Roye was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1969. At an early age, Roye’s mother, Dorcas Leonie Roye encouraged him to read and participate in speech, drama, and music. At Herbert Morrison Technical High, he participated in band under Snick Glenn and enjoyed his time as a musician. In an interview, Roye stated that if he has not become a photographer, he “would be a writer, a musician, or a professor in that order.” He immigrated to the United States in 1990. In 1998, Ruddy graduated from Goucher College with a bachelor’s in English literature where he studied writing and the visual arts.

Ruddy has been instrumental in leading the Instagram charge as a photographer showcasing his interest in his community of Bed-Stuy and Brooklyn as a whole. The images he portrays in his ‘Black Portraiture’ or ‘I Can’t Breathe’ series have been the talking point of numerous forums on Instagram. He was asked to take over the New Yorker Instagram feed when Hurricane Sandy ravaged the eastern shores in October 2012. Ruddy has taught at New York University, the School of Visual Arts, and Columbia University engaging in conversations with photography students on the rise of Instagram and the changing face of photojournalism. Some of is work has been noted as seeking to change law enforcement’s failure to recognize the humanity of Black men.