John Paul Ruttan was born on May 12, 2001 in Toronto, Canada. He is best known for his role as Tom Hardy's son in Target (2012) starring Reese Witherspoon, and as David Murphy in RoboCop (2014) with Abbie Cornish, Joel Kinnaman and Micheal Keaton. He is known as J.P. on set and is of British, Swiss, Scottish and French Canadian ancestry.
John Paul's interest in acting started at age six when he began watching 1980's classics such as The Goonies, Home Alone, Karate Kid and Stars Wars. He began acting in a few commercials and steadily moved onto principal roles in Tv. His first feature film debut was at 8 yrs old in Defendor: héros ou zéro (2009) with Woody Harrelson.
John Paul's big break came when he was cast as Tom Hardy's son in This Means War, after flying across the country to meet Tom and Director McG. The following year he landed a principal role in I'll Follow You Down (2013) with Haley Joel Osment and Gillian Anderson. Similarily, John Paul was cast in RoboCop after a nationwide search and an audition directly with Joel Kinnaman and Abbie Cornish to play RoboCops son David Murphy. He went onto win his first award for Best Supporting Actor in RoboCop at Hollywoods 36th Young Artists Awards in 2015. With his size he has the ability to play roles younger than his age of 14 1/2, however has been recognized for displaying a range of acting, maturity and professionalism beyond his years.
Alongside his roles in films, John Paul has performed steadily in various television roles since the age of 7, including the Doodlebops, Degrassi, Lost Girl, the L.A. Complex, Rick Mercer Report, CBC Kids, BackPackers, The Listener and CBC AirFraces New Years Eve and Saving Hope. John Paul currently plays the role of Young William Murdoch in the TV Drama Murdoch Mysteries on CBC.
John Paul's performed his first lead role of a film in Shelby (2014) costarring Chevy Chase, Rob Schneider and Tom Arnold. Following this he traveled to Africa in 2015 and filmed his next lead role on location in Against the Wild 2: Survive the Serengeti (2016) with an upcoming March 11, 2016 theatrical debut.
Outside of acting, John Paul has a passion for filming, editing and camera's and is enrolled in a high school Screen Arts Film program. In his spare time enjoys skate boarding, video games and plays on local soccer and hockey teams with his friends.
