Sumter High’s Ryan Buell Nearly a Gamecock
BY RON AIKEN

Ryan Buell
If you haven’t heard of or seen A&E television’s Paranormal State and its star Ryan Buell, you’ve either been living under a rock in the woods, are a Mennonite (or an effete TV eschewer; there’s not much difference), or can’t afford cable. In any case, you’re in the vast minority, because Buell, founder of the Penn State Paranormal Research Society, is a national celebrity thanks to his popular ghost-hunting show launched in 2007 in which his team of college-age students (they’ve since graduated) investigate claims of paranormal activity across the country.
What you might not know about Buell, however — even if you’re one of the millions of fans of the show — is that Buell grew up just up the road in Sumter, where he had his first encounters with the paranormal and graduated from Sumter High in 2000; considers South Carolina his home (his parents still reside there); and seriously considered attending the University of South Carolina before fatefully deciding on Penn State.
With Halloween upon us, Free Times reporter Ron Aiken took the opportunity to speak with Buell about life in the Palmetto State, the massive success of Paranormal State and the ensuing ghost-hunting phenomenon and why neither he, A&E producers nor the rest of America can understand anything coming out of team member Eilfie Music’s mouth.
FT: First off, you began PRS as a college club, but obviously everyone on the show has graduated since the TV show began and has taken off. Do you intend to keep living in State College, Pa., do you have plans to move on?
Ryan Buell: That’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I don’t think we’ll move PRS, but for myself, I’m probably going to move somewhere else to do some work and coming back and forth. I’m looking at L.A. right now and coming back and forth whenever I have some down time.
(more…)