Ryan Blocker

-Under the stage name Ryan Ken, I’ve written and performed sketch comedy, hosted public events, written social commentary, appeared on podcasts, and worked as a critically acclaimed television writer. My online work has amassed millions of views and been featured in publications such as The Huffington Post, the LA Times, NPR, and GQ.
-Social media metrics: 12.2K followers on Threads, 44.4K followe

-I was a staff writer at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver from 2022 to 2025. I was responsible for pitching stories, drafting and outlining the show’s deep-dive stories, and writing jokes. For that work, I was awarded four Emmy Awards, four Writers Guild Awards, and a Peabody Award.
-Episode highlights: Critical Race Theory, Chuck E. Cheese, Israel-Hamas War, Trans Athletes, Transgender Rights I

-Managing a team of academics who provide professional development support to colleges and universities via on-campus and remote workshops
-Developing and piloting new faculty training content and materials during COVID-19
-Managing all sales, logistics, and administrative details of the virtual campus workshops, a remote professional development training offering
-Supporting colleges and universi

-Mapping and documenting Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood residents' perspectives on a host of neighborhood topics to inform the West Loop Community Organization's redesign efforts
-Identifying and surveying community stakeholders, transcribing interviews, providing qualitative analysis of interviews, mining publicly available data, and presenting recommendations to the Intradesign team
-Secured t

-Oversaw and managed all Enrich Chicago programming/Guaranteed program adherence to organizational values and priorities
-Created and facilitated bespoke diversity and equity training and curriculum for arts organizations to expand
-Developed a membership structure and onboarding process
-Supervised the smooth and proper functioning of the Arts Administration Pathways Program at The Chicago High S

-Managing a team of editors, staff writers, assigning stories, and editing drafts for publication
-Supervised the design of the publication and directed layout; Wrote and published articles for the online platform as well as full-length articles for the print edition
-Increased the publication's focus on social issues like racism, LGBT rights, disability rights, and xenophobia
-Devised evaluation

-Investigated alternative platforms for the Chicago Humanities Festival programs and content, and helped to diversify programs, content, and curatorial strategies
-Researched case studies for arts and festival presenters to assess effective audience engagement strategies
-Created an historical assessment of audiences and presenters for previous festivals
-Secured co-founder of the Black Lives Matt

Activities and societies: Fellowship Excellence in Leadership Student Leadership Award

Pursued a Master's degree in Arts Administration and Policy, earning the Fellowship Excellence in Leadership Student Leadership Award.

2016 Master's of Arts Administration and Policy Fellowship
Excellence in Leadership
Student Leadership Award

Grade: Magna cum laude

Activities and societies: James B. Duke Scholar

Earned a Bachelor's degree in Music, graduating Magna cum laude as a James B. Duke Scholar.

Magna cum laude
James B. Duke Scholar