Cobra Kai’s Courtney Henggeler steps away from acting: ‘I want to be the machine’

Courtney Henggeler has revealed in a candid post on Substack that she has officially called it quits on her acting career.

“After 20-plus years of fighting the good fight in the acting business, I hung up my gloves on Friday,” wrote the Cobra Kai star.

She added: “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. I want to be the machine.”

While Henggeler didn’t specify what comes next, she made it clear that she is ready to forge a new path on her own terms.

Reflecting on her time in the industry, she implied that the reality of her career was more about grinding than acting.

“All I’ve ever known in my professional life was acting,” she continued. “But not even the art or craft of acting. All I’ve truly ever known was the hustle. The grind. Occasionally sprinkled with the odd acting job—perhaps a line or two to TV’s Dr. House. ‘Sorry.’ (That was my line. Genius.)”

Before gaining prominence as Amanda LaRusso in all six seasons of Netflix’s Cobra Kai, Henggeler appeared in a variety of small roles across TV and film, including The Big Bang Theory, Mom, Criminal Minds, Bones, NCIS, Jane the Virgin, and movies like Friends with Benefits, Feed, and Nobody’s Fool.

Despite her growing list of credits, she said, the industry rarely offered consistent security.

“After each job, it was back to the grind,” she said. “We survived off the crumbs. We filled our cups with possibility, our mugs with delusion. Our plates were empty, but a golden goose hung over our heads. Today might be the day I reach the golden goose.”

Said “golden goose” eventually arrived in the form of Cobra Kai—a breakout role, a steady paycheck, her face on billboards and even being directed by George Clooney.

Even then, however, Henggeler found herself unfulfilled.

“I was on a successful series. I made money. This, by all definitions, is the golden goose,” she wrote. “But I was still famished.”

With the sixth and final season of Cobra Kai premiering on Netflix in February, Henggeler’s decision comes at a natural ending point.

She closed her post with a series of questions that suggest she’s found peace in moving on: “What if we choose to believe we have the power? What if we had it all along? What if we never needed to run the gauntlet? What if we are the gauntlet?”