Teil Runnels, also known as Teil Margaret Runnels Gergel, is a member of one of professional wrestling’s most famous families. She is the daughter of legendary wrestler Dusty Rhodes and Michelle Rubio, the older full sister of WWE star Cody Rhodes, and the half-sister of wrestling veteran Dustin Rhodes and Kristin Runnels Ditto. Unlike her father and brothers, Teil never made professional wrestling her main career. She has mostly chosen a private, family-focused life, although she occasionally appears in wrestling documentaries, television programs and family moments connected with the Rhodes legacy.
Teil Runnels Quick Bio
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Teil Margaret Runnels Gergel |
| Known As | Teil Runnels / Teil Gergel |
| Reported Date of Birth | September 12, 1982 |
| Nationality | American |
| Famous For | Daughter of Dusty Rhodes and sister of Cody Rhodes |
| Father | Dusty Rhodes |
| Mother | Michelle Rubio |
| Full Brother | Cody Rhodes |
| Half-Brother | Dustin Rhodes |
| Half-Sister | Kristin Runnels Ditto |
| Husband | Kevin Gergel |
| Children | Kellan and Maris |
| TV Appearances | Rhodes to the Top, AEW Dynamite, Biography: WWE Legends |
| Documentary | American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes |
| Profession | Not clearly documented as a single public career |
| Wrestling Career | No established professional wrestling career |
| Public Lifestyle | Mostly private |
Teil’s exact birth details, education and some personal information come mostly from secondary biographies rather than official profiles, so those details should be treated with a little caution. Her place in the Rhodes family, however, is well established. Dusty Rhodes’ biography identifies Teil and Cody as the two children he had with Michelle Rubio.
Who Is Teil Runnels?
Teil Runnels is the daughter of wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes.
That single sentence connects her to an enormous piece of professional wrestling history.
Her father was known around the world as “The American Dream.”
He became famous for his unusual charisma, emotional interviews, memorable wrestling matches and ability to connect with ordinary fans.
Dusty was not presented as the perfectly sculpted athlete.
Instead, he became popular because he seemed relatable.
He talked about hard times.
He talked about working people.
And he became one of wrestling’s most recognizable personalities.
Teil grew up inside that unusual world.
But she did not follow her father into the ring.
Her brother Cody did.
Her half-brother Dustin did.
Teil chose a quieter life.
That contrast is one of the biggest reasons fans continue searching for her.
What Is Teil Runnels’ Full Name?
She is commonly identified as Teil Margaret Runnels Gergel.
Professionally and publicly, she has appeared under several forms of her name, including:
Teil Runnels,
Teil Rhodes,
Teil Gergel,
and Teil Runnels Gergel.
IMDb credits her as Teil Gergel in the 2023 documentary American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes.
The different names sometimes confuse wrestling fans.
But they all refer to the same member of the Rhodes family.
When Was Teil Runnels Born?
Secondary biographies commonly report that Teil was born on September 12, 1982.
That would make her 43 years old as of September 2026.
However, there is an important accuracy point.
Major mainstream biographies of Dusty and Cody Rhodes confirm Teil’s family relationship but do not always give her full birth date.
The September 12, 1982 date therefore appears widely reported rather than strongly established through a major first-party biography.
For readers, the safest wording is that Teil was reportedly born in 1982.
Who Are Teil Runnels’ Parents?
Teil’s parents are Dusty Rhodes and Michelle Rubio.
Dusty married Michelle in 1978.
They remained together until his death in 2015.
The marriage produced two children:
Teil,
and Cody Rhodes.
This means Teil and Cody share both parents.
They are full siblings.
Dustin Rhodes and Kristin Runnels Ditto come from Dusty’s earlier marriage and are therefore Teil’s paternal half-siblings.
Who Was Dusty Rhodes?
Dusty Rhodes was born Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. in 1945.
He developed into one of professional wrestling’s biggest stars.
During his career, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship three times and competed for major wrestling promotions across the United States.
