What happened to Cameron Boyce? Remembering the Descendants star — and the cause his family now fights
Cameron Boyce was 20 years old and working constantly — a Disney Channel lead, an HBO series regular, two indie projects in the can. He died on July 6, 2019, less than two months after his birthday. The cause has a name most people had never heard, including his own parents.
Boyce died in his sleep after a seizure. The cause was SUDEP — sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, a complication that kills roughly 1 in 1,000 people with epilepsy each year, per CDC figures. He had been diagnosed with epilepsy and was on medication. His family has said they had never encountered the term before it appeared on his death certificate.
Who he was before that
He started young and worked steadily:
- Eagle Eye (2008) and Grown Ups (2010) — early film roles, the latter opposite Adam Sandler, who he'd work with again in the 2013 sequel.
- Jessie (2011–2015) — four seasons as Luke Ross on the Disney Channel sitcom that made him famous.
- Descendants (2015, 2017, 2019) — Carlos, son of Cruella de Vil, across all three films.
- Mrs. Fletcher (2019) — a series regular turn on the HBO comedy, which aired that fall.
- Runt and Paradise City — both finished before his death, released posthumously.
He also raised more than $30,000 for the Thirst Project, funding two wells in Eswatini, and received the organization's Pioneering Spirit Award in 2019.
What his family did next
Libby and Victor Boyce established The Cameron Boyce Foundation in July 2019. Their son had already been setting up a philanthropic vehicle for causes he cared about; his parents added epilepsy to its focus.
In November 2019 the foundation partnered with the Epilepsy Foundation on K(NO)W SUDEP NOW, a public awareness campaign built around a PSA featuring Boyce's parents and friends.
It later teamed with CURE Epilepsy to fund the Cameron Boyce SUDEP Research Award — a $250,000 grant that went to Dr. David Auerbach at SUNY Upstate Medical University in 2022, studying cardiac markers that might flag which patients are at risk.
On August 4, 2026, CURE Epilepsy announced that The Cameron Boyce Foundation is merging into its organization. Susan Axelrod, CURE's founder, said meeting Libby Boyce convinced her the family would become a force for change.
How Disney handled it
Descendants 3 premiered on August 2, 2019, four weeks after his death. Disney canceled the red carpet and aired a tribute video after the broadcast. Five years later, Descendants: The Rise of Red put a framed portrait of Carlos on Uma's office wall, with a line about opening Auradon to Wonderland: it's what Carlos would have wanted.
Runt premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in September 2021, two years after his death, with his castmates handling the press.