EXCLUSIVE: Jay Ryan has been cast as the adult version of Ben Hanscom in New Line Cinema’s It: Chapter 2. The younger version of this character was played by actor Jeremy Ray Taylor in It.

Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben in “It” WB

The actor can be seen on the eOne/Hulu rights-to-die drama series Mary Kills People, the second season of which premiered this month. A New Zealand native, Ryan first broke through on stage with his one person show The Packer in which he played eight characters. The piece played to raves at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where reviewers likened his performance to a live stage version of Trainspotting re-situated in New Zealand. Ryan then went on to play Mark Mitcham, the crafty son of a drug lord in the Golden Globe-and-Emmy Award-winning BBC/Sundance Channel miniseries Top of the Lake for directors Jane Campion and Garth Davis. That same year, the actor was cast as the titular lead in the CW’s award-winning sci-fi series Beauty and the Beast

Ryan is repped by United Talent Agency, Management 360 and Ziffren Brittenham. His Australian agent is Independent Artists.