He later became important behind the scenes too.
Dusty worked as a booker, trainer and mentor and helped younger wrestlers develop their characters and speaking abilities.
His impact became so large that he entered numerous wrestling halls of fame.
To wrestling fans, Dusty was a legend.
To Teil, he was also Dad.
Teil Runnels’ Mother Michelle Rubio
Michelle Rubio is Teil and Cody’s mother.
She stayed married to Dusty for nearly four decades.
Compared with Dusty, Michelle lived a much quieter public life.
However, she occasionally appeared alongside her children and later participated in documentaries about the Rhodes family.
Michelle was credited as Cody’s mother in American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes, appearing alongside Teil.
Cody’s biographies also identify Michelle as his mother and note that his maternal family has Cuban heritage.
That means Teil and Cody share both the famous Rhodes wrestling heritage on their father’s side and Cuban ancestry through their mother’s family.
Teil Runnels and Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes is Teil’s younger full brother.
Cody was born on June 30, 1985.
His biography identifies Teil as his sister and Dustin and Kristin as paternal half-siblings.
Cody eventually became the biggest active wrestling star in the family.
He began wrestling professionally in the 2000s.
He worked for WWE.
He later became one of the founding executive figures behind All Elite Wrestling.
Then he returned to WWE in 2022 and began another major chapter of his career.
Throughout those changes, family remained an important part of Cody’s public story.
Teil has occasionally appeared in media discussing her brother’s career and their famous father.
Teil Appeared in American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes
One of Teil’s best-known modern appearances came in the 2023 documentary American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes.
The documentary follows Cody’s career, including his decision to leave WWE, his later rise outside the company and his eventual return.
Teil appears as herself and is specifically credited as Cody’s sister.
Their mother Michelle also appears.
Dusty is featured through archive footage.
This gives viewers an unusually personal look at the family behind Cody’s wrestling career.
Teil’s participation was particularly valuable because siblings often remember childhood differently from parents.
She could talk about Cody before stadiums, championships and television fame.
She knew him simply as her younger brother.
Teil Runnels and Dustin Rhodes
Teil’s older half-brother is Dustin Rhodes.
Older wrestling fans may know Dustin best through his WWE character Goldust.
He was born in 1969 and is Dusty’s son from his earlier marriage.
Dustin built a wrestling career lasting several decades and worked for organizations including WCW, WWE and AEW.
IMDb identifies Teil as one of Dustin’s paternal half-siblings.
Despite the age gap, the Rhodes siblings have appeared together publicly on several occasions.
Photographs of Teil with Dustin and Cody are especially popular among wrestling fans because they show different generations of Dusty’s family together.
Teil Runnels’ Half-Sister Kristin
Teil also has an older half-sister named Kristin Runnels Ditto.
Kristin is another child from Dusty’s first marriage.
Unlike Dustin and Cody, Kristin also largely avoided becoming a professional wrestler.
She has been associated with business and was a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.
This is important because online biographies sometimes confuse the two sisters.
Some websites incorrectly imply that Teil was the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.
The wrestling-family connection to the cheerleading squad belongs to Kristin, not Teil.
Did Teil Runnels Become a Wrestler?
No established professional wrestling career exists for Teil Runnels.
This is one of the biggest pieces of misinformation found in some online biographies.
Teil has appeared on wrestling television.
She has appeared on AEW Dynamite.
She has appeared in wrestling documentaries.
And she has been present at wrestling-related family events.
But those appearances are not the same thing as having a full wrestling career.
IMDb lists her television work primarily as appearances as herself or in family-related roles.
Teil never developed a major ring persona comparable with Dusty, Dustin or Cody.
Did Teil Runnels Work for AEW?
Teil has appeared on AEW Dynamite, and IMDb credits her in a 2021 episode.
However, describing her as a professional AEW wrestler would be misleading.
Some secondary sites claim that Teil “joined AEW” or began a wrestling career with the promotion.
The stronger public evidence supports describing her as someone who appeared in AEW-related programming, not as a regular contracted wrestler.
