Life & Work with Andrey Ivchenko of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrey Ivchenko.

Hi Andrey, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
**My name is Andrey Ivchenko, and I’m an actor best known for playing GRIGORI—the Terminator-like villain—in season 3 of Netflix’s global phenomenon *Stranger Things*. That role earned me a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast. Over the years, I’ve also appeared in hit shows like *Lucifer*, *Jane The Virgin*, and had a recurring role on Starz’s *Counterpart* opposite J.K. Simmons. You might also recognize me from *xXx: Return of Xander Cage*, where I starred opposite Vin Diesel as the villain Red Erik, or as PERSEUS in the globally popular video game *Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War*.**

Standing at 6’3″, my size and strength helped open doors in action-heavy roles, eventually leading to a feature in *Muscle & Fitness Magazine*—a surreal full-circle moment for me, as I grew up reading that magazine for inspiration.

I was born and raised in Kharkiv, Ukraine. After serving in the army at 18, I left Ukraine for London, then spent time in Israel before finally settling in Toronto to pursue acting. Canada is where my career really began. I landed early roles in shows like *Falling Skies*, *Nikita*, and *Transporter: The Series*. My first lead role came in the Lionsgate feature *The Way of the West* (2011), followed by *Freezer*, where I starred opposite Dylan McDermott.

In 2013, I moved to Los Angeles, where I’ve continued to build my career with a wide range of film and TV credits. Since *Stranger Things*, my work has gained international reach and I’ve been fortunate to develop a loyal social media following. Some of my recent projects include starring opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in *Darkness of Man*, opposite Luke Wilson and Dolph Lundgren in *The Best Man*, and a currently unannounced feature with Ron Perlman, Stephen Dorff, and Kelsey Grammer. I also recently completed a lead role in the short feature *Coalescence*, directed by multi-Emmy winner Neville Page and filmed at Orbital Virtual Studios in LA. I have a few more exciting projects in development that I’ll be able to share soon.

But 2025 has brought me the greatest challenge of my life—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

In December 2024, I was diagnosed with stage 2 chondrosarcoma, a rare bone cancer that affects about 1 in 200,000 people. It started with what I thought was a minor hip issue. After physical therapy made things worse, I was referred to Dr. Michael Duran, a very brilliant orthopedic surgeon specializing in musculoskeletal oncology. Dr. Duran refused to accept surface-level answers and kept digging—even after the first biopsy came back benign. Trusting his instincts, he ordered a deeper biopsy that required a two-month recovery. That second test confirmed what we feared: I had a malignant tumor in my pelvis.

Treatment meant undergoing a high-risk, 9-hour surgery to remove half of my pelvis and replace it with a custom 3D-printed titanium prosthetic and full hip replacement. The procedure—called an internal hemipelvectomy—was intense and life-altering, followed by a long hospital stay and a complex recovery process.

I had the surgery on April 14th, 2025. After 16 days in trauma ICU and cardiac care unit, I was finally stable enough to go home and continue my recovery. Since then, I’ve been working daily with an incredible physical therapist, Dr. Rob Mahoney, who’s been essential in helping me regain strength and mobility. I’m also deeply grateful to my surgical team, including my extremely talented plastic surgeon Dr. Joshua Mirrer and his PA, Lexi, whose expertise in placing my prosthetic implant and the way my incisions were closed, have made all the difference in both form and function during my reconstruction and recovery. Dr. Mirrer and Dr. Duran are truly the dream team of surgeons! They are my angels on earth and I absolutely wouldn’t be where I am today and recovering so well without them both.

I can’t speak highly enough about the care I’ve received—from Dr. Duran’s relentless pursuit of answers to Dr. Mirrer’s confidence and expertise that everything would go well and his execution was perfect. I made him promise me that he would make my incision scars look perfect and he did an amazing job! I also want to recognize the amazing team of PA’s, Cassie, Kelly, and Deb, from Dr. Duran’s team who have become like family and never left my side every step of the way to Dr. Mirrer’s PA, Lexi who always shared her experiences and taught me to have patience and to trust the process. Through all of this, I’ve realized just how fortunate I am—to have survived, to be healing, and to be surrounded by such unwavering support from my medical team, friends, and loved ones. I truly could not have made it through this without every single one of them playing such an important role. Words truly don’t have the ability to express my gratitude.

This experience has changed me. I’m focused on healing, staying cancer-free, and returning to the work I love. I’ve also discovered a deeper sense of purpose: to use my voice and platform to raise awareness about rare cancers like chondrosarcoma, which are often overlooked or misdiagnosed. I want to be a voice for the ones that are just beginning this journey and even for the ones in the middle of it and on the other end of it. Going into this was a very unknown road. Because of how rare this cancer is, there wasn’t a lot of information to gather going into it. I think the work and research of the Sarcoma Foundation Of America is doing an incredible job getting the word out to create more awareness and to encourage more research be done to find a cure for this. I want people to know that they are not alone in their journey and that they too can have a success story if they keep fighting the good fight.

I’m not just grateful to be alive—I’m determined to make this second chance count.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I would say the road to Hollywood is never a smooth one for anyone, but the important thing is to never compare your life and journey to someone else’s. It will never be the same and there are no real rules to succeeding. Just a lot of perseverance, thick skin, always staying true to who you are, never giving up, mixed in with a lot of luck!

I have definitely heard more “no’s” than “yes’s” throughout my journey, but I never let that deter me. When you are right for something, there is no denying it.

I will say that you do have to do the work to succeed. Throughout my acting career I have constantly been training. Working with different acting coaches and mentors and also utilizing my fellow acting peers for insight and guidance. It’s a forever changing and always learning industry.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
In my free time, I enjoy traveling to different places, going to the gym, and spending quality time with my friends and family. Getting to America hasn’t been an easy or quick journey either. I left Ukraine and moved to Israel and from Israel moved to the UK, then to Toronto, Canada, back to the UK, back to Canada, and then to Los Angeles, California. I was born and raised in Ukraine and all of my family is still living there through the war and I pray for their safety and for all of this to end everyday.

I think what sets me apart from others is just my ability to never give up. Whether it be with acting, the gym, a new hobby, personal goal, beating cancer, I will always persevere through the tough stuff when most people will throw in the towel and quit. Most people only see the success on the outside and think my life must be so easy, but what they don’t see is all the struggle and hard work that has gone into it in order to get to the results that I have today. To me, this is just the beginning. Sky is the limit.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Growing up in Ukraine, I lived through an era that experienced the Iron Curtain where you could literally be arrested for wearing jeans. We didn’t have access to anything American like movies and TV shows, magazines, etc. As a kid, we would somehow get our hands on an old American spaghetti western movie and sneak watching those. I remember as a kid, I used to dream of one day living in America and being an actor in action movies like that. The fact that that is what I do for a living now and living in America about to qualify for my US Citizenship feels like a very full circle moment and one that I take pride in more than some may because of the journey it took with immigrating through different countries to get here to fulfill this dream and goal.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @theandreyivchenko
• Facebook: @AndreyIvchenko
• Other: Threads – @theandreyivchenko

Image Credits
@BenCope @JohnHong @AndreasBranch @Netflix