“Why the hell did you choose me?” was Peyton List’s direct and sincere question when she first met with the Cobra Kai writers. As it happened, the solution was precisely the point. The Disney princess was what they desired. They intended for people to be taken aback.
List was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 6, 1998, and grew up in New York City. While still in elementary school, she and her twin brother Spencer took the subway to Manhattan for modeling auditions. Before she was a teenager, she starred in more than 400 commercials. She made her screen debut as a young Katherine Heigl in the 2008 romantic comedy 27 Dresses. Then came Disney, and years of it: four seasons of Jessie, Bunk’d, and the kind of wholesome, well-known brand that, whether they like it or not, tends to follow child actors well into adulthood.
In 2019, during season two, Cobra Kai entered her life. Disney’s universe lacks characters like Tory Nichols, who is fierce, complex, financially struggling, and prone to making decisions that the audience can’t quite forgive but can almost understand. List had never before portrayed a true antagonist. She received martial arts training. Jahnel Curfman, her stunt double, contributed to the physical appearance of Tory on screen. The character was successful not only as a villain but also as someone the show continued to develop season after season, ultimately turning her into something more akin to a protagonist.
Perhaps the casting was a calculated risk that turned out to be more profitable than anyone anticipated. Tory had transformed from a disruptive new student to one of the most nuanced characters in the series by the 2025 final season. Over the course of the show, List appeared in 49 episodes, which is more than many of the original cast members. She obviously saw something in Tory that was worth defending, and the writers saw something in her that was worth investing in.
List’s discussion of her own career is refreshingly honest. She talks about imposter syndrome—that nagging “why me?” feeling that she says she doesn’t think she’ll ever completely get over—without feeling ashamed. Wearing a fitted black dress and art deco jewelry for a magazine profile photo shoot in Brooklyn Brownstone, she described this stage of her life as finally “stepping into herself.” It sounds nothing like a public relations line. It sounds like someone is figuring out what to do after spending years pretending to be someone else.
The future is already beginning to take shape. She plays a crime-solving adolescent trapped in the afterlife in the Paramount+ supernatural series School Spirits, which received positive reviews and a second season. The fact that she is an executive producer on it is noteworthy because it suggests that she is doing more than just showing up and performing well. The show quickly rose to the top ten on Netflix within a few days of its debut. The Wall Street Journal described her performance as “magnetic.”
Off-screen, she has been camping with her boyfriend, Jacob Bertrand, who plays Eli in Cobra Kai. She has learned how to pack light and navigate trails that she would never have thot of while growing up in Brooklyn. Although it’s a minor detail, it fits the bigger picture of someone actively enlarging their life.
List’s transition from child star to working adult actress seems to be one of the most seamless ones Hollywood has seen in recent years, based on the way this has developed over the past few years. No forced reinvention, no dramatic break from her past. Just a karate demonstration that allowed her to be truly unexpected, and a crowd that turned out to watch.