This distinction matters.
Wrestling television regularly features:
family members,
celebrities,
friends,
athletes,
and other guests.
Appearing on the program does not automatically mean someone works as a wrestler.
Teil Runnels on Rhodes to the Top
Teil also appeared in Rhodes to the Top, the reality series centered around Cody Rhodes and his wife Brandi Rhodes.
IMDb records her appearance in a 2021 episode.
The show mixed wrestling stories with personal and family life.
It gave fans a different view of Cody from the one they saw during wrestling matches.
Teil’s appearance made sense because she has always been part of Cody’s closest family circle.
Once again, however, the show did not turn Teil into a full-time reality-TV personality.
Her appearance was more of a family role than a new entertainment career.
Teil Runnels on Biography: WWE Legends
Teil also participated in an episode of Biography: WWE Legends centered on Dusty Rhodes.
The episode included members of the Rhodes family discussing Dusty’s life and influence.
Teil appeared as herself under the name Teil Runnels Gergel.
For fans who want to understand Teil’s relationship with her father, appearances like this are particularly useful.
They allow her to talk about Dusty as a human being rather than only as a wrestling character.
Fans saw “The American Dream.”
Teil knew the man who came home after the show.
What Happened to Dusty Rhodes?
Dusty Rhodes died on June 11, 2015, at age 69.
His death was a major loss for professional wrestling and for his family.
Dusty’s biography records kidney failure as his cause of death.
For Teil and her siblings, the loss was obviously much more personal than the public reaction.
Their father’s legacy continued to follow them everywhere.
Cody has repeatedly built parts of his wrestling story around honoring Dusty.
Dustin has also spoken emotionally about his father’s influence.
Teil contributes to that legacy differently.
She helps preserve the family side of Dusty’s story.
Teil Runnels’ Husband
Teil is widely reported to be married to Kevin Gergel.
Secondary profiles report that the couple married on November 1, 2008.
Kevin is not part of the professional wrestling industry in the same public way as Teil’s father and brothers.
That may be one reason the couple has been able to build a more private family life.
There are far fewer interviews, public appearances and entertainment headlines about Teil’s marriage than there are about relationships involving major wrestling personalities.
That privacy appears intentional.
Does Teil Runnels Have Children?
Yes.
Dusty Rhodes’ family information identifies two children belonging to Teil and Kevin Gergel:
Kellan
and
Maris.
Secondary biographies also identify Kellan as their son and Maris as their daughter.
This means Dusty’s family legacy has continued into another generation.
However, Teil’s children are not major public figures.
There is no reason to turn their private lives into detailed celebrity biographies.
Their connection with the Rhodes family is enough to explain their place in the family tree.
Teil Runnels as a Mother
Motherhood appears to be one of the central parts of Teil’s adult life.
Unlike her brothers, whose careers require constant travel, media appearances and live wrestling events, Teil has largely maintained a more private family-focused lifestyle.
That does not mean she has disconnected from wrestling.
She still appears at important family events.
She has participated in documentaries.
She supports her brothers publicly.
But her everyday identity appears much more centered on family than entertainment fame.
Where Does Teil Runnels Live?
Secondary biographies commonly place Teil and her family in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
However, exact current residential details are not widely confirmed through major sources.
Because Teil is a relatively private person, there is little reason to publish specific location information beyond a broad region.
Georgia also makes sense as part of the wider Rhodes family story.
Cody grew up in Georgia, and the family has long-standing connections with the state.
Teil Runnels’ Education
Several secondary biographies report that Teil attended a university in Texas, often identifying the University of Texas at Arlington.
However, this detail is not well established through a strong official university biography.
For that reason, it should be treated as reported information rather than absolute fact.
This is an important rule when writing about private celebrity relatives.
If the strongest sources do not confirm a detail, there is no need to make it sound certain simply because several biography sites repeat it.
What Does Teil Runnels Do for a Living?
Teil’s exact current profession is not clearly documented by authoritative public sources.
