Check Out Ryan King Scales’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan King Scales.

Hi Ryan King, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
As children, we are all asked that one question that decides our fate for the rest of our lives…

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

As I child, I gave my most honest answer…

“I want to be a super hero!”

Growing up wasn’t the easiest thing for me, as I wasn’t heavy into sports like my other cousins. My family wasn’t exactly equipped to handle a kid whose greatest strength was his imagination, or how to really support me considering at that time I was just a kid in Decatur, GA and all the stars were in Hollywood. My biggest inspiration was my grand father, Retired Atlanta Fire Lieutenant Henry Scales Jr. His heroism in the fire department shined a light on my path, but I had not yet found my way to being that super hero just yet.

I spent my early days gaining inspiration from movies and TV shows like “Spawn” and “Dragon Ball Z,” until one day I got on my moms computer and wrote my first chapter book at age 10. I would write stories about me as a secret agent out to stop my arch nemesis from destroying the world. I began to understand the power that is held within ones imagination to create his own universe, and eventually I fell in love with the art of storytelling. Reading and comprehension became key to my development, and my hunger grew for different ways to understand character development. At the same time, there was a presence growing within me that demanded acknowledgement.

I started doing school plays portraying a range of characters, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that none of the characters truly fulfilled what I sought after. My writing had taken a pause as I stepped into the arena of acting. I was discovering another way to dip into the far reaches of my mind, and one day i figured it out… as an actor, I can be anything. I can be a super hero. I had found my path, but I still lacked one key ingredient… direction. I graduated high school with the idea of becoming a household name someday.

I attended the University of West Georgia where I would get my bachelors degree in fine arts. My college years were honestly riddled with anxieties plaguing me in my personal life causing me to disassociate from the crowd. I would walk everywhere around campus allowing my imagination to run wild, taking me far away from any issue that was trying to unhinge me from reality. Those brief moments in time allowed me the opportunity to see more than just what I was going through, but what I could become. Acting was more than just being a character and writing was more than just an outlet for my imagination. I saw images of epic battles between supernatural beings that would decide the fate of the universe. They served as a metaphor for me to continue fighting against the dark clouds that seemed to follow me. One day I got an idea… ” I should write this down.”

After graduation, I interned at the Horizon Theatre in Little 5 Points. During my time there, I got a taste of combining my own literary works with acting. I was beginning to pave my path to what I desired. In my personal life, I was at the forefront of finding myself in all the ruckus. When I turned 25, I made a move that would jumpstart me further on that path. I had a good job and I needed something to do with my extra time, so I purchased my first motorcycle, A 2005 Yamaha R1. That ride took me on a journey one day. I was on I-285 heading around town to my destination, and suddenly everything made sense. I understood my path. The hero complex I had discovered within me had a purpose. I was more than just a background character on a hit TV show… I was everything that I was in my mind. I became conscious of myself and my abilities and took it all a step further.

I found fortune and got a piece of the pie with the entertainment business. I’ve appeared in TV shows and movies such as 24 Legacy, The Bobby Brown Story, Christmas at Graceland, Wedding at Graceland & Wounded Healer. The last spark of inspiration I needed on my path to take me all the way was in 2018 when I met my hero. My agent sent me an audition for a movie and I booked the role, but I was so caught up in everything else I had going on, I didn’t pay attention to who my scene partner was. It was 6 AM and I was on set trying my best to keep my eyes open as I have never been a morning person. Suddenly the room goes into a slight frenzy, and there was my hero, the man responsible for my path to get in front of the camera… Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft. As much as I wanted to lose my mind, I had to keep it together and be professional. In between takes we chatted about his career and how he got started and I mentioned to him that his role in Pulp Fiction was the reason I wanted to become an actor. That day will go down in history as one of the greatest moments in my life, as it was also the final piece that I needed to put me right in the middle of my path.

There was a character I had created in college from all of those epic battles that went on in my head. He was me, but he was more than me. He was a super natural being, powerful but broken by the traumas he faced in life. He believed in justice and peace, but he took a different path toward obtaining it. He had my face, but there was something different about him. He had red eyes and sharp golden fangs. He could harness immense power from the wrath of his ancestors. He was a menace to evil, striking fear in the eyes of his opposition and giving hope to the people who had given up on the idea of peace in the world. He was the Almighty God of War and his name was Red Dragon.

