Long Island 'Cobrai Kai' star Courtney Henggeler says she's leaving acting after 20 years

"Cobra Kai" co-star Courtney Henggeler, a 1997 Seaford High School alumna who moved back to Long Island in 2020 after living in Los Angeles for work, says that after a more than two-decade career she is leaving acting.

"After 20 plus years of fighting the good fight in the acting business, I hung up my gloves on Friday," Henggeler, 46, posted on her Substack page two days later, March 30, spreading the news more widely this week with an Instagram post late Tuesday night. "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."

Henggeler — who played Amanda LaRusso, wife of Daniel LaRusso (Huntington's Ralph Macchio, reprising his role from the "Karate Kid" movies) in the six-season, recently concluded "Cobra Kai" — went on to say, "All I’ve ever known in my professional life was acting. But not even the art or craft of acting. All I’ve truly ever [known] was the hustle. The hustle, the grind, sprinkled occasionally with the odd acting job."

She acknowledged, "I’m considered one of the lucky ones. I was on a series. A successful series. I made money. My face was on the billboards I longed for 20 plus years. I was directed by George Clooney for godsakes" in 2023’s period sports drama "The Boys in the Boat," playing the wife of star Joel Edgerton’s character.

Other roles included two appearances as Sheldon’s twin sister on "The Big Bang Theory" and five as snobby restaurant scion Claudia on "Mom."

Yet calling herself "famished," she wrote that, "For years I silenced the voice in my head, begging me to walk away. ... Not because of the acting itself. But because of the gauntlet I had to run to reach the acting. What once felt necessary, something I willingly participated [in] , even celebrated, became stifling."

Henggeler — who outside acting wrote and was a producer, along with husband Ross Kohn, of the 2020 Lifetime telefilm "The Secret Life of a Celebrity Surrogate" — had considered exiting previously, shortly before being cast on "Cobra Kai," which debuted in 2018.

"I’d just had my son," she told Newsday in 2021, referring to Oscar, 8; she and Kohn also have a daughter, Georgie, 4. "I decided I was quitting acting. I’d been doing it for so long, since I was in my 20s. It was exhausting and I just wasn’t getting any further. I told my husband, ‘I think I’m done.’ He was, like, ‘That is amazing. I support you in whatever you want. However, we get our health insurance through SAG [the Screen Actors Guild]. Can you hang in there a little longer until we find a plan B?’ Within the next week, I think, I got the audition for ‘Cobra Kai.’ "

Henggeler, who now lives with her family in Huntington to be near her ailing mother, concluded her Substack post saying, "We run the gauntlet, to prove our worth. To earn our place. To be crowned the power. What if we never needed to run the gauntlet? What if we are the gauntlet?" She added cheekily, "Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Because evidently I’m an out of work actress now."

Henggeler no longer has a publicist, and her previous listed agent did not respond to a Newsday request for comment.