Some websites describe her as a businesswoman.
Others describe her as a homemaker.
Others claim she worked behind the scenes in wrestling.
These descriptions vary too much to present any single one confidently.
What can be verified is that Teil has made media appearances connected with her family and wrestling history.
Her IMDb profile lists appearances in:
AEW Dynamite,
Rhodes to the Top,
American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes,
and Biography: WWE Legends.
Her main everyday career outside those appearances remains comparatively private.
Is Teil Runnels Famous?
Teil is famous in an unusual way.
She is not famous because she built a huge independent entertainment career.
She is famous because of the family around her.
Her father is a wrestling legend.
Her brothers became wrestling stars.
Her family story appears in documentaries.
Wrestling fans therefore recognize her name.
This creates what might be called family fame.
Teil is known, but she has never lived like a traditional full-time celebrity.
Is Teil Runnels on Instagram?
Teil has maintained a social-media presence and family photos attributed to her accounts have circulated publicly.
However, social-media handles and privacy settings can change.
People should be cautious when assuming an account is official simply because it uses her name.
Her public online presence has generally focused more on family and wrestling connections than on building an influencer career.
Teil Runnels and the Rhodes Wrestling Legacy
Teil occupies a unique position in the Rhodes family.
Dusty represented the first major generation.
Dustin continued the family name in professional wrestling.
Cody became one of the biggest stars of the next generation.
Teil remained outside the ring.
But that does not make her less connected with the family’s history.
Families need people who preserve memories.
They need people who remember what happened away from television.
Teil can speak about Dusty as a father and Cody as a brother.
That perspective gives wrestling fans something they cannot get from match results or championship lists.
Why People Search for Teil Runnels
Searches for Teil usually begin with one of three people:
Dusty Rhodes,
Cody Rhodes,
or Dustin Rhodes.
Fans begin looking at the Rhodes family tree and discover another daughter.
Then the questions start:
Who is Teil Runnels?
Is she Cody Rhodes’ real sister?
Did she wrestle?
Who is her mother?
Who is her husband?
Does she have children?
How old is she?
Was she a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader?
What does she do now?
The answers reveal a person who remained closely connected to wrestling while choosing not to make it her primary career.
Is Teil Runnels Cody Rhodes’ Real Sister?
Yes.
Teil and Cody are full siblings.
They share the same father, Dusty Rhodes, and the same mother, Michelle Rubio.
This is different from Cody’s relationship with Dustin and Kristin.
Dustin and Kristin share Dusty as their father but have a different mother.
That makes them Cody and Teil’s paternal half-siblings.
Why Teil Uses Gergel Instead of Rhodes
Teil is married to Kevin Gergel, which explains why she is frequently credited as Teil Gergel or Teil Runnels Gergel.
For example, American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes credits her as Teil Gergel.
Biography: WWE Legends credits her as Teil Runnels Gergel.
The Rhodes name remains useful for fans searching her family connection, while Gergel reflects her married name.
Teil Runnels Today
As of 2026, Teil remains connected with the Rhodes family while continuing to maintain a much lower public profile than Cody or Dustin.
Her most notable recent media appearances have centered on family history rather than an independent wrestling career.
She has appeared in documentaries about Cody and Dusty.
She has appeared on wrestling television.
And she has occasionally become the subject of wrestling news when fans or family members share updates involving her.
Her family connection remains strong.
But she does not appear to be trying to turn herself into another wrestling superstar.
What Makes Teil Runnels’ Story Interesting?
Teil’s story is interesting because she grew up with an obvious path available to her and chose something different.
Imagine growing up with Dusty Rhodes as your father.
Your older half-brother becomes a wrestler.
Your younger brother becomes a wrestler.
The wrestling world knows your surname.
It would be easy to assume you should enter the ring too.
Teil did not.
Instead, she created a life where wrestling remained part of her family history without becoming her entire personal identity.
That choice makes her stand out inside the Rhodes dynasty.
