diff --git a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
index f7282dddb85..4201402b06f 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
+++ b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
@@ -776,6 +776,7 @@ argp.add_argument('-n', '--runs_per_test', default=1, type=runs_per_test_type,
         help='A positive integer or "inf". If "inf", all tests will run in an '
              'infinite loop. Especially useful in combination with "-f"')
 argp.add_argument('-r', '--regex', default='.*', type=str)
+argp.add_argument('--regex_exclude', default='', type=str)
 argp.add_argument('-j', '--jobs', default=multiprocessing.cpu_count(), type=int)
 argp.add_argument('-s', '--slowdown', default=1.0, type=float)
 argp.add_argument('-f', '--forever',
@@ -1187,7 +1188,9 @@ def _build_and_run(
       spec
       for language in languages
       for spec in language.test_specs()
-      if re.search(args.regex, spec.shortname))
+      if (re.search(args.regex, spec.shortname) and
+          (args.regex_exclude == '' or
+           not re.search(args.regex_exclude, spec.shortname))))
     # When running on travis, we want out test runs to be as similar as possible
     # for reproducibility purposes.
     if args.travis: