HOW YOU KNOW HIM Houston native Ryan Donowho, 25, has been in about a dozen indie films, including Broken Flowers and Imaginary Heroes, but...you probably recognize him as Marissa's new friend Johnny Harper from—gasp!—public school on The O.C. this season. INCOGNITO...SORT OF Now that Ryan is part of a pop culture phenomenon, is he constantly bombarded by girls in malls? Not exactly: "I went to this Basquiate exhibition at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and people there were like, 'Are you that guy from The O.C.?' I told one person, 'No, I've never seen it—is the guy any good?' She said, 'Yeah, I like him.' So I replied, 'That's cool. I hope he does well.'" HE LIKES HIS STICKS When he was 17, Ryan spent three months in Aruba playing congas in a musical called Once on This Island. Shortly thereafter, he moved to New York to play drums on the street and act. "It was my sole income for years and years," says Ryan. "I met these guys who were playing buckets and regrigerator parts. It was great." He was spotted playing the buckets by an agent. WATCH OUT Ryan has three indie flicks on the way: The Favor, Flakes, and The Pacific and Eddy, which he co-produced. And if you're lucky, his band Pagoda, with fellow actor Michael Pitt (he was the Kurt Cobain-based lead in Last Days), will be touring through your town. Of course, Ryan's the drummer.
