Ryan Ellis

Ryan Ellis, a magnetic vocalist, tunesmith, and worship leader, achieved broad recognition in 2022 through the emotive, R&B-tinged track “Heart of the Father,” featured on his self-titled first release for a major label. He built on that momentum the next year by issuing the EP Nite-N-Day. The widely embraced 2024 song “Better Days” introduced his subsequent album, Real Love, which came out in early 2025.

Raised from birth in San Diego within a home filled with music, Ellis devoted his early years to singing and dancing. He helped establish the original Jabbawockeez hip-hop dance crew and served five years in the Navy as a veteran of the armed forces. He later took the role of Worship Pastor at Isla Vista Worship and began composing and tracking material. Prior to stepping out as a solo artist, Ellis wrote material for Matt Redman, Natalie Grant, Meredith Andrews, Steven Malcolm, and Housefires while also co-authoring the Dove Award-nominated Chris Tomlin success “Resurrection Power.” His first full-length project, Lyfe, arrived in 2019, joined that same year by the EP Rysponse and followed in 2021 by Episode 1. A contract with Provident, the Sony CCM subsidiary, set the stage for “Heart of the Father,” which accumulated millions of streams. The single appeared on the 2022 major-label debut Ryan Ellis alongside the hits “Need” and “Gonna Be Alright.” Nite-N-Day followed in 2023. Ellis opened his next album cycle in 2024 via the introspective piano ballad “Better Days.” Together with tracks such as “Eva Comin’ Down” and “Without Jesus,” it formed the core of the 2025 album Real Love.