him. In a statement to Deadline, he acknowledges “actions that are extremely out of character” and says his behavior was the result of a spiraling cocaine addiction and poor mental health. “I take full responsibility for the people affected and wish to apologise to all of them. It was never my intention to cause any distress, however I can now see how I did – and for this I am forever sorry,” he adds.
The women he messaged reflect on the exchanges with unease, while for some, there is a sense that they were somehow complicit in Kirwan’s conduct. He may not have wielded the quantifiable influence of a studio executive or screen star, but for the women desperate to forge successful careers, he represented an illusion of power. This perception still lingers, with all of the women not wishing to be named amid fears it could be damaging to their careers or that Kirwan may retaliate. Deadline has disguised their identities by using pseudonyms.
Lucie’s Story
To understand how Kirwan would face a reckoning, you need to start with Lucie. An acting coach with an established business, Lucie was older than the other women Kirwan had messaged. They first met in 2023 when Lucie helped a former acting student film a scene for a showreel being produced by Kirwan. Lucie was impressed with Kirwan’s set-up and professionalism and decided to update her own showreel earlier this year. She filmed with him and he delivered the final edit. Then the conversation switched gears.
Kirwan appeared to have a playbook for introducing inappropriate subjects into WhatsApp exchanges, according to four cases reviewed by Deadline. This involved him recounting a shocking — and sometimes elaborate — personal experience that became a trojan horse for texts that were sexual in nature. Kirwan would also say that he was discussing the same stories with female friends on WhatsApp, which one woman claims was a “manipulative” way of making himself appear to be a “safe male.”
In most cases, these stories involved being shocked at the size of another man’s penis or commenting on his own manhood. For example, a favored story involved him claiming that his female housemate’s well-endowed lover had unexpectedly walked into his kitchen naked. So shocked was Kirwan, he felt compelled to describe the experience to women he had only known fleetingly in a professional capacity.
Lucie, 44, was one of the women on the receiving end of this story in March. She was unsettled by the messages, but gave Kirwan the benefit of the doubt. “I was a bit surprised, but then I thought: maybe he is just an open person and I happen to be the last person he texted. He’s in a bit of shock and he’s oversharing, so I went along with it,” she recalls. What she did not know at the time was that Kirwan had told an almost identical story about his housemate’s lover to a separate woman in February, per messages seen by Deadline.
Lucie’s initial instinct to entertain Kirwan’s story changed when he allegedly started sending her images. Lucie accuses Kirwan of texting her disappearing nude pictures of both himself and the man he claimed was his housemate’s lover. “Second one is me,” she recalls him captioning one image, which allegedly featured his face and an erect penis.
Lucie felt “sick and violated” by her exchange and days later decided to confront Kirwan. On March 14, they spoke on the phone and Lucie says she explained that Kirwan’s alleged messages were unacceptable. That afternoon, he texted her saying: “So sorry to have put you in that position. I’ll make sure nothing like that ever happens again and I’ll sort myself out. I feel so embarrassed.” Lucie responded: “You’re lucky it was me. Someone else might have taken it to the police or [UK actors’ union] Equity.”
A week later, Lucie told him: “Ryan, given what you did and the fact that it is a criminal offence, I am going to have to disassociate myself and my business from you.” She blocked him. By June, Lucie still felt uneasy about her encounter and was anxious that he may have behaved similarly with other women, even though he had denied this during their phone call. She opened Instagram and typed: “Anyone who has experienced negative or inappropriate behaviour from a showreel company, please get in touch.”
The response was overwhelming, she says.
Nikki’s Story
Nikki had never met Lucie, but felt sure that her Instagram message referred to Kirwan. The 25-year-old actress had encountered Kirwan two years earlier and continued receiving unwanted attention from the showreel producer into 2024. He began texting her in the days after she recorded her showreel, including a scene in which she played a woman leaving a menacing man.
Kirwan deployed a different story with Nikki. Messages from June 2022, show him recounting an experience on a shoot involving male models in a changing room. He claimed his female co-worker was getting “distracted” by the good looks of one of the models who dropped his towel during filming to reveal his “huge” manhood. He told Nikki that he had a screenshot of the incident, adding: “If you’re intrigued let me know.” Nikki laughed and replied: “Yes I’ll need to see it now.” Kirwan sent Nikki two images of an unknown nude male in a changing room, before turning the conversation to her. “I’m guessing you’ve had a big one,” he asked. She replied: “Hahahahaha, that’s for me to know.”
