Ryan Grantham (born November 30, 1998) is a Canadian former actor and convicted murderer.
His acting career primarily involved small roles, with him having featured in Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Riverdale.
He was charged with second-degree murder for killing his mother and was sentenced in September 2022 to life imprisonment with chance of parole after 14 years.
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Early life
Ryan Grantham was born on November 30, 1998, to Barbara Waite and his father in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada.
He practiced acting as a child and also enrolled in acting schools.
Grantham began working in the entertainment industry at nine years old in 2007 with The Secret of the Nutcracker.
His mother and younger sister supported his aspiration to become an actor,
and in 2020, he was enrolled in Simon Fraser University. However, he missed all of his classes due to his heavy drinking and marijuana usage which was attributed to his depression.
Grantham also had suicidal thoughts.
Career
Grantham made his acting debut in the 2007 television film The Secret of the Nutcracker, playing the role of Billy.
In addition, he has also been in numerous TV shows and movies including Supernatural, iZombie and Becoming Redwood with his last role being in 2019 as Jeffery Augustine for Riverdale.
Murder
On 31 March 2020, Grantham shot his 64-year-old mother in the head with a .22 rifle as she was playing the piano.
After the murder, he filmed his mother's corpse with a GoPro while saying "I shot her in the back of the head. In the moments after, she would have known it was me".
He covered his mother's body with a blanket and rosary before surrounding her body with lit candles.
In his March 31 diary entry, he wrote "I'm so sorry Mum, I’m so sorry Lisa - I hate myself. There’s a lot of media of me out there, film and TV, hundreds of hours of me that can be viewed and dissected. No one will understand."
He watched Netflix, drank beer, and smoked marijuana for hours before going to sleep.
Grantham's sister Lisa visited their home and discovered the crime scene on April 1 after not receiving her daily calls or texts from her mother.
A day later, Grantham packed his car with 12 Molotov cocktails, three guns, ammunition, and camping supplies.
He then drove east, planning to either assassinate former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau or go on a rampage at Simon Fraser University or Lions Gate Bridge.
However, Grantham ultimately canceled his plan, and turned around at Hope, British Columbia to drive back to the Vancouver police headquarters to turn himself in.
His sentencing began on June 13, 2022.
His lawyer argued that he did it due to his mental illness, including an intense period of clinical depression.