Courtney Henggeler Walks Away From Acting

After two decades of auditions, rejections, near-misses, and finally, a breakout role, Cobra Kai star Courtney Henggeler has decided to close the curtain on her acting career — and on her own terms.

In a post shared to her Substack in late March, Courtney, 46, announced that she’s officially done with Hollywood. “After 20-plus years of fighting the good fight in the acting business, I hung up my gloves on Friday,” she wrote. “I called my agents and told them I was tapping out. I no longer wanted to be a cog in the wheel of the machine.”

When her agents asked what she did want to do instead, she didn’t skip a beat: “I want to be the machine.”

For most people, Courtney is known as Amanda LaRusso — the steady, smart voice in Cobra Kai, a show that reignited The Karate Kid legacy. She starred on the hit Netflix series through all six seasons, up until its final episode aired in February 2025. To fans, she’d made it. To billboards, she was the face. To her younger self, she had reached the mythical “golden goose.”

But Courtney’s honesty pulls back the Hollywood curtain to reveal something far less glamorous. She described her early career as a constant hustle; getting excited over one-liners on shows like House (“Sorry,” was her only line), grinding through guest appearances on NCIS, Criminal Minds, Jane the Virgin, and more, always hoping that “recurring” might finally mean recurring. It rarely did.

“We survived off the crumbs,” she wrote. “We filled our cup with the possibility; our mugs with delusion. Our plates were empty, but a golden goose hung over our heads. Today might be the day. Today might be the day I reach the golden goose.”

Even when she landed leading roles in films like Friends with Benefits, Nobody’s Fool, and Feed, or when George Clooney directed her, the feeling of fulfillment didn’t quite arrive. “For years I silenced the voice in my head, begging me to walk away,” she confessed. “Not because of the acting itself, but because of the gauntlet I had to run to reach the acting.”

That voice finally won.

Now, with Cobra Kai wrapped and her long-desired golden goose technically caught, Courtney is choosing something different: peace, power, and a life beyond the hustle.