Ryan Cole has created Emmy-winning sound for Hollywood from his home in New Zealand - working from his backyard shed in Raumati Beach to be precise.

Recently returned from the Creative Arts Emmys, the awards that honour outstanding artistic and technical achievement, Ryan Cole has returned to his home in Raumati Beach with a trophy in hand for being part of the sound editing team that won an Emmy for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series.

Working as a sound editor on Stranger Things, Ryan was part of a team of 10 who were awarded for their work on Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab.

Ryan Cole with his second Emmy Award trophy. Photo / Rosalie Willis

Hailing from the United States, Ryan worked on the episode before he moved to New Zealand with his family in 2020 but has continued to work remotely from his shed in Raumati Beach, Kāpiti.

"I never expected this, it was just nice to be nominated because you're nominated by your peers, by the sound branch.

"Everyone in the sound community nominated who they think deserves it and then after the nominations it goes out to the entire academy."

Ryan said he's very proud of what they did, especially because they were up against strong competition.

"You have no idea what's going to happen, especially against two Star Trek episodes, a Marvel series and a Star Wars series."

The other finalists were Better Call Saul (AMC), The Book of Boba Fett (Disney+), Loki (Disney+), Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+) and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+).

This is Ryan's second Emmy after winning the same award in 2020 for his work on a different Stranger Things episode.

Ryan studied music at college before slowly veering towards music technology because there were more jobs in the field.

"My dad was a computer guy, I love choir and music and couldn't see myself going to college to do a business major so I went to college with the idea of becoming a choir teacher.

"I went to the University of Colorado at Boulder studying voice, but I was never going to be a professional singer.

"I then went to New York University and got a master's in music technology, which was where I really started looking into television and film."

Ryan started recording bands before getting into music technology.

"I was pretty ignorant at the start thinking I would get into recording bands, but with that, you're either recording in your garage or recording Beyonce – there's not a lot of in between.

"With film and television, there are commercials, internet, web, all sorts of films and television shows you can be involved in."

The first major project Ryan worked on was the film Australia, which came out in 2008.

"I ended up working on that film as a technical engineer, met my wife while working on the film and also met a couple of American mixers who ended up hiring me on that job to come work with them at Fox in Los Angeles.

"I was a stage technician for almost eight years, and then we moved to northern California where I started to get into sound editing.

"My wife taught me the ins and outs of sound editing, and I started working on projects that lead me to be lucky enough to work with the team that did Stranger Things."

For those who don't know what a sound editor does, Ryan's job involves taking sound after filming and editing it with feedback from the picture editors and director.

"Once a scene has been put together I'll be given it along with all the different microphone tracers.

"The actor might have a microphone, there might be someone holding one above their head, there might be another one on the ground, or on the plant behind them - just anywhere they might want to get sound from.

"There might be 10 microphones scattered around the place.

"I go through and pick which microphone sounds the best and clean up any audio that needs to be cleaned. That or add in audio afterwards if a line has been changed.

"I might also add design elements in to make a character or noise sound bigger or that kind of thing - but I don't do sound effects."

Working with the supervisor, picture editor and director, Ryan sends back audio numerous times for changes until everyone is happy.

Moving to New Zealand has not affected his job because he works remotely, going back to California only a couple of times a year.

With the Emmy awards in person this year, Ryan was able to return for a week to the 45-degree heat and receive the award.

At the awards ceremony, Ryan attended with his mother, and sound supervisor Craig Henighan collected the award on the team's behalf.

"Stranger Things was a really fun show to work on.

"It's like a sandbox where they let you explore and do your thing."

Ryan's projects include a new Netflix mini-series, which he cannot name, but his recently released projects include the new Lord of the Rings television series and The Adam Project.