Russell Andrews, an actor with credits including Straight Outta Compton and Insecure, has revealed he’s been living with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis).

The actor opened up about his medical condition on CNN’s The Story with Elex Michaelson, saying he was diagnosed late last fall.

“I thought I had a stroke during Covid. It was a stressful time. We didn’t work for three years, and then we had the back-to-back strikes,” Andrews said, referring to the dueling Hollywood strikes. “A lot was going on… There were moments, there were twitches. I thought I was having pinched nerves in my neck, and they were quite frequent. And I was not able to do things that I would normally do. I was dropping cups and glasses, and at night, it felt like things were running up and down my arms at certain times, and it was the nerves.”

Andrews noted that playing football might have contributed to this, adding, “It appears that maybe CTE may be a source of this… we won’t know, of course, until everything is said and done and they can study the brain.”

The actor said that he was not properly diagnosed due to not having health insurance as he didn’t work for a number of years, saying, “As soon as we came out of Covid, work picked up and I was able to get back. First place I went was to Cedars [Sinai]… and within 15 minutes, the primary care said that she would like me to see a neurologist. One thing led to another, and here we sit.”

Andrews acting credits also include Shameless, Better Call Saul, NCIS: New Orleans, Grey’s Anatomy, Harry’s Law, House of Payne, The Defenders, CSI: Miami, Medium, Boston Legal, The Punisher, Numb3rs, The Bernie Mac Show, Sports Night, among many others.

ALS, which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease that destroys the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Actor Eric Dane was diagnosed with ALS in April 2025 and died from complications of the disease in February of this year.

Watch Andrews full interview in the video below.