I had finally figured it out… I had become the hero I had always wanted to be…

In 2019, I got a publishing deal with 13th & Joan publishing. In time, I had written and published my book, “The Menacing Red Dragon: Awakening of the God of War,” the first of the series. 722 pages of pure, unadulterated revenge, as I would go on to describe it. With my creation finally on the shelf, I decided it was time to take it to the next level and marry my creative writing with my acting skills and take the Red Dragon Universe to TV and film. I’m currently putting that project together which I affectionately call, the Red Dragon Project.

In my time here on this earth, I’ve learned an important lesson of why representation matters. My hero’s, whether they be real or fictional, inspired me to create my own dark hero. Somewhere out there is someone looking for something that is going to inspire them. My life goal is to make the Menacing Red Dragon a household name as a world renowned actor, writer, director and producer, but more than that, I hope to inspire the next generation of hero’s, just as my hero’s inspired me.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I would love to tell people all of the good things that have occurred on my path, but the truth is life is what it is. I suffered many mental battles in my early years from depression and anxiety to full blown rage. While I have never done anything questionable, every mans torture is has been keeping his emotions in check and pretending not to care. These moments shape us, and for some the path ends badly. In my case, I had a few simple outlets that allowed me to maintain control of the narrative. I would write to keep my creative juices going and distract me from the anxiety that tried to force me to live a life of what i called “Normality.” I didn’t want to be a guy with a boring job that slowly killed my dreams.

In 2019 I took a leap of faith, and quit my job after booking “Wedding at Graceland,” the best and worse decision I’ve ever made. Three months after filming, I was riding my motorcycle, a 2013 Yamaha R1 named Danger. I was heading home to work on my book, realizing that I was suffering from a terrible case of writers block. On the way home, there was medium traffic on Flat Shoals Rd. in Decatur. I was approaching an intersection and the light turned yellow. I had the right of way so I kept going, but at the last second, I noticed the car on the opposite side of the street had decided they were going to try and beat me to the light and commenced a left turn. She turned so fast that she accidently turned toward oncoming traffic on the street she was turning on and came to a complete stop, blocking both lanes in my path. I looked to my left and the lanes were full of cars in the on coming lanes. I looked to my right and there were cars lined up waiting for their light to turn green. By this time, I had become a seasoned rider and had even joined a bike club. My instincts kicked in and I had an idea. I aimed my bike toward the front end of her car since it sat lower to the ground in hopes that the impact would send me flying over it. I let off the throttle and hit the brakes, saying to myself… “I’m gonna miss this bike.”

BOOM!!

Everything went black. Moments later, I awakened laying on my side. I couldn’t feel any pain, yet, but I knew I had been in an accident. There was deep open wound at the bend of my arm that exposed the white meat. I sat up trying to breathe. I went to take off my helmet and realized there was blood leaking from somewhere on my head. I started to panic and tried to stand and immediately fell to my knees. Everything was hazy as I crawled toward what I thought was my wrecked Danger. I crawled on my hands and knees to using just my injured elbows inching closer and closer until I just didn’t have it in me anymore. I rolled on my back and thought… “This is it, this is how I die.” Sad to say, in that moment I kind of accepted it. I was stressed out and felt like I couldn’t catch a break. Life was cruel, my mind was weary, and death was an easy out. I figured I could obtain my goals in the next lifetime. I closed my eyes, I stopped breathing… and then he spoke to me… The Red Dragon commanded me to keep fighting. He told me I had lived several lifetimes, and in my past lifetimes I had faced adversity without failure. This lifetime would be no different. He reminded me who we were, who I am, what I stand for and what we mean to other people. I opened my eyes and took a breath accepting attempt 2 at my goals. Just as I was about to roll over and get back to crawling, I was suddenly pinned down by a woman who was trying to help.

I spent 5 days in the hospital with 2 fractured knees, a screw in my ankle, stiches, and a little road rash. It turned out that the blood from my head was from the chin strap cutting my chin. With my new determination in life, I was in the hospital on ebay and Facebook Marketplace looking for my next motorcycle. I spent 4 months in a wheelchair losing my mind over my lack of mobility. Watching the insurance company come and haul off my destroyed Danger from my garage killed something in me because based on the damage I saw, I could have easily died. My mind went through so many abrupt changes in a short period of time, but I was determined to champion this situation and get back on my feet.

Shortly thereafter, tragedy struck the world as COVID took over. While I didn’t lose anyone particularly close to me, it felt as if my inspiration was infected my the disease. Then came the SAG strike that hit the acting community hard as a rock, but from that moment in time came the idea of doing it all myself. What I’m after isn’t a small cup of tea, but my grandmother taught me how to make diamonds under pressure. In spite of what I write about, nothing could prepare me for the latest mental struggle I faced.

