Daniel Rye
Photographer and former ISIS hostage sharing his story of surviving horrors, developing friendships and maintaining hope
Photo: Michael Kjaergaard
Photo: Michael Kjaergaard
Why you should book Daniel Rye for your next event
- His gripping keynote captivates audiences from start to finish and has filled venues across the country with its emotional depth and powerful storytelling.
- Daniel shares a raw and honest firsthand account of his 13-month captivity under ISIS, offering a rare glimpse into the reality of life as a hostage.
- He offers a rare and moving perspective on the struggle to return to normal life after trauma, shedding light on the lasting impact of extreme experiences.
Non-binding request for Daniel Rye
Former ISIS hostage sharing his story
Daniel Rye is an engaging & authentic speaker with a profound and horrifying story to tell. In his gripping talks, speaker Daniel Rye paints a picture of the nightmarish experience he had as a hostage of Islamic State in Syria.
Daniel Rye is a Danish freelance photographer who was captured by the terrorist organization Islamic State while on a reporting trip to Syria, where he aimed to photo-document the conflict and the living conditions of the civilian population.
Daniel was held hostage by ISIS for 13 months along with 23 other Western hostages. He was the last hostage to survive the infamous prison operated by ISIS in the Syrian city of Raqqa. Following ransom negotiations, Daniel was released on June 19, 2014. That summer, ISIS executed the remaining hostages one by one, including American journalist James Foley, who became the first victim of an ISIS execution video that went viral worldwide.
During their captivity, James Foley became a close friend of Daniel's. Daniel memorized and later conveyed Foley’s farewell message to his family, a message James had entrusted to him.
For safety reasons, Daniel Rye’s captivity remained unknown to the general public until after his release, as the media refrained from covering the story. During his time in captivity, his family initiated a fundraising effort for the ransom. As more people became involved in this "public secret," the risk of exposure grew, a dangerous undertaking in the mission to bring their son and brother home.
Daniel later chose to share his harrowing story publicly, which was also portrayed in journalist Puk Damsgaard’s award-winning book "Ser du månen, Daniel" (Held for Ransom), for which she received the prestigious Cavling Prize. The book was later adapted into a critically acclaimed feature film of the same name, bringing Daniel’s powerful and emotional story to a wider international audience.
In September 2023, Daniel Rye released his own narrative in the book "Almost Free – My Way Out of the Darkness" (“Nærmest fri - Min vej ud af mørket”). In it, Daniel tells a universal story about coming to terms with the past and embracing the future. He takes readers on a personal journey that began the moment he stepped into freedom after 13 months in captivity. From that point onward, a new struggle for survival began, the universal battle to reconcile who you are, how others see you, and who you wish to become. Time and again, he thought he had left the past behind, only to be pulled back into it. Eventually, he confronted his past and himself.
Book Daniel Rye for your next event and experience a deeply personal and life-affirming keynote.
Keynotes
Keynote by Daniel Rye:
Almost Free – My Way Out of the Darkness
What really happened when Daniel Rye was finally released and returned home? And what was it like to face one of his ISIS captors in a U.S. courtroom?
In the summer of 2021, Daniel Rye came face to face with Alexanda Kotey, one of the guards and torturers who had turned his time in captivity into a living hell. Two members of the brutal terrorist cell known as The Beatles were brought to trial in the United States, charged with kidnapping, torture, abuse, and the execution of several hostages. Daniel was one of the key witnesses in the case.
Since his return from the fateful journey to Syria, this landmark trial has served as a form of closure. In this intense keynote, Daniel opens up even further about the immense and painful battle to hold onto himself — not only during captivity and immediately after his release, but also in the years that followed, marked by debriefings with intelligence agencies and emotional visits to the families of fellow hostages who never returned.
The keynote is based on Daniel Rye’s book, Almost Free – My Way Out of the Darkness, a deeply personal account told in his own words, an attempt to reconcile with both past and future. The book, like the keynote, is not just a stark tale of a young man robbed of his freedom, but a universal story of surviving trauma, daring to confront your own history, and returning to life and freedom, forever changed, but unbroken.
Keynote by Daniel Rye:
398 Days in the Custody of the Islamic State
Experience the dramatic and harrowing story of Danish photographer Daniel Rye, who was held hostage by ISIS for 13 months and now shares an unfiltered, deeply personal account of what it truly means to be a hostage of the Islamic State.
In his keynote, Daniel speaks with raw honesty, vivid detail, and emotional depth about his captivity and the nightmare he endured during those 13 months and, just as importantly, about the immense challenge of returning to a so-called “normal” life after surviving such trauma.
Hear Daniel’s powerful reflections on how human beings survive torture and imprisonment, build friendships under the most inhumane conditions, and cling to hope even in the darkest of circumstances. His story is a chilling yet inspiring testament to the human will to survive, a reality so powerful it surpasses fiction.
Keynote by Daniel Rye:
While We Wait – A Story About People Fleeing Climate Change
Climate change is the defining challenge of our time, yet it often feels overwhelming and abstract. In this thought-provoking keynote, Daniel Rye brings the climate crisis down to human scale, focusing on the real people already living through its consequences. He explores how the media’s agenda shapes what we pay attention to and what we ignore, when it comes to global issues like the environment.
Daniel’s contribution to the climate conversation is deeply personal, rooted in his work as a photojournalist following a Malawian family’s fight to avoid becoming climate refugees. Over the course of three years and multiple visits, Daniel documented their daily struggle for survival, a journey that also resulted in his book Mens vi venter (While We Wait) .
Despite growing awareness, the question lingers: why did it take so long for the world — and Denmark — to react? As early as 1956, National Geographic aired a documentary about greenhouse gas emissions and melting polar ice, yet global attention remained elusive for decades. Today, the damage is undeniable — but its impact is felt unequally. In 2015, twice as many people were displaced by climate change than by war. The following year, Daniel traveled to Malawi for the first time in search of tomorrow’s climate refugees, aiming to spotlight those forgotten in the shadow of the Syrian refugee crisis.
By 2050, climate change could displace an estimated 250 million people, four times the number of global refugees during the peak of the 2015 crisis.
Through a personal lens and up-close encounters, Daniel introduces the people who are living in the eye of the climate storm, those at greatest risk of becoming the next wave of climate refugees. Told with a compelling mix of sincerity, humor, and humility, this keynote resonates deeply with audiences and delivers an urgent, human-centered perspective on one of the world’s most critical, yet often invisible threats.
