Ryan Serhant

One of the most successful real estate agents in the United States, Ryan Serhant's media-savvy presence also helped to make him a reality television star on the Bravo series "Million Dollar Listing New York" (2012).

Born Ryan Matthew Serhart on July 2, 1984 in Houston, Texas, he was raised in Topsfield, a town in Massachusetts' North Shore region, and attended the Pingree School there. Initially interested in acting as a career, he attended performing arts camps in his teens, and studied English literature and theater at Hamilton College. After graduation, Serhart relocated to New York City, where he landed a role on "As the World Turns" (CBS, 1956-2010) in 2007.

But within a year's time, he had refocused his attentions on a career in real estate, which proved to be a wildly successful decision.

As an agent with Nest Seekers International, a residential and commercial brokerage firm for global real estate, Serhart quickly vaulted to one of the most successful sales figures in New York City, and soon parlayed his camera-ready presence into a second careeer as a reality television star on "Million Dollar Listing New York."

A spinoff of the popular Bravo reality franchise "Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles" (Bravo, 2006- ), the series followed a trio of agents - Fredrik Eklund, Steve Gold and Serhant, who came to the series as a replacement for another agent - as they sold high-profile properties throughout New York City.

The series drew sizable ratings for the network, netting Emmy nominations for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program in 2014 and 2015, and in turn, boosting Serhant's profile as an agent.

By 2017, his team had sold just under $1 billion in real estate, and ranked as one of the top five teams nationwide in the Wall Street Journal Real Trends annual review.

He soon expanded his media footprint to include correspondent work for Daily Mail TV and a web series, "Realty Byte with Ryan Serhant" for Spin Media's Celebuzz platform.

In 2018, he launched his own sales show, "Sell It Like Serhant," on Bravo, and issued a companion book through Hachette that same year.