Cathy Cahlin Ryan hails from Miami, Florida. She is an actress best known for her role on the FX police drama The Shield. Her husband, Shawn Ryan, is the writer and creator of the show. In fact, she was three months pregnant when she started filming The Shield in 2002. Meanwhile, her son was cast as her son on the show Brian in the show’s first and second season. In 2004, she was awarded with the CAN (Cure Autism Now) Media Award for her efforts to raise awareness of autism. In fact, she often wears a blue wrist band on the show representing the “blue band of hope” still to raise awareness of the condition.
Ryan made her mark on the theater and commercials before settling in Los Angeles. Her stage credits include Pigs in Space plus the title role of Sylvia at the Taber Theater. After moving to California, she then amassed a lot of roles in a string of television series, such as Judging Amy, Family Matters, Severence pay, Roseanne: Portrait of a Domestic Goddess and The Shield, where she plays Corrine Mackey, the estranged wife of Vic Mackey, the leader of Farmington's Strike Team. She has also appeared on an episode of Monk and The Unit.