Employee Spotlight: Ryan Harper-Brown, Instructor & Internship Coordinator, Department of New Media

Where are you from?
I was born in Montreal to an English-speaking family living in a francophone neighbourhood. I learned to speak French first, and my mom had no idea what I was saying. In high school, I did a short stand-up bit as part of a fundraiser and it went over so well that I pursued stand up professionally at Ernie Butler’s Comedy Nest, one of the country’s most important comedy clubs. They took me under their wing, and at 17, was the youngest performing stand-up. After making it to The Just for Laughs Festival, I realized that while I was an okay stand-up, I really wanted to pursue sketch comedy.  I formed my own troupe—The Rubber Chicken Factory—and we performed in Montreal for about 10 years. I was also doing my undergrad work in Communications Studies at Concordia University. It was when I was doing my first master’s degree in Film and Television Production in Australia that I realized I enjoyed teaching. When I came back to Canada, I taught film and television at a private career college in Montreal, but I wanted to pursue further studies so I enrolled at the University of Victoria for a Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

How long have you been at the U of L and what do you do here?
After my MFA, I got an offer to come to Lethbridge to teach one class as a sessional. I rolled the dice on moving my family from Victoria to Lethbridge for one class, and it worked out. After the first contract, I got a term contract for the next semester and then a nine-month contract and finally a continuing appointment. I’m the internship coordinator for the department of New Media and I teach Social Media and Digital Identity, Internet Television Production, Developing Media for Children, and Portfolio and Professional Practice.

What’s the best part of your job?
It’s a tie between seeing my students convocate and when students get back to me and say that the lessons I was trying to instill finally sank in. Working with the students energizes me.

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
A friend and I, dressed as the Blues Brothers, crashed a wedding, sang In the Midnight Hour with the band and left. Yes, we knew the band.