Who Plays Andrea Cruz On The Yellowstone Spin-Off Marshals

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The "Yellowstone" spin-off is seemingly unstoppable, with "Marshals" arriving on TV screens. Alongside Luke Grimes' Kayce Dutton, the show brings back some well-known characters from the original series but also introduces several new faces. One of these is Ash Santos' Andrea Cruz. The show marks a significant moment for the actor, who broke through with a role on "American Horror Story: Apocalypse" in 2018 and is now playing her first main role on a TV series with "Marshals."

Shows as popular as "Yellowstone" don't end. They live on via a frankly bewildering amount of spin-offs. Now the very first post-"Yellowstone" offshoot has arrived in the form of "Marshals," which also acts as a sequel to the original show. But things are a bit different this time around. For one thing, Kayce is switching from ranching to law enforcement, joining a team of elite U.S. Marshals to help protect his native Montana from all manner of criminal threat. That team consists of four other members besides Kayce: Logan Marshall-Green's Pete Calvin, Arielle Kebbel's Belle Skinner, Tatanka Means' Miles Kittle, and Ash Santos' Andrea Cruz.

The latter joins the series after having appeared in several high-profile productions over the last few years, including another Taylor Sheridan TV project. "Marshals," however, has given Santos her first main role, and while it's early days, it looks as though Andrea Cruz will have plenty to do as the debut season of "Marshals" unfolds.

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Luke Grimes might have been reluctant to star in "Marshals," but Ash Santos must have been delighted at the prospect. The actor hails from The Bronx and is of Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage. She started performing at a young age but drifted away from acting to focus more on sports and her school work. Once in college, she rediscovered her love for acting and eventually started booking gigs, but it wasn't easy. As the actor told The Laterals, she had become a housewife and mother before the age of 22, making it difficult to pursue her dream. But after leaving her former Mormon faith behind and becoming a single mother, she started "taping auditions while [her] kids slept at night."

Santos appeared in multiple TV movies between 2015 and 2018, before landing her first significant TV role. The actor played Emily Campbell in season 8 of Ryan Murphy's anthology series "American Horror Story: Apocalypse." That performance brought her recognition and propelled her to more high-profile work. In 2021, Santos played Daphne in Kevin Hart's "True Story," which was in fact based on a true story and saw Hart somehow convince the great Wesley Snipes to play his brother in a Netflix series that wasn't exactly a huge hit with critics. Still, it was another big project for Santos, who appeared in four of the show's seven episodes.

The same year "True Story" debuted on Netflix, Santos appeared in another project for the streamer: vampire thriller "Night Teeth." The film also featured Sydney Sweeney and Megan Fox, and saw Santos portray Maria, a woman who's taken captive by vampires. It was yet another major project for the actor, who would soon find herself entering Taylor Sheridan's orbit.

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In 2022, Ash Santos appeared in the film "Shattered alongside Frank Grillo (who also worked with Luke Grimes on an underrated crime thriller). She then landed a role in "Mayor of Kingstown." The show is yet another of Taylor Sheridan's endless creations and featured Santos as sex worker and night club dancer Coco in five episodes across seasons 2 and 3.

After that, Santos temporarily moved away from the Sheridan-verse to appear in 7 episodes of a Netflix medical drama that seemed initially to have legs. "Pulse" took over the Netflix charts upon its 2025 release, and starred "Reacher" season 1's Willa Fitzgerald as a third-year resident at a Miami trauma center. Santos played Nia Washington, an EMT who's injured in a major hurricane that hits the city. Unfortunately, Netflix canceled "Pulse" after one season but thankfully, the Sheridan-verse came calling once again.

Before she joined "Marshals," however, Santos continued her Netflix tenure by appearing in "Our Little Secret," the Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie that dominated Netflix upon its 2024 release. After that, it was back to Sheridan's neck of the woods for "Marshals," (which Sheridan executive produces) in which the actor plays Andrea Cruz. The hard-headed member of the U.S. Marshal team seems wholly unimpressed with Kayce Dutton and his ranching experience, but there's definitely some tension there which suggests Kayce might one day move on from his dearly departed. Let's hope "Marshals" lasts longer than "Pulse" so we get to find out. Meanwhile, Santos is set to star in "Crossed," the upcoming adaptation of the horror comic book series.