A certain type of actor can appear in a supporting role and manage to steal the show. That type of actor is Paul Walter Hauser. Additionally, his character Raymond Porter, better known as Stingray, in Cobra Kai, the long-running Netflix karate drama built on nostalgia and surprisingly sharp writing, turned into something no one quite expected: a genuinely moving portrait of a man who refuses to grow up, wrapped in what could have been pure comedic relief.
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 15, 1986, Hauser’s journey to Hollywood wasn’t exactly easy. After praising him at the Academy Awards, he managed to persuade director Dustin Lance Black to write him a bigger role in a movie. He was born and raised in Saginaw, went to a Lutheran high school, and left Concordia University Chicago. That is the type of biography that seems made up. It isn’t.
A plate of nachos and a series of Dirty Work quotes marked the beginning of his relationship with Cobra Kai. Hauser had never seen an episode of the show when its creators, Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg, contacted him after seeing him in I, Tonya. He turned on Cobra Kai and watched three consecutive episodes on his iPad while traveling to the lunch meeting. Just to finish one, he arrived ten minutes late. Nevertheless, they offered him a part. It’s difficult not to be impressed by that bravery.
When Stingray first appeared in Season 2, he was an overgrown man-child who joined a dojo full of teenagers without seeming embarrassed in an attempt to gain a spot in Cobra Kai. The character might have remained a one-note joke. Rather, Hauser discovered something more subdued beneath the surface: a sense of isolation, a sincere yearning to fit in, and a refusal to allow adulthood to take away the things that truly mattered to him. Viewers seemed to react to that because it’s more relatable than anyone wants to acknowledge.
Hauser had a lot of dramatic material to work with thanks to the arc that developed over Seasons 4 and 5. Terry Silver severely beats Stingray in an effort to get him back into the dojo, and he is later tricked into accusing John Kreese of the attack. For a character who had been portrayed primarily for comedic effect, it’s a dark turn, and Hauser handled it without veering into melodrama. Because of his performance in those episodes, there are Reddit threads with comments like “I didn’t expect to feel this way about Stingray.”
There has been an intriguing parallel in Hauser’s broader career. He received a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role as serial killer Larry Hall in Black Bird on Apple TV+. In Inside Out 2, he voiced Embarrassment. In The Fantastic Four: First Steps, he portrayed Mole Man. Unbelievably, he is also a professional wrestler who won the PROGRESS Wrestling Proteus Title in April of 2025. There are very few Emmy winners who are also wrestlers, so the range there is truly exceptional.
In Cobra Kai’s sixth season, Stingray at last achieves his dream of a genuine position within the dojo, working as a novice sensei under Johnny Lawrence. It’s a subtle kind of reward. No redemption montage, no big speech. Just a man who eventually succeeded in getting what he truly desired. How seriously you took the character in the first place will determine whether that ending worked out, and if you watched Hauser over the course of five seasons, there’s a good chance you did.
Hauser contributed something unique to Cobra Kai Stingray: the dignity of a person who appears absurd on the outside but is completely genuine on the inside. Finding that balance is challenging. Most actors either try too hard to find the pathos or play it too broadly. Hauser figured it out, showing up ten minutes late with nachos and quotes from Harold and Kumar.
