A young actor who wasn’t raised in Los Angeles, didn’t have a showbiz manager for a parent, and didn’t come from a famous family is refreshing. Born in Portland, Maine, on January 5, 2006, Griffin Santopietro’s path seemed more accidental than planned, at least from the outside. He was hardly a teenager when he was cast as Anthony LaRusso in Cobra Kai. However, something was obviously present from the start. Not exactly a Hollywood pedigree, his father, Dr. John Santopietro, is a senior vise president at Hartford HealthCare’s Behavioral Health Network. However, the family listened. During a children’s theater production…
Author: Sierra Foster
Sierra Foster
Born in Kansas City, Sierra Foster writes about politics and serves as Senior Editor at kbsd6.com. She was raised paying attention to this city, not just living in it. Sierra has a strong, deep connection to Kansas City, from the neighborhoods east of Troost to the discussions that take place in the city hall halls. Sierra, who is presently enrolled at the University of Kansas to pursue a degree in Political Science, applies the rigor of academic study to her journalism. She writes about politics in Missouri and Kansas as someone who genuinely cares about what happens to the people in these communities—the policies that impact them, the leaders who represent them, and the civic forces influencing their futures—rather than as an outsider watching from a distance. Her editorial coverage encompasses state-level policy, local government, and the national political currents that permeate bi-state regional life. Whether it's a city council vote or a Senate race, she has a special gift for turning complex policy language into writing that feels urgent, relatable, and worthwhile. Sierra seldom sits still off the page. She claims that playing soccer on a regular basis has sharpened her instincts for political reporting because of the sport's teamwork, strategy, and requirement to read a changing game in real time. She's probably somewhere in Kansas City with her friends when she's not writing or on the pitch, discovering new reasons to adore a city she already knows so well.
Seeing someone who was considered Hollywood’s favorite villain for decades finally receive his just desserts is somewhat satisfying. William Zabka, who played Johnny Lawrence in The Karate Kid in 1984 and truly unnerved teenagers, is thought to be worth between $3 and $4 million. For a career that almost completely stalled in the 1990s, it represents something more intriguing than just a dollar figure, even though it’s not the kind of figure that makes tabloid headlines. Zabka was born in 1965 in New York, the son of film industry professionals. During Johnny Carson’s early seasons as host of The Tonight…
Karate Kid: Legends came in third place when it debuted over Memorial Day weekend in 2025. Not initially. Not second. Third, behind Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning and Disney’s Lilo and Stitch revival, which had just set an all-time Memorial Day record. That opening seemed worthy of a different discussion for a franchise with 41 years of history and two of its most iconic faces appearing on screen for the first time. In its first three days, it brought in $20.3 million domestically from 3,809 theaters. The difference wasn’t disastrous because pre-release estimates had indicated $25 to $30 million. However,…
Reactions to the 2010 Karate Kid remake, which was set in Beijing and starred Jaden Smith learning kung fu from Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han, were largely divided along generational lines. The movie had very little to do with karate, as older fans pointed out, sometimes loudly. Younger audiences were unconcerned. With a global box office total of $343 million, the film presented Chan’s Mr. Han as a subtly captivating mentor figure who was soulful in a way that felt truly earned rather than appropriated from Pat Morita’s legacy. The announcement of a sequel starring Jaden Smith was followed by a…
A certain amount of creative math has always been required of its audience by Cobra Kai. At the time of filming The Karate Kid III, Ralph Macchio was 27 years old, portraying a teenager, while his co-star Thomas Ian Griffith, who was nearly exactly the same age, played a Vietnam veteran. This is not new to the franchise. However, nothing can match what Joe Seo subtly accomplished over the course of six seasons as Kyler Park in the long run. On July 30, 1980, Seo was born in San Francisco. Cobra Kai was 38 years old when he made his…
Early in the second season of Cobra Kai, a fully grown man with a red beard in a braid enters a competition in the woods while sporting a leather jacket and aviator sunglasses. He introduces himself as Stingray. The teenagers in his immediate vicinity hardly respond. And for some reason, that moment works flawlessly. On paper, it’s ridiculous. It lands on the screen. Paul Walter Hauser plays Raymond Porter, also known as Stingray, which is a fact in and of itself that tends to cause people who are familiar with movies to react slowly. Before most people knew his name,…
Most people remember a brief scene from Cobra Kai’s fourth season, but few really take the time to reflect on it. While waiting to be picked up, a new child is dancing by themselves at a bus stop without realizing it. The bus departs. He pivots. Everyone in the school is looking. Kenny Payne’s introduction is both humorous and subtly painful in a way that only excellent television can pull off. When he shot that scene, Dallas Dupree Young, who plays Kenny, was about fifteen years old. He had no intention of acting. Eric Young Sr., a former Major League…
Finding out that the actor who made you cringe every time Kyler Park spoke about Cobra Kai is actually a Sundance award winner with a sincere passion for shattering stereotypes is strangely satisfying. Since 2018, Joe Seo has been portraying one of Netflix’s most entertaining and annoying high school villains. For the majority of that run, he has been in his late thirties or early forties. People are still surprised by the last part. Since Seo was born on July 30, 1980, he was playing a 17-year-old between the ages of 38 and 43. It’s the kind of detail that…
Most streaming subscribers don’t know about it yet, but something quietly big is happening in the world of streaming. You may be able to get some of your money back if you paid for YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream in the last few years. This is because of a federal class action lawsuit. The Biddle v. Disney settlement is a $50 million deal to end the antitrust lawsuit that subscribers of YouTube TV, DirecTV Stream, and FuboTV brought against The Walt Disney Company. The lawsuit says Disney did things that raised the prices of Streaming Live Pay Television services unfairly,…
Bonnie Blue, whose real name is Tia Billinger and who makes adult content, has confirmed that she has had her first child. Her rep confirmed that she is doing well after having a C-section, and Blue herself shared a black-and-white video on Instagram that showed her pregnancy and labor and delivery at the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital in London. It is important to note that Princess Kate gave birth to all three of her children in the same hospital. It’s the kind of detail that fits with someone who rarely does something without an angle, whether they did…