‘Shameless’ and ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ Actor Reveals ALS Diagnosis

Russell Andrews, an actor with credits to his name like Straight Outta Compton, NCIS: New Orleans and Insecure, revealed he’s been living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Appearing on CNN’s The Story with Elex Michaelson, he said he was diagnosed late last fall after failing to be properly diagnosed due to not having health insurance.

“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.”

He speculated that playing football may have contributed to the diagnosis. “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.”

He said when he was able to get back to work — and access to health insurance — following the pandemic, “first place I went to was 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.”

ALS, 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. Eric Dane died from complications of the disease in February after being diagnosed in April 2025.

In addition to Straight Outta Compton, Insecure and NCIS: New Orleans, Andrews’ acting credits include Shameless, Better Call Saul, 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, and many others.