It was Thursday February 16th, 2023 at 3:59 PM. I had just gotten home from a job interview and picking up my ex’s daughter from school. I was in my room talking to my ex, getting ready to get on my motorcycle, a now 2014 Yamaha R1 named The Revenant Danger, and I was going to hit the road to see my sister and nephew. It seemed like there were several things that slowed me down from leaving that day, and I am grateful that I got held up. I got my gear ready and remembered I had not eaten anything that day, so I went to the kitchen to warm up some food. I went back into my room and my ex and I were laughing about something we saw on Facebook. Suddenly, my alarm starts going off, we look at each other knowing that the only way the alarm would go off is if someone opened the front or backdoor and we were all upstairs. My instincts immediately kicked in as I grabbed my shotgun and made my way into the hallway toward the stairs. It was a home invasion. To this day, I don’t regret doing what I had to do to protect my home, I could literally feel the PTSD setting in as I fired the shots. The police came, and after doing a terrible investigation I was taken to Dekalb County Police headquarters. I was interrogated for 4 hours as they were trying to hit me with 16-5-1, first degree murder. The only thing that saved me what the fact that my ex 2 years before told me that we needed to get a camara system. My evidence got me back home, but it was just a house to me at that point.

The change was immediate. I had almost become a victim of the system and I had done nothing wrong. My ex and I had ended, and I was alone in my dungeon. The worse part was the aftermath of the situation. Some would feel bad about doing what I had to do, but in my broken mind something had been awakened. I wasn’t me anymore, I was something far worse that that. All my years of mastering self control were melting away in my mind and what came from the molten destruction was just that. I was beyond pissed off, I felt disrespected, and I wanted blood on my hands. The rage I had kept inside all those years was finally bursting out of me. It was all over my face, in my speech, and on my mind. I took a break from acting as I no longer felt safe being around people believing I was going to suddenly snap.

For months I had terrible dreams of revenge destruction, but the worse ones were the ones where I was lost in the dark corners of my mind. I was stuck in a labyrinth of stairs and windows armed with a shotgun. I would hear footsteps but I couldn’t see anyone. Finally, I had a nightmare that I was on the run from the FBI for a crime I didn’t commit and my family was hiding me at different relatives houses and transporting me in the trunks of their cars. I was stuck in this dream for hours because what I felt seemed so real. I finally woke up in a cold sweat in the darkness of my bedroom and immediately went to work breaking the dream down. Usually, if I have a bad dream I immediately wake up once I realize its a dream, but I questioned why I stayed in this one. There was something in this dream that felt real, familiar to one situation in life. I’m not afraid of anything, and I face every challenge with bravery, however, there was one time in life where I actually felt real fear… the interrogation room. I felt fear in that dream, fear of being taken captive for doing nothing wrong. That dream played on my feelings and trapped me, and in that moment I swore it would never happen again.

I used to live by the advice of one of my uncles, hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Good advice, but I had determined that it was survival advice, and I wanted to live. I changed my frame of thinking… think positive and positive things will happen. I happened to meet a woman by the name of Kimberly Jackson, a major partner in several companies such as Home Depot, AT&T, Tesla, and many more. She wondered why I looked so stressed and took the time to talk me down. I told her my story and she introduced me to frequencies, specific sounds I could listen to while I slept that would heal my trauma. We spoke of many things that day, but this was the most valuable information. I began listening to the frequencies as she instructed and soon I saw my smile again, my real smile. After a period of time, I felt safe enough to be around people, even rekindled old friendships, but I noticed something was still off. I wasn’t focused on becoming my old self, I was keeping track of what I was becoming and I wanted to make sure I was going be something good. I had made peace with the dark energy within me understanding that it is apart of the duality of my higher self and it needed love and nurturing just as my outward facing self does. I had ignored it for so long that I felt disconnected, forgetting that this energy isn’t just apart of me, but its who I am and it is necessary. The final point of healing, I had to get away.

In June of 2025 to took a trip to the source of where my character, The Red Dragon, got his powers from, Egypt. I spent 10 days exploring the lands, seeing the sites, and experiencing the culture. I found peace between my higher and lower self and mended the bond between them. I wasn’t King, I wasn’t the Red Dragon… for the first time in years, I was finally just Ryan

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m an author/actor by trade. I ‘ve been in several movies and TV shows such as “24 Legacy,” “The Bobby Brown Story,” “Shaft (2019)” “Christmas at Graceland,” “Wedding at Graceland,” “Wounded Healer,” and other stage plays and independent projects. I’m currently producing my own project, The Red Dragon Project. The project is coming from all angles of my expertise in the form of novels and film. The first book of the series is already out titled “The Menacing Red Dragon: Awakening of the God of War. It’s 722 pages of pure unadulterated revenge, at least that what I say about it. The book focuses on the trial of man, we are faced with challenges in life that shape who we become and the path we take to get there. Of course, the message is hidden within all the action, but I believe that my readers will understand in their own way with their own interpretations.

