Ryan Dacko (born in 1978) is an independent filmmaker based in Syracuse, New York. Dacko served in the United States Coast Guard and used his free time while on a tour of duty at Antarctica to create the screenplay of And I Lived, a melodrama about high school lovers threatened by peer pressure and class warfare. In 2007, Dacko premiered Plan 9 from Syracuse, a documentary that followed his attempt to gain attention from a prominent film producer by staging a cross-country run from Syracuse to Hollywood.