On January 5, 2006, Griffin Santopietro was born in Portland, Maine, a place more famous for its lobster and lighthouse postcards than for its television professions. He is now twenty years old, and depending on how you first came across him, you may remember him as the young actor who created some of the most emotionally grounded work the series produced in its last seasons, or as the child who was easy to ignore in the early seasons of Cobra Kai. Both perceptions are true, and the difference between them basically tells the tale of his tenure on the program.
Santopietro, who has portrayed Anthony LaRusso since Cobra Kai’s premiere, began as something akin to wallpaper. He was the son of Daniel LaRusso, which should have had some significance in a drama about karate and generational strife. It didn’t for the most of the first few seasons. As the grownups and his peers arranged their alliances and rivalries around him, Anthony sat on the outskirts, a spoiled child playing video games. Fans who were paying attention saw that Santopietro was doing more with the role than it seemed to require, even though he portrayed him accurately because it was what the scripts called for.
The writers finally gave Anthony something significant in Seasons 5 and 6, which marked the genuine change. One of the more complex character arcs in the show’s latter seasons was his role in the bullying plot involving Kenny Payne and the difficult, drawn-out process of confronting what he had done. Santopietro had to portray guilt and development without veering into melodrama, carry sequences with seasoned adult performers, and do it effectively while still a teenager. Before he was old enough to cast a ballot, he was filming sequences for a show that tens of millions of people watched. In that, there is something to be acknowledged.
Cobra Kai’s sixth and final season on Netflix came to an end in February 2025. The majority of Santopietro’s early years were devoted to that production, which started when he was about 11 or 12 and ended when he was 19. A person is shaped by that type of work experience in ways that are difficult to completely explain. Growing up and playing beside Ralph Macchio and Courtney Henggeler for six seasons in a series based on decades of nostalgia is, by all accounts, an uncommon adolescence.
Santopietro, who is 20 years old, is in the same situation as the majority of young performers who leave long-running shows: they are both young enough to pursue nearly any career path and established enough to be recognizable. His character was featured in a number of fan-discussed scenarios in the Cobra Kai spin-off discussion that has been going around since the end, especially the notion of a “next generation” series based around Anthony, Kenny Payne, and Devon Lee.
The character was obviously being positioned for something larger in the last season, but whether that ultimately happens depends on what Sony and Netflix decide to approve. It’s actually unclear if Santopietro will stick with that theme or pursue something else different.