Nikki says she feels embarrassed when she re-reads the conversation. She was not attracted to Kirwan and considered him a professional industry contact. “I never had some sort of flirty conversation where he would think that this was appropriate to send me,” she says. Lucie adds that the stories Kirwan tells to introduce sex into a conversation “make you feel complicit in a way.”
Kirwan was more direct in subsequent WhatsApp messages to Nikki. In July 2022, he claimed that he had modeled for a life drawing class and received the sketches back from the artists in attendance. He offered to send them to Nikki, but she declined. “I’m afraid not. I won’t be able to look at you the same hahahaha. I just can’t,” she said. “You built me up to knock me down,” he replied, to which Nikki said: “No stop it now.”
Half an hour later, Kirwan persisted: “Shall I show you the sketch and I’ll crop out the ‘main’ bit.” He then sent three messages that were quickly deleted. Minutes after removing the texts, Kirwan said he was “off to bed,” before breezily adding, “Let me know how you get on with agencies,” a reference to an earlier exchange about Nikki’s efforts to secure representation. Nikki says that this showed how she would turn to Kirwan advice and networking opportunities — and how he would mix professional messages with inappropriate ones.
Kirwan used the life drawing story with at least one other woman: his employee Sabrina. In an interview with Deadline, Sabrina alleges that “he just showed me his naked body without actually doing it because it was a drawing” after sharing the sketch over WhatsApp. Sabrina left his business last October, but they continued to text, with Kirwan mentioning the life drawing as recently as June, recalling how he had sent it to her when he was drunk.
Sabrina thought she was alone in receiving unprofessional messages. “Behind the phone, he obviously has this confidence where he can just say all this stuff, but in-person I don’t recall ever having to tell him to ‘f*** off’ because he was being inappropriate,” she says. “I really didn’t think he was like this with other people.”
Nikki alleges that Kirwan has sent several nude images over the past two years, with the most recent landing in her inbox in February. At 2am one morning, he sent her two images of an erect penis, the first of which features what appears to be the lower half of his face, according to evidence reviewed by Deadline. This time, he failed to delete them. “Ryan. WTF,” Nikki said when she saw the images. Kirwan claimed that he had deleted them from the chat, adding: “I was so drunk. I’m so sorry.” Nikki replied: “I honestly don’t know what to say to you. Like how do you think this is ok?!” Kirwan responded: “I won’t message you again. I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable and I’m so so sorry. It was a dreadful drunken mistake and I can’t apologise enough.”
At least two of the women who spoke to Deadline have reported the WhatsApp messages to the Metropolitan Police and the force has confirmed to Deadline that it is examining their claims. “Police are investigating two separate allegations of cyberflashing. Enquiries are ongoing,” a spokesperson said. Nikki, meanwhile, is coming to terms with her encounter with Kirwan. “As a woman, I just normalize these things because this happens too often,” she says. “But when [Lucie] shared her message on Instagram, I realized this is not normal.”
Two other women accuse Kirwan of sending them unsolicited images. Hilary was 19 when Kirwan texted months after wrapping her showreel in April 2021. She recalled Kirwan being complimentary of her work during the shoot and mentioning that he was always scouting actors for short films. Unlike Lucie and Nikki, he did not embellish the images with a story.
At 3am on August 21, 2021, he simply WhatsApped an alleged nude and swiftly deleted the message. “I’m quite well endowed so I was taking a little pic of it. Obviously wasn’t meant to be sent your way,” he told her. Hilary pretended she had not seen the photo and went to bed, though she does recall seeing an image of an erect penis. On Christmas Day 2021, Kirwan was back in Hilary’s DMs with another image he claimed was not for her eyes. “Oh s**t… that wasn’t meant for you!” he said. Again, Hilary played dumb, but Kirwan was undeterred. “I’ll show you what it was if you want but just don’t tell anyone haha,” he wrote. “It’s okay,” she replied.
Kirwan did not just send inappropriate messages to clients. Ashley briefly dated Kirwan in 2019, but alleges that he sent her unsolicited nudes years after they broke up. She claims that Kirwan would often return to a conversation about the size of his manhood, repeatedly asking her where he ranked among the men she had been intimate with. In November 2022, he texted asking where he stood on her “list” and Ashley alleges that this was accompanied by five nude images. She hastily deleted the images, but told a friend about them almost immediately over WhatsApp. “He’s totally deluded,” Ashley’s confidant replied.
Ashley blocked Kirwan on WhatsApp, but he messaged her through a different number in April 2024. “I was talking about your stupid infamous ‘list’ the other day,” he said. Ashley told Kirwan that she had not responded to his “50+ messages on multiple different platforms, including unsolicited naked pictures” because she did not want “any type of conversation” with him. “Please do not contact me again,” she pleaded. Kirwan replied: “Sorry. I guess that ‘list’ always stuck with me.”
Ashley reported Kirwan to Hertfordshire Police, a separate force from the Metropolitan Police, and contacted Lucie after seeing her Instagram post about a showreel company. Lucie says she has heard from 16 women since her social media callout, all of whom have stories about Kirwan. Soon after she posted the message, Kirwan shut down his business and social media pages. In a social media post, he blamed anxiety, depression, burnout, and a desire to “try new things,” despite stating earlier this year that he planned to expand the business.
Kirwan’s Apology Tour
Privately, he was embarking on an apology tour. Three of the six women who have spoken to Deadline received either a voice note or written message from Kirwan. The apologies had subtle variations, but in the three reviewed by Deadline, he admitted to “sending messages” and blamed it on a cocaine habit and mental health issues. In a voice note to Nikki, he confessed that his messages were “inappropriate stuff.”
In a statement to Deadline, Kirwan said: “Due to personal circumstances and constant deterioration of my mental health I have been addicted to cocaine for the past three and a half years. The cocaine led to even more exhaustion, depression and ultimately self loathing.
“This endless, vicious cycle then took me back to cocaine again. And so on. During the three-and-a-half-year period the constant drug use hugely impacted my judgement, leading to actions that are extremely out of character. I take full responsibility for the people affected and wish to apologise to all of them. It was never my intention to cause any distress, however I can now see how I did – and for this I am forever sorry.
“The last six months have been particularly dreadful and painful, with my body and mind no longer being able to function, leading to me trying to overdose. Luckily this failed. However, due to the shame and regret I am constantly carrying with me, I continue to have suicidal thoughts. Since realising my life needs to change I have permanently closed down the business, taken myself off of social media and moved out of London to focus on my rehabilitation. I am currently getting professional help by seeing therapists as well as attending Cocaine Anonymous.”
It is not known how many of his clients received inappropriate messages, but Kirwan’s work likely put him into contact with hundreds of actors, both male and female. His Vimeo page alone has more than 1,500 showreel videos, while he also promoted work he did with students, including returning to East 15, the drama school at which he trained. East 15 says it “cannot comment on individual cases,” but students can “report issues anonymously or receive support from an adviser.”
Alexa Morden, an actress who runs The 98% podcast, which acts as a forum for lesser-known British actors, says the experiences of those who came into contact with Kirwan are signs of unhealthy industry power dynamics.
“In the arts and entertainment industries, abuse often goes hand in hand with abuse of power. So long as there’s a hierarchy, with actors most oftentimes at the bottom, those with perceived power know they can abuse their position because they’re sure their victims will stay silent for fear of ‘ruining their career.’ Perpetrators and predators in this industry also know that there isn’t really anywhere people can go for help, support, or actual action. Something victims tend to find out too late,” she says.
“I want victims of malpractice to know that they are not alone and there are people who care, and the more we speak up, the more we share our experiences and raise awareness, the more we can get across that we do not stand for this behaviour, and force industry organisations to not only support those who need it – but to prevent the nefarious, and sometimes criminal, behaviour in the first place.”
The post The Showreel Sexter: He Helped Young Actresses Showcase Their Skills For Series Like ‘Sex Education’ — Then Sent Them Unwanted Dick Pics appeared first on Deadline.
