Cobra Kai fan-favorite Courtney Henggeler has announced that she is stepping away from acting after more than two decades in the entertainment industry. The actress, best known for her role as Amanda LaRusso on Netflix’s Cobra Kai, shared the decision in a heartfelt and candid post on her Substack earlier this year, explaining that the grind of Hollywood ultimately became more draining than rewarding — even after a high-profile run in a hit series.
In the lengthy post titled “20 Plus Years,” Henggeler wrote that after “20-plus years of fighting the good fight in the acting business,” she finally decided to “hang up her gloves” and inform her agents she was done. Rather than continue feeling like “a cog in the wheel of the machine,” she said she was choosing to step away from the relentless hustle that had defined her career.
Henggeler, who also had roles on shows such as The Big Bang Theory, Jane the Virgin, Bones, NCIS, and Mom before Cobra Kai, pointed out that even with some memorable moments and recognizable guest parts, much of her career was spent chasing opportunities that never quite stuck. “We survived off the crumbs,” she wrote, criticizing the cycle of small roles, brief appearances, and unfulfilled recurring gigs that kept her both hopeful and exhausted.
Despite achieving what many actors dream of, a steady role on a successful Netflix series, Henggeler said the emotional toll of constantly hustling for work left her feeling “famished,” even at the height of her visibility. She acknowledged that Cobra Kai had been a significant milestone, with her face appearing on billboards and the series giving her a level of recognition she had long chased. But that “golden goose” moment wasn’t enough to keep her in an industry she felt drained by.
“Acting itself wasn’t the issue,” Henggeler explained. “But because of the gauntlet I had to run to reach the acting. What once felt necessary … became stifling.” Her message resonated with many observers as a rarely voiced critique of Hollywood’s choppy career realities, even for actors with well-known credits.
Henggeler’s decision coincides with Cobra Kai’s conclusion after its sixth and final season, which wrapped on Netflix in February 2025. Ending the series may have provided a natural inflection point for her choice, but her writing suggests it was also a deeply personal reckoning about what she wanted from her professional life moving forward.
At 46, Courtney Henggeler’s retirement from acting marks the end of a long and varied screen career that saw her evolve from guest spots on network TV to a central role in one of the decade’s most beloved streaming hits. What comes next for her remains open, but she made clear that her departure was intentional, a conscious shift away from Hollywood’s relentless pace toward something that better aligns with her own sense of purpose and well-being.