I’ve always been known for being the person that I am. Often times in life we are told to be like someone else who is “doing good” in life versus being what it is we choose to become. I’ve always championed the idea of being true to myself, never assimilating to be a construct of someone else’s program. I’m not a rebel, I’m just me. The idea of people telling me, “I’ve never met anyone like you” isn’t just a phrase, its the truth. The literal best advice given to me came from one of my uncles, Henry Scales Jr. III. I used to want to be cool just like him when I grew up. He looked at his 10 year old nephew and said something that would shape my life forever… “If you want to be cool like me, just be yourself.”

That advice has taken me from Wesley Chappell off of I-20 to college, different stages, and movie sets, and has also helped me obtain many great goals in life. I share that information with anyone who crosses my path seeking knowledge.

I’m skilled in many things such as martial arts (taekwondo, tactical fight training, jujitsu, muay thai & boxing), I have tactical weapons training, as I am an avid gun enthusiast. One of my greatest joys in life is my motorcycle. I currently ride a 2014 Yamaha R1 that I have named The Revenant Danger. I used to be in a bike club where I was known on the set by my alias, Red Dragon. The name Red Dragon was actually created in my 9th grade English class. I had combined the undertone of my skin with my favorite animal and the name just stuck with me. On any given day, you might see me ripping up the city streets or out of town riding solo.

My proudest moment would definitely have to be May 3rd, 2022. Not only was it my birthday, but it was the day my book hit the selves. It wasn’t a matter of a casting director picking me for a role and putting me on TV, it was something I had done on my own, it had my name all over it, and even my picture on the back. It was my creation. I had done something I had always wanted to do and I wanted to do more. My aunt Jackie was brought to tears after seeing what I had accomplished. I had made name for myself in the writing world.

What sets me apart from others is that I know myself. I don’t try to fit into the crowds, am actually kind of an introvert. I’m never anyone’s first choice, and I definitely don’t look like all that I am capable of all that I can do. At the end of the day, I’m just a guy. I’m kind, and in the blink of an eye I’m a hero toting large weapons on a motorcycle ready to defend the world from anyone who opposes the peace. I didn’t just create the idea of the Red Dragon, I am the Red Dragon. I walk the path of heroism, just as I do in my books. I live up to my word. Everyone knows if you can’t call the police, call the Red Dragon. I’m not just a friend, I’m your secret weapon. I have a big heart, and more than anything I want to give back to my people.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
On the good side of things, luck has giving me fortune by placing me in arenas where most people will never see. From the movie sets, to the author photos on the back on my book, I’ve learned never to regret where life takes you. In some of my darkest moments, I’ve met individuals who have helped guide me on my path.

One of my greatest allies is my mentor and friend Kermit Brower. He met me at a job when I was 26 still trying to find that direction that was ahead of me. He saw my potential and we had a conversation one day that awakened me to reality. I have learned many lessons from this brother and he is a true asset to my success. It was him who actually got me in touch with Audrey Orie, the founder of 13th and Joan Publishing. He helped me expand my mind and frame of thinking which allowed me to turn the Red Dragon into what it is to me today. Without his guidance, I firmly believe I would have been stuck where I was at in my mind versus transforming into the being I have become.

As far as bad luck, I have not yet learned the ability to control the world, but I have learned how to roll with the punches. I’ve nearly died a few times in life, and I’ve been on the other side, having to take a life. It changes you. It makes you see life from a different perspective, but ultimately it challenges you to to fight against the opposition. I’ve been up, I’ve been down, but I am no where near out of this fight. In some cases, I believe the bad things I have faced in life helped shape me to be capable of doing the things I will face later in life. They are lessons that I don’t regret, but I really wish a cool old guy could have talked to me about these things versus having to experience them first hand, but as we say… “That’s life.”

Pricing:

• $24.99 The Menacing Red Dragon: Awakening of the God of War (Amazon, May be on sale)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ryankingscales.com
• Instagram: @ryankingscales, @thereddragonproject
• Facebook: Ryan King Scales Fanpage
• Twitter: @RyanKingScales
• Other: TikTok @ryankingscales_official