Final Thoughts on Teil Runnels
Teil Runnels is an important member of the Rhodes wrestling family even though she never became a major professional wrestler herself.
She is the daughter of Dusty Rhodes and Michelle Rubio and the full sister of Cody Rhodes.
Through Dusty, she is also the half-sister of Dustin Rhodes and Kristin Runnels Ditto.
Teil is widely reported to have been born in September 1982 and to be married to Kevin Gergel.
The couple have two children, Kellan and Maris.
Rather than building a wrestling career, Teil mostly remained outside the ring.
Still, she has never been completely absent from the wrestling world.
She appeared on AEW Dynamite and Rhodes to the Top and participated in major documentaries about both Cody and Dusty.
Her appearance in American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes was especially meaningful because it allowed fans to see Cody through the eyes of his sister rather than only through wrestling promoters, opponents or commentators.
Teil represents the private side of a very public family.
Dusty entertained millions.
Dustin and Cody followed him into wrestling.
Teil chose a quieter path built more around family.
Yet when the Rhodes story is told completely, she remains part of it.
The American Dream’s legacy was never only about championships.
It was also about the family he left behind.
And Teil Runnels continues to be an important part of that family story.
FAQs About Teil Runnels
Who is Teil Runnels?
Teil Runnels is the daughter of wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes and Michelle Rubio. She is also the sister of Cody Rhodes and half-sister of Dustin Rhodes and Kristin Runnels Ditto.
Is Teil Runnels Cody Rhodes’ sister?
Yes. Teil and Cody are full siblings because they share both parents, Dusty Rhodes and Michelle Rubio.
Who is Teil Runnels’ father?
Her father was WWE and NWA wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes, also known as “The American Dream.”
Who is Teil Runnels’ mother?
Her mother is Michelle Rubio, Dusty Rhodes’ second wife.
How old is Teil Runnels?
Secondary sources report that she was born on September 12, 1982, which would make her 43 in September 2026. The exact birthday is not as strongly documented as her family relationships.
Is Teil Runnels a wrestler?
No established professional wrestling career is documented for Teil. She has appeared on wrestling programming, but she is not known as a full-time professional wrestler.
Was Teil Runnels in AEW?
She appeared on AEW Dynamite in 2021, according to IMDb, but she was not established as a regular AEW wrestler.
Was Teil Runnels on Rhodes to the Top?
Yes. She appeared as herself in a 2021 episode of Rhodes to the Top.
Was Teil Runnels in the Cody Rhodes documentary?
Yes. She appeared as Cody’s sister in the 2023 documentary American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes.
Did Teil appear in a documentary about Dusty Rhodes?
Yes. She appeared as herself in Biography: WWE Legends during the episode about Dusty Rhodes.
Who is Teil Runnels’ husband?
She is widely reported to be married to Kevin Gergel.
When did Teil Runnels marry Kevin Gergel?
Secondary biographies commonly report that they married on November 1, 2008.
Does Teil Runnels have children?
Yes. Dusty Rhodes’ family information identifies Kellan and Maris as Teil and Kevin Gergel’s children.
Is Dustin Rhodes Teil Runnels’ brother?
Yes. Dustin is her older paternal half-brother. They share Dusty Rhodes as their father.
Who is Teil Runnels’ sister?
Her paternal half-sister is Kristin Runnels Ditto.
Was Teil Runnels a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader?
No. This is sometimes confused online. Her half-sister Kristin Runnels Ditto is the sibling associated with being a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.
Where does Teil Runnels live?
Secondary sources often place Teil and her family in the Atlanta, Georgia area, although detailed current residence information is private.
What does Teil Runnels do for a living?
Her exact current profession is not clearly documented by strong public sources. She is primarily publicly known through her family and occasional wrestling-related television and documentary appearances.
Why is Teil Runnels famous?
Teil is best known as Dusty Rhodes’ daughter and Cody Rhodes’ sister. Interest in her has also grown through appearances in wrestling television programs and documentaries.
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