Ryan Lewis was born on March 25, 1988 to Julie and Scott Lewis. Lewis has two sisters, Teresa and Laura, four years and two years older than he is, respectively. At an early age, he played guitar in rock bands with his childhood best friend Ryan Sanson, and nursed a growing interest in music production around the age of 15. He attended Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington and graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle. He graduated from the University of Washington majoring in Comparative History of Ideas.
Lewis first met Macklemore in 2006, but only in 2009 they formalized the collaboration with Macklemore as the duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and released the EP The VS. EP.
Lewis became a professional Photographer and videographer. In 2008 he released his debut extended play, Instrumentals, with four alternative hip hop songs. In the same year, Lewis collaborated with Rhode Island-based emcee Symmetry in a self-titled work, released as an LP.
In October 2010, he produced the VS. Redux EP and, in December, their debut single, "My Oh My". "Wings" was released on January 21, 2011, followed by "Can't Hold Us" featuring Ray Dalton on August 16, 2011.
The Heist World Tour began in August 2012 to promote The Heist.
On January 26, 2014, Macklemore performed "Same Love" at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, where Queen Latifah read marriage vows for 33 couples who lined the aisles, including Lewis's sister, Laura, and her now husband.
On August 27, 2015, the duo released a new song, "Downtown," featuring Eric Nally, Kool Moe Dee, Melle Mel, and Grandmaster Caz; it was performed at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards on August 30.
On January 22, 2016, the duo released "White Privilege II", the second single on This Unruly Mess I've Made.
July 2017 saw the release of Kesha's song "Praying," which Lewis co-wrote and produced.
