9-1-1: Lone Star And The Rookie Actor Tyler Sanders Is Dead At 18

Tyler Sanders screenshot Just Add Magic: Mystery City trailer
(Image credit: Amazon Prime)

The news of a young person passing away after spending early years in the limelight is always heartbreaking, and now 18-year-old Tyler Sanders has died. The actor is credited with TV roles going back to 2015, and appeared on a number of beloved TV shows as well as a streaming series that earned him an Emmy nomination just last year. 

Tyler Sanders of 9-1-1: Lone Star, The Rookie, and Just Add Magic: Mystery City on Amazon Prime (to name just a few) died on Thursday, June 16, according to Deadline. The outlet cites Sanders' agent, Pedro Tapia, who confirmed the young actor's death and stated that it is currently under investigation. The agent also had a request on behalf of his loved ones:

Tyler was a talented actor with a bright future. He comes from a wonderful family, and we ask that you respect their privacy at this time.

Hopefully everybody will respect the request for privacy in this difficult time, following the loss of somebody so young and with such a "bright future" ahead of him. Details about Tyler Sanders' passing are scarce at the time of writing, but he was reportedly at his home in Los Angeles when he died.

Tyler Sanders' earliest television credit is in 2015 in the sitcom JLW Academy, and went on to appear in a number of shorts before landing a guest role on a high-profile TV show: Fear the Walking Dead, in 2017. In the popular and long-running spinoff of The Walking Dead, Sanders played the younger version of Jake Otto, a character played by Sam Underwood. In 2018, he came to broadcast television with a guest role in Nathan Fillion's The Rookie on ABC. 

Amazon Prime's Just Add Magic featured Sanders in one episode in 2019, which proved to be a major break for the young actor. He went on to star in the spinoff Just Add Magic: Mystery City in 2020, and he was nominated for Outstanding Principal Performance in a Children's Program at the 2021 Daytime Emmys. His most recent TV credit was as Brian in a 2022 episode of Fox's hit 9-1-1: Lone Star.

Tyler Sanders had an active social media presence with his Instagram account, with his most recent post going live on his account five days before news of his death. He shared a behind-the-scenes look at what turned out to be his final guest star role, featuring him along with 9-1-1: Lone Star stars Rob Lowe, Gina Torres, and more, while also promoting that the episode can be watched on Hulu

No details are currently available about the cause of Tyler Sanders' death, but his star was on the rise as an actor following his Emmy-nominated role in Just Add Magic: Mystery City and follow-up role on 9-1-1: Lone Star, which is a major hit on network television. Our thoughts here at CinemaBlend are with the family, friends, and loved ones of Tyler Sanders in this difficult time.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).