American actor Russell Andrews has revealed that he is living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurological disorder that affects nerve cells responsible for controlling muscles.
ALS gradually weakens muscles over time, making movement, speech, eating, and breathing increasingly difficult. While there is currently no cure, available treatments can help slow progression and improve quality of life for some patients.
Andrews disclosed his condition during an interview on CNN, where he appeared alongside his fiancée, actress Erica Tazel. He said the symptoms began “last summer” before he was officially diagnosed in late 2025.
“I’m a person living with ALS. I was diagnosed in the late fall of last year. It’s been humbling,” he said.
The actor, known for his roles in productions such as Insecure, Better Call Saul, Straight Outta Compton, and Grey’s Anatomy, explained that he initially mistook his symptoms for a stroke.
“I thought I had a stroke during Covid. It was a stressful time. There were things that I thought I was having; I was having pinching nerves in my neck, and it was quite frequent,” he said.
“And then I was not able to do things that I normally do. I was dropping cups and glasses. At night, it felt like things were running up and down my arms at different times, and it was the nerves.”
His fiancée, Erica Tazel, described her reaction to the diagnosis as unexpectedly calm, saying it helped bring clarity to what they had been experiencing.
“When he ordinarily shared it with me, I would say I was uncharacteristically calm,” she said.
“In a way, it was an answer to a lot of questions that we had. I was like, something is definitely wrong, and so with this, we now know what was wrong.”
Despite the diagnosis, Andrews expressed hope that medical advancements would eventually lead to a cure for the disease.
“I hope that moving forward, what we do and what we say, the next guest, the next time, they come and they say Elex, we have a cure. That’s why we are here,” he said.
