Courtney Henggeler, Cobra Kai co-star, has retired from acting (2025)

Courtney Henggeler, who played Amanda Russo, wife to Ralph Macchio’s Daniel in Cobra Kai, has officially retired from acting. According to a post made late last month, the 46-year-old actress is leaving the business just a few weeks after the Netflix series concluded.

In a post on her Substack from March 30th, Courtney Henggeler wrote, “After 20 plus years of fighting the good fight in the acting business, I hung up my gloves on Friday,” referring to two days prior. “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 prompted to know what I did want to do, I simply replied “I want to be the machine.”

Courtney Henggeler would go on to cite the never-ending press to feel successful as a key reason for leaving show business, also suggesting that her experiences are not what she had envisioned acting to be. “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 knew was the hustle. The hustle, the grind, sprinkled occassionally [sic] with the odd acting job.”

Courtney Henggeler moved to Los Angeles after ditching college in New York, eventually landing a handful of ads and billboards. But it wouldn’t be until she was 30 that she landed the role of Missy, Sheldon’s twin sister, on The Big Bang Theory. She had one-offs and small arcs on shows like Franklin & Bash, Faking It and Mom but it wouldn’t be until Cobra Kai that Henggeler would become a familiar face. She occasionally appeared in movies as well, playing Joel Edgerton’s wife in George Clooney’s The Boys in the Boat.

Courtney Henggeler would end her post by writing, “We wait for power to be bestowed upon us. We sign up for the gauntlets. 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?”

Do you wish Courtney Henggeler would continue acting? What was your favorite performance of hers?