Re-introducing myself (Kalle Ryan) to newcomers and longtime listeners
Howya folks
I thought it might be nice to introduce myself properly to new followers of my blog (and send virtual high fives to my existing readers). I’m Kalle Ryan and I live in bubblin’ Dublin, Ireland. I’m half-Swedish (hence the unusual first name) and half-Irish (hence the less unusual last name)
For 25+ years I have been a writer/performer and produced lots of lovely award-winning creative work, including a couple of award-nominated Fringe Festival plays and an alternative national anthem.
The Irish Times even named me as one of the 100 most creative people in Ireland. That was largely thanks to my popular monthly cabaret-style show called The Brownbread Mixtape (where I also served as MC, and wrote & performed comedy sketches). It was a rowdy, heartwarming show that was always bucketloads of fun, and proved to be a creative playground that filled me with oodles of ideas.
My other big passion is spoken word and performance poetry, and I performed it regularly around Ireland and at the big festivals like Electric Picnic and Longitude. Which led to me co-founding LINGO, Ireland’s first and only spoken word festival. Which, in turn, brought cool poetry commissions onto my plate. I’m particularly proud of my partnership with Jameson on the Sine Metu campaign.
In parallel I spent 15+ years innovating and communicating at whopper companies like Google and Meta. I founded Cloud 9 (Google’s 1st ever innovation lab in EMEA) and creating the first ever internal comms video team (Hosting the flagship internal news show The Blast)
These days I run my own creative communications consultancy called Poetic, where I run creativity workshops, deliver crackling keynotes, and solve comms conundrums for companies. You know, creative catalyst type stuff that every organisation needs in this modern world . And I’m chuffed to say I recently picked up an award from EU Business News as Creative Communicator of the Year 2025. Feel free to get in touch if you’re interested partnering on something that requires a creative communicator!
When I’m not actively creating things (or thinking about creativity) I like to listen to crackly vinyl records, and consume lots of cool creative content (TV, film, podcasts, books) I even do an annual wholly-subjective awards show called The Kallys, where I name my favourite arty things I’ve encountered that year.
Hope you enjoyed this whistle stop tour through my creative biography. Stick around on this blog if you’re interested in creativity and the creative process. (If you want to learn more about the professional side of things then take a peek at my LinkedIn here or visit the poetic website)
And if you dig what I do, feel free to drop me a comment below or send me a message to say hello [kalle(at)poetic.ie].
Other samples of my creative work
The Best of The Batch: Brownbread Mixtape Music
Spoken Word: Manhattan
Music: Lover Mourns for The Loss of Love – the analog revue
