Shawn Ryan, the creator and visionary behind FX’s “The Shield” -- easily the grittiest, edgiest and most shocking police series to hit TV when it debuted in 2002 -- bears an uncanny resemblance to the series’ lead character, Det. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis): both are bald and imposing, both are mavericks who have succeeded by doing things their own way, and Ryan’s wife Cathy Cahlin Ryan even plays Mackey’s wife, Corrine. But it’s there that the similarities likely end. Tough corrupt cop Mackey can declare the street as a major influence, where Ryan cites playwright David Mamet, with whom he shares an aptitude for poetically coarse language. Considering the show’s hardcore, hand-held realism, it may come as a surprise that the soft-spoken Ryan hails originally from Rockford, Ill, where he studied theater and economics at Middlebury College. It was in school that he first began writing plays.
Upon moving to Hollywood, he gained experience as a staff writer on such shows as “My Two Dads” (NBC, 1987-1990), the animated series “Life with Louie” (1995-1998), and “Nash Bridges” (CBS, 1996-2001). From there, he graduated up to writer/producer on “Angel,” (WB, 1999-2004) the venerable spin-off of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” In between, he penned a couple of screenplays, the mockumentary, “Welcome to Hollywood” (2000) and the short film “The Good Things” (2001), about a young toll booth worker who wants to see the world.
Then came “The Shield” -- originally to titled “Rampart,” after the controversial precinct that made headlines across the country for its rampant corruption and violence. Its portrayal of corrupt and otherwise morally ambiguous Los Angeles cops has earned it the kind of notorious reputation unheard of since ABC’s “NYPD Blue” first aggravated network standards and practices while captivating audiences. Whereas other cop show franchises portray the men in blue as flawed at worst, here the people behind the badge are sometimes worse than the "perps" they chase. But the show struck the all-too critical balance between good intentions and bad: even the corrupt cops of “The Shield” are often portrayed as looking out for their families and fellow officers or circumventing tricky political situations in the name of justice; other times, they’re just motivated by greed. It’s all in the interest of making them tragically human, Ryan says