Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen use humor to educate about Alzheimer’s disease

Seth Rogen has spent his movie career making young people laugh. Now he wants to make them think—specifically, about what they can do today to reduce their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease years from now.

It might seem like an unusually serious focus for the comedian, but Alzheimer's is very personal for Seth: The disease runs in his wife Lauren Miller Rogen's family. Her grandparents both died from the condition in the 1990s, and her late mother, Adele Miller, developed young-onset Alzheimer's when she was 55.

Lauren and Seth had been dating for only a few months when Lauren's parents flew to Los Angeles from their home in central Florida to celebrate Lauren's 24th birthday in 2006. It was during that weekend that Lauren saw changes in her mother's behavior that she had observed years before in her grandparents.

“I'd had inklings. At my college graduation a couple of years earlier, my mom told me the same story a few times, and I just had this sinking feeling,” Lauren says. “I didn't say anything at the time. I was hoping I was wrong.” Two weeks after she graduated, Lauren moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career as an actor and screenwriter. Several months later, when her parents came to visit for the first time, Lauren noticed more things. Her mother kept repeating herself and seemed vaguely confused. “After I dropped them off at the airport,” she says, “I went back to Seth's to hang out and just cried. It was the first time I'd really talked about it.”

Adele Miller was a “superhero mom,” her daughter says. “She taught first grade and still managed to be a full-time parent. She was always there for my activities and events. She was the class mom and drove me everywhere and had such a vibrant and active mind.” Adele retired from teaching after her diagnosis, and shortly after that, Lauren's father took early retirement so he could care for her.

“During each visit, Seth and I would notice that she had deteriorated further,” Lauren says. “Eventually my mom forgot everything—how to eat, walk, and dress herself. She didn't know what a chair was for or that the floor wasn't for sitting. She couldn't remember what a person or a dog was. She had a lot of trouble using the bathroom, which was heartbreaking for me but even more so for my dad. He was carrying the full load, all the cooking, cleaning, dressing, and caring for her. And I felt like I couldn't help since I was so far away.”

In 2012, Seth and Lauren moved her parents to a duplex near them in Los Angeles, with room for a round-the-clock caregiver. By that time, Adele had lost the ability to speak. “We couldn't have conversations, but there were sparks of recognition,” Lauren says. “I don't think she knew I was her daughter, but there were moments of love with eye contact. I struggled with sitting there silently holding her hand, so I started reading to her. She liked Danielle Steel novels when she was younger, so I started reading those to her, which was kind of funny when the books got a little sexy. But I was lucky to have my parents close by—and so much support from Seth.”

Over the course of her disease, Lauren's mother slowly disappeared. “She was both very much alive and physically here, but at the same time she lost every ability,” says Lauren. “In the end, she was a shell. Everything that made her an extraordinary person had been forgotten. That's the nature of the disease.” Adele died on February 1, 2020, at age 69.

That was the seed for Hilarity for Charity: Bringing Light to Alzheimer's (now known as HFC), a national nonprofit organization that focuses on supporting families, educating young people about living a brain-healthy life, and inspiring the next generation of Alzheimer's advocates. Since establishing the foundation, Seth and Lauren have assembled several panels of experts to guide the group, including a care advisory board and a scientific advisory board.

“I had done charitable work before, but this was the first time I was contributing to a cause just by sharing what Lauren and I were seeing and experiencing,” Seth says. “As painful as it was, it was very easy to talk about during interviews because it was happening to our family. It didn't require research or memorizing statistics.”

It was soon clear that HFC was filling a gap in a landscape of Alzheimer's charities largely focused on people over the age of 65. “The personal reaction we were getting was huge. People were coming up to me at events or on the street to talk about Alzheimer's disease just as often as they wanted to talk about my movies,” Seth says. “Some were caretakers for their family members; some were concerned about their own risk due to genetics and family history. It was clear we were reaching a lot of young people who had been underserved when it came to Alzheimer's.”

Grateful that they had the resources to provide 24-hour care for Lauren's mother, the couple decided to fund caregiving for families, in partnership with the elder care service Home Instead. To date, HFC In-Home Care Grants have provided more than 325,000 hours of in-home care.

“With Alzheimer's, you can't ever leave your loved one alone. Our grants give people a few hours of respite a week,” says Lauren. “We thought this was the best way to make the biggest impact.”

HFC also hosts a range of support groups for family members, born out of Lauren's own experience. “In one of the first support groups I attended, I listened as people in their fifties talked about caring for their mothers, who were 85,” she says. “I was, like, 25 years old. We were in very different boats. Also, my support group was once a month and 45 minutes from my house. To make sure our programs pair people in similar situations and give them easy access, we put them online. We've been doing that since 2014.”

The organization reaches out to young caregivers through social and other media, and through partnerships with other Alzheimer's-related organizations. “Many caregivers are referred to our support groups and care-grant program by friends and family as well, and there's always an uptick in interest when we promote HFC in interviews or on our social platforms,” Lauren says.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, HFC has increased its grants and expanded its support group availability by 55 percent. “It's been so hard for caregivers,” Lauren says. “Even people who had relief before the pandemic may not be getting it much anymore, and so many people are not able to visit their loved ones in care centers. This is not a disease that can be faced alone, and these days we're all spending a lot of time alone, so we wanted to make sure everyone is feeling as supported as they can be.”

HFC has a comedy special currently streaming on Netflix. The charity also has taken its popular live benefits online: A '70s-themed game show in October 2020 hosted by Rogen—and featuring a friendly face-off among celebrity team captains Anna Faris, Billy Eichner, Craig Robinson, Elizabeth Banks, and Jim Gaffigan—raised more than $325,000. Events like these are the largest single source of revenue for HFC; other financial support comes from foundations, corporate partnerships, and individual donations.\