as Bobby Brown (guest, seasons 2–3) Rob Garrison as Tommy (guest, season 2) Tony O'Dell as Jimmy (guest, season 2) Okea Eme-Akwari as Shawn Payne (recurring, season 3; guest, season 4) Yuji Okumoto as Chozen Toguchi (recurring, season 5; guest, seasons 3–4) Dee Snider as Himself (guest, season 3) Tamlyn Tomita as Kumiko (guest, season 3) Traci Toguchi as Yuna (guest, season 3) Terry Serpico as Captain George Turner (guest, seasons 3, 5) Seth Kemp as Ponytail (guest, season 3) Elisabeth Shue as Ali Mills (guest, season 3) Brock Duncan as Zack Thompson (recurring, season 4) Milena Rivero as Lia Cabrera (recurring, season 4) Oona O'Brien as Devon Lee (recurring, seasons 4–5) Salome Azizi as Cheyenne Hamidi (guest, season 4) Julia Macchio as Vanessa LaRusso (guest, seasons 4–5) Carrie Underwood as Herself (guest, season 4) Alicia Hannah-Kim as Kim Da-Eun (recurring, season 5) Owen Harn as Gabriel (recurring, season 5) Luis Roberto Guzmán as Hector Salazar (guest, season 5) Sean Kanan as Mike Barnes (guest, season 5) Robyn Lively as Jessica Andrews (guest, season 5) Sunny Mabrey as Lizzie-Anne (guest, season 5) Tracey Bonner as Dr. Emily Folsom (guest, season 5) Carsten Norgaard as Gunther Braun (guest, season 5) Tyron Woodley as Sensei Odell/K.O. (guest, season 5) Stephen Thompson as Sensei Morozov (uncredited, season 5) Archival footage The following characters only appear via archival footage from the film series: Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi Danny Kamekona as Sato Toguchi Nobu McCarthy as Yukie Chad McQueen as Dutch Israel Juarbe as Freddy Fernandez Jonathan Avildsen as Snake Christopher Paul Ford as Dennis Episodes Production The thematic genesis for Cobra Kai began with a few works of pop culture. First, the 2007 music video for the song "Sweep the Leg" by No More Kings stars William Zabka (who also directed the video) as a caricature of himself as Johnny, and features references to The Karate Kid, including cameo appearances by Zabka's former Karate Kid co-stars. In a 2010 interview, Zabka jokingly discussed this video in the context of his vision that Johnny was the true hero of the film. Next in June 2010, Macchio appeared in Funny or Die's online short, "Wax On, F*ck Off", in which his loved ones stage an intervention to turn the former child star from a well-adjusted family man into an addict besieged with tabloid scandal in order to help his career (with frequent references to The