People across the world are quite familiar with Ryan Seacrest as an on-air personality. The radio and television host has held a wide range of jobs that keep him in the public eye. Since we know his goings-on are always of interest to his fans, we’ve taken time to put together a deep dive into his activities of late. Read on to see how the star is keeping busy in his daily and professional life as well as some of the fun revelations he’s shared about his recent activities.
Personal background
Let’s start with a bit of background about the radio host since his story is not only interesting, it can serve as an inspiration to anyone seeking to follow their own dreams. Ryan Seacrest was born in Atlanta, Georgia on December 24th, 1974. His father, Gary, was a real estate agent and his mother, Constance, was a homemaker. The star came from a long and proud military heritage, with both his father and grandfather having served in the U.S. Army.
As a child, the future radio host’s interest in entertainment was apparent quite early on. Where other children were playing with more typical toys, he could usually be found with a microphone putting on shows for his family and friends. This interest continued into his teenage years when, at the age of 16, he secured an internship at a local radio station, WSTR in Atlanta. It was there that he got the chance to host his first-ever on-air radio show when a DJ called in sick.
Having excelled in that role, the radio host was kept on-air throughout the rest of his time at WSTR and was given the overnight weekend shift at the station. That role continued until he graduated high school in 1992, giving him a solid foundation in the work required to be a successful on-air personality. After graduating from high school, he briefly attended the University of Georgia before moving to Los Angeles to continue pursuing a career in broadcasting.
Career advancements
The move to Los Angeles proved to be an auspicious one for Ryan Seacrest as it allowed him to pursue a variety of television and radio hosting opportunities. Early opportunities spanned a number of programs in reality television and other genres. This work touched on areas of casual sports, movies, and entertainment shows. If you’re sports inclined person, then having the advantages of rugby base layers known can make yourself feel comfortable, it can actually help to enhance your performance. Remember, having the right sports clothing for the best performance is essential!
Perhaps the entertainment professional’s most notable break came when he signed on as host of American Idol in 2002. Becoming the sole host the following year, he became a visible and notable face for the show as it grew in popularity. That popularity helped catapult him to worldwide recognition and helped open the door to other hosting opportunities. He stayed on as host of American Idol through its initial run and has also hosted a subsequent reboot of the show.
The star’s radio career has also flourished since his move to Los Angeles, currently hosting two high-profile shows — On Air With Ryan Seacrest and American Top 40. He landed his spot hosting both of those shows in 2004, with each one still running to present day. In each case, he was following in the footsteps of notable names in radio history, with his LA morning show taking over from Rick Dees, and his time as host of American Top 40 taking over for Casey Kasem. As a result of his long runs in both radio and television, the host has built up widespread name recognition and has become one of the most well-known individuals working in the entertainment industry at present.
American Top 40 Anniversary
Noting his role as host of American Top 40 is timely as the show just celebrated its 50th anniversary. With a long run as one of the most recognizable programs on the radio, the show has helped shape and highlight American musical tastes for decades. The 50th anniversary of its creation was, among other things, a celebration of that influence over the years. The radio host helped highlight that influence by paying homage to the show’s roots and the footsteps he’s filled in taking over the program.
The host also spoke to notable names in the music industry about their experiences with the show and the impact it’s had in their own lives. One standout example of this came from his interview with Kesha, who recounted some of the ways the show had affected her over the years.
The singer noted that the first time she heard herself on the program was through the broadcast of a Flo Rida song on which she performed but was uncredited. Even though the song was not attributed to her formally, just hearing it on the radio caused the singer so much excitement that she had to pull off the interstate and call her mom to celebrate the occasion.
The popular singer went on to recount when she heard her own song on the program for the first time and the even more impactful effect it had on her. According to the story she recounted on-air, she had just played a show and her song “Tik Tok” came on the program. She was so overjoyed to hear the song that she pulled over and began dancing on her car in happiness. The sight must have caught onlookers by surprise as there’s even video of the event that can still be found on the internet to this day.
Ryan’s four-legged friend
With all of the stories that abound of the ways in which Ryan Seacrest and his programs have personally impacted people, it’s also nice to hear of times when that impact was repaid. A heartwarming story recently came out on this topic concerning how he was first linked up with his dog, a beautiful black lab named Georgia.
Recounting the story recently, the radio host revealed how his love for these four-legged pals grew after spending time at the home of American Idol creator, Simon Fuller. “I was at Simon Fuller’s house.. watching probably a rerun of American Idol,” said Seacrest. “He kind of looked at me playing with the dogs with that weird look like, ‘Huh, you’re going to be a dad one day.”
The radio host then recounted how, a couple of weeks later, a little black lab puppy showed up at his door with a letter from Fuller that read “Dear Ryan, this is your first step into daddyhood. Love, Simon Fuller.” Seacrest noted that the gesture meant a lot to him and that he felt it was a kind thing to do for someone.
Georgia herself has, of course, become a big part of the radio host’s life. He introduced the puppy to the world on The Ellen Degeneres Show and noted how it was the first dog that he had ever owned by himself. Named after his home state, Georgia has also become a favorite amongst fans and often shows up on his social media pages. With the host spending so much time at home recently, she has increased her frequency of appearances with the radio host joking that he was featuring her for “take your dog to work day.”
Scientific progress
Another area that has been an evergreen topic for the radio host is science and various areas of interest in that field. A recent example of this is his feature of a new fragrance on his radio show — “Eau de Space.” The scent is currently being offered through a Kickstarter campaign and has drawn a high level of attention for its premise, that it can recreate the smell of outer space in a bottle.
The radio host’s program dove into this idea further, uncovered the scent’s origins and even what it might smell like. It turns out the scent was originally developed by a chemist at NASA who was tasked with developing it to help astronauts train in a more realistic environment. As a government agency, NASA handed over designs for the scent under Freedom of Information Act requests to the company now developing it for consumer release.
So what does outer space smell like? Well, according to a number of astronauts, it has a bit of a burnt smell to it. Some have likened it to “seared steak” or “burnt cookies”. Opinion varies on this front, however, with another astronaut saying it smells like “rum and raspberries”.
Whatever the specific smell, the scent will be put to good use to educate people as to the nature of space itself. The team creating the project hopes it will be used to help inspire students to follow pursuits in STEM fields and offers bulk ordering for learning institutions in order to help them spread their message.
Additional STEM features
The scent isn’t the first time Ryan Seacrest has featured stories of scientific interest on his show. In fact, the radio host regularly highlights such areas in order to better inform people about developments in science and technology and to help make science more accessible to the wider public.
On that last front, the host participated in a scientific demonstration two years ago that would earn a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. The demonstration saw the host bring teacher and author “Science Bob” onto his show. The purpose of the visit was to demonstrate a special kind of chemical reaction known as “elephant’s toothpaste”. By mixing sodium iodide and hydrogen peroxide, the reaction causes colorful foam to emerge from a receptacle in surprisingly large quantities.
Science Bob started off with a private demonstration for the host before moving on to the main event — a demonstration that involved 10.6 gallons of hydrogen peroxide. When the sodium iodide was mixed into the chemical solution, the result was impressive. A fountain of foam measuring nearly 462 cubic feet.
The colorful and fun experiment helped to showcase a lighthearted aspect of chemistry and left many viewers with a smile on their face. As mentioned, the Guinness Book of World Records was on hand to certify the demonstration as the world’s largest elephant’s toothpaste fountain.
Wardrobe mishap
Speaking of fun moments, one of particular interest came to the attention of fans in connection to the July 4th holiday. It turns out Ryan Seacrest had planned to order a collared shirt with red, white, and blue stripes to help celebrate the festivities. The only problem was, rather than ordering a small or medium as intended, the radio host actually ordered an extra small.
Making light of his mistake, the entertainment personality wore the shirt briefly on-air while recording his television show “Live with Kelly and Ryan”. In doing so, he gave his cohost, Kelly Ripa, the opportunity to poke a bit of fun at him. She called the shirt “Mark Consuelos tight,” referencing her husband’s penchant for tight clothing.
Seacrest was good-natured about the mix-up and even posted about it to social media with the caption “shout-out to all the buttons working overtime today.” The situation was made even more comical by the fact that the television host had planned to wear the shirt in conjunction with Adam Scott who was a guest on the show that day. Scott, it would seem, had succeeded in ordering the correct size shirt for himself and also laid into the host with some light ribbing of his own.
Celebrity interviews
Adam Scott isn’t the only celebrity giving interviews with Ryan Seacrest these days. Dubbed by some as the “ultimate Hollywood insider,” the radio host can be seen speaking with some of the biggest names in entertainment on a regular basis. This access to stars that he provides through his radio and television hosting duties is one of the things that endears him to his fans.
A recent example of this was a conversation he had with Charlize Theron on her new movie “The Old Guard”. Theron appeared on the host’s radio show to discuss her life, the movie, and how’s she’s been coping with quarantine. Her light-hearted answer to the last topic was that she’s getting by through the help of rosé, something that the host and his co-hosts laughingly related to.
The star’s new movie, which dives into themes of immortality, became an interesting topic of conversation during her appearance on the show. Seacrest noted that many people might think they want to be immortal, but the new movie paints a darker picture of the fantasy than some might expect.
Theron agreed and explained the concept in greater detail. “The idea of having more time is something that we can all get excited about,” said the actress. “But the theme of this movie is realizing that it’s a very lonely road to walk the Earth for thousands of years and watch people that you’re connected to pass away.” Theron went on to comment that for her character in the film, it makes it difficult for her to have any kind of relationship outside of her team, due to the traumatizing nature of seeing so many people come and go in her life.
The actress and the radio host also discussed one of her costars from the film, Kiki Layne, who the host felt was brilliant in her role. Theron noted that her casting in the film was partly a case of auspicious timing since the actress’s film “If Beale Street Could Talk” had just come out while they were casting. With Layne posting a stellar performance in that film, her consideration for this latest release became only natural.
More casting talk
Speaking of casting, another recent story highlighted by the radio host gave viewers an interesting look at a casting that could possibly manifest in the future. In this case, the radio host was speaking with Janelle Monae, the popular singer/songwriter. She noted that she had been recording her album “Dirty Computer” in Atlanta at the same time that Marvel’s “Black Panther” was filming in the area.
It turns out the director of the film and some of its stars stopped by the studio to pay her a visit while she was recording. Now, the singer is hoping to land a role as a superhero as well, in this case, Storm from the X-Men. She’s even considered what it would be like to play the character and be included in the sequel of Black Panther, which is currently in production.
“One of my dreams has always been to play Storm,” said Monae. “I don’t know if she [is even featured] in Black Panther 2, but it would be a dream to have her in it. I don’t know where they are with that.” Clearly, this prospect has gotten the attention of fans, many of whom feel she’d be a great choice for the storied character.
Monae did note that she would be humbled to play the role, considering the character’s legacy. “A lot of women have played Storm and they’ve done an exceptional job and I would love to be in that line of artists and get to do Storm justice,” said Monae. Time will tell if that prospect becomes a reality, but in the meantime, the idea is sure to be on the minds of people both in and out of the entertainment industry.
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