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Debby Ryan & James Charles React To Cameron Boyce Death

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Hollywood’s tight-knit Disney Channel family is grieving together, and two of its biggest voices just made that grief public.

Cameron Boyce, the 20-year-old star of Disney’s “Descendants” franchise and the Disney Channel sitcom “Jessie,” died in his sleep on July 6 at his North Hollywood home. A family spokesperson confirmed he suffered a seizure tied to an ongoing medical condition he had been receiving treatment for. Within a day, tributes from former co-stars and influencers began flooding social media, led by two names with very different platforms: Debby Ryan and James Charles.

• Boyce died in his sleep on July 6 in North Hollywood after a seizure linked to a medical condition he was already being treated for, according to a family spokesperson.
• Debby Ryan, his “Jessie” co-star from 2011 to 2015, shared footage of Boyce’s 2018 Thirst Project Gala speech on her Instagram Story before disabling comments on her account.
• James Charles posted a public tribute on Twitter calling Boyce “one of the kindest souls” he’d ever met and mourning how someone so young and good was taken so soon.

Debby Ryan’s Tribute Turns To Boyce’s Own Words

Ryan, 26, spent four seasons alongside Boyce on “Jessie,” playing the Ross family’s nanny opposite his role as Luke Ross. Rather than write her own statement, she let Boyce speak for himself, resurfacing a clip of him addressing attendees at the Thirst Project’s 9th Annual Thirst Gala in 2018 — a charity event focused on ending the global water crisis.

In the speech Ryan chose to share, Boyce pushed his audience past the usual celebrity-cause boilerplate and into something closer to a challenge:

“We’re all in here wearing suits. We need to use what we have to make the world a better place for other people… other people, people who need us!”

Ryan was visibly overwhelmed in the hours that followed, ultimately disabling comments on her own Instagram account as tributes and condolences poured in faster than she could process them. Elsewhere online, she remembered him as “as confident and self-assured as he was brilliantly talented and kind.”

James Charles Adds His Voice To The Outpouring

Charles, who built his following well outside the Disney Channel ecosystem as a YouTube beauty creator, didn’t have Ryan’s years of on-set history with Boyce — but his reaction carried the same shock. Writing on Twitter, he called Boyce “one of the kindest souls I ever had the honor of knowing,” describing him as humble, always smiling, and genuinely invested in the people around him. Charles’ message closed with prayers for Boyce’s family and everyone who loved him, a tribute that traveled quickly given his own massive following.

The pairing of Ryan and Charles in the same news cycle underscored how far Boyce’s reach extended — from the Disney Channel co-stars who’d known him for nearly a decade to online creators who’d crossed his path through the industry’s more recent social-media orbit.

A Legacy Built Beyond The Screen

Boyce broke through as Luke Ross on “Jessie” before becoming a face of Disney’s “Descendants” trilogy, playing Carlos, son of Cruella de Vil. But the tributes from Ryan and Charles both leaned less on his filmography and more on his character — a pattern consistent with how Boyce spent his time off-camera. He was a regular presence at the Thirst Project’s galas and had used his platform repeatedly to push for causes like clean water access, framing celebrity itself as a resource to be spent on other people rather than hoarded.

That framing is what made his 2018 Thirst Gala remarks resonate the way they did once Ryan resurfaced them — Boyce wasn’t just accepting recognition at the event, he was using the microphone to needle the room full of people in suits, including himself, to do more.

Boyce’s family, through their spokesperson, thanked fans for the outpouring of support while asking for privacy to grieve. Ryan’s and Charles’ tributes were among the first big-name reactions, but they were far from the last — a wave that would continue building across Hollywood in the days after July 7 as more of Boyce’s “Descendants” and “Jessie” co-stars found their own words for what he meant to them.