RYAN LANJI

PRESENTER, CURATOR, PERSONALITY

Ryan is a cultural curator and self-titled ‘creative polymath’. Straddling the various spheres of art, fashion, entertainment and music, he is constantly looking for new ways to expand culture to reflect and champion the presence of the LGBTQ+ community.

One of Ryan’s most celebrated ventures is Hungama – a Bollywood hip hop club night that he founded to reconcile his queer identity with his South Asian heritage. It has quickly established itself as a safe space where culture and sexuality can comfortably exist, welcoming everyone from the queer community whether they are South Asian or not. With nightlife suffering during the pandemic, Ryan has been busy co-building a new platform: Not Dead Yet (NDY). The aim of NDY is to help

 sustain queer club culture, while also catering for the queer and trans community’s mental and physical health through fitness and wellbeing classes. 

Ryan’s other artistic credits include curating ‘Nailphilia’, the first exhibition to centre nail-art as art, co-curating the ‘Beauty Of Being South Asian’ exhibition with Burnt Roti magazine, and winning Netflix’s ‘Big Flower Fight’. He is set to host the new BBC THREE series 'The Big Proud Party Agency', which begins production later this year.