Xolo Maridueña received two phone calls the day he found out he had been cast in “Cobra Kai,” the spin-off series set three decades after the 1984 film “The Karate Kid” ended.
The first came from show creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who confirmed that he had landed the lead role of Miguel Diaz, the teenage wrestler from Reseda who learns martial arts after being bullied.
Maridueña, who was 16 at the time, couldn't believe her luck.
“Oh my God, what’s going on?” the now 23-year-old said via Zoom, recounting the events of that afternoon like a play-by-play commentator.
Then, his phone rang again. This time, it was Ralph Macchio, the karate kid himself.
“It is this Zolo?, Macchio asked.
Though Maridueña now laughs at the mispronunciation of his name (it’s “sho-low”), the young actor was too preoccupied at the time to correct his new co-star. With his phone battery at 1%, he feared the call would drop, giving Macchio the impression that he was a spoiled brat who had hung up on him. If that happened, Maridueña thought, he would surely be kicked off the show before filming began.
That worst-case scenario never came to fruition, and as Macchio can attest, Maridueña “is the antithesis of a spoiled brat.” In truth, he was tailor-made for a role that saw him grow from a braces-wearing teenager to a full-fledged adult. Now, seven years after that fateful day, the actor is preparing to say goodbye to Miguel Díaz: Part 1 of “Cobra Kai’s” sixth and final season premiered on Netflix on Thursday, with Part 2 coming out on Nov. 15 and Part 3 sometime in 2025.
“There was something about him that we fell in love with from the beginning,” said William