Hazelwood, an Amarillo native, graduated from Caprock High School and earned bachelor's and master's degrees from WT's Department of Communication. He started in TV news in 1997 as a photojournalist at another Amarillo station, then joined KVII in 1998 before moving to Austin. In 2002 he joined a national production company making a television program about new homes. He rose from director of photography to managing producer and helped expand its operations.
He returned to WT in 2008 as a broadcast engineer and instructor, teaching audio and video production through 2013. He also became KVII's news director in 2012 and held that job until 2016. His documentary "Blood and Steel," which shows what troops go through right before deployment, won a Lone Star Emmy Award. In 2017 he took over as news director at KOAA in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and spent seven years there.
The Colorado Broadcasters Association named his KOAA newsroom Station of the Year five times. When WT inducted him, Randy Ray, senior lecturer of media communication and director of broadcast engineering, said, "Ryan has taken what he learned at WT and turned it into a career that anyone would be proud of."