After attending a friend’s movie premiere the nite before, she arrived at the audition hardly rested. No big plan. No meticulous ritual of preparation. Peyton List showed up, gave it her all, and, to her own admission, winged it. Despite this, the casting team adored her. That’s how Tory Nichols came to be, and in a way, it also marked the quiet start of a new phase in List’s career.
It’s important to pay attention to that particular detail because it reveals something genuine about how these things occasionally operate in Hollywood. List didn’t think he would be cast as Cobra Kai. She had openly told herself that Tory wasn’t a good fit for her because the role was too dissimilar from the Disney world she had grown up in. Emma Ross’s portrayal of Jessie was well-mannered, refined, and endearing. None of those things applied to Tory Nichols. Tory had a sharp edge, was erratic, and carried the weight of a truly challenging life. List believed the distance was too great to bridge. She was mistaken.
Her casting in 2019 was followed by a genuine, slow-moving, well-earned character arc—something that doesn’t happen frequently enough in this industry. In the second season of Cobra Kai, Tory emerged as an obvious antagonist who was immediately disliked. However, both List and the writers were unwilling to abandon the character there. Tory transformed from a villain to a more nuanced character throughout the series, and by the time the last season concluded in 2025, she was the deuteragonist. It turned out that List had the ability to sit inside moral ambiguity without flinching, which is necessary for that kind of trajectory.
It seems like the role also allowed List to have a different level of self-confidence. She has talked about what initially drew her to Cobra Kai, including the character’s separation from her Disney history and the fact that her friend Jacob Bertrand, who plays Eli Moskowitz on the show, was already a cast member. She desired to collaborate with him once more. It’s a minor human motive. Sincere connection, not career calculation. They eventually started dating in 2022, which gave a show that was already based on complex relationships an additional layer of warmth.
Watching List play Tory was an exciting change for fans who followed her from her Jessie days through Bunk’d and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies. Performers who were raised in family entertainment and are attempting to venture outside of it have a unique quality. Some people can never quite get rid of the first impression. List was in charge of it. The change was neither desperate nor coerced. It was as though someone was at last permitted to display greater variety.
List further established herself outside of the Netflix series by moving into School Spirits on Paramount+ by the time Cobra Kai ended its run. She took on the role of Heather Chandler in an Off-Broadway revival of Heathers: The Musical at the beginning of 2026, which was a far cry from her original role. The pattern is starting to emerge.
Her audition story—the one in which she barely slept, showed up, and landed one of the defining roles of her generation on a hugely popular streaming show—might endure forever. Something about that seems almost appropriate. Not every career change is the result of a well-thought-out plan. Sometimes it results from entering a room exhausted, making the decision to commit nonetheless, and letting the room make the final decision. The room made a good decision for Cobra Kai and Peyton List.
