Dr. Ryann Donnelly holds a practice-based PhD from the department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has published two books with Repeater Books: Justify My Love: Sex, Subversion, and Music Video in 2019, and Body High: Death, Drugs, and Eva Hesse in 2025. Donnelly has contributed to publications such as Art in America, Interview Magazine, and PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. She has held teaching positions at Goldsmiths, University of London; Pratt Institute, New York; and University of Sussex. 

Donnelly has performed across various arts platforms. Performance credits include Robert Wilson’s Works and Process Series at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, David Cronenberg’s film, Body, Mind, Change featured in director’s retrospective at Toronto International Film Festival, and Saint Genet's Flinch Not and Give Not Back at WUK Performing Arts in Vienna. She has exhibited internationally in the UK and US in a range of media: video, photography, installation, and sculpture; and curated a mixed arts night at performance space, VFD in London from 2018-20. Her band, Disaster Fantasy has released 2 EPs on Popular Noise records. She was in Seattle-based band, Schoolyard Heroes, signed to Stolen Transmission, an imprint of Island Records from 1999-2010.