When she was eleven, her father retired from the Army, and the family settled in Paducah, Kentucky. in 1989, Ryan was chosen Miss Illinois. She was the third runner-up in the 1990 Miss America Pageant, winning the preliminary swimsuit competition. After Voyager ended in 2001, Ryan joined the cast of Boston Public in the role of Veronica Cooke, nicknamed “Ronnie,” a frustrated lawyer who quits the bar to become a high-school teacher. Ryan then co-starred in the CBS legal drama Shark as Los Angeles County District Attorney Jessica Devlin alongside series lead James Woods, but she did not return for episodes aired after the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike although she was credited in all four episodes. Ryan is a regular in the medical drama series Body of Proof, which premiered on March 29, 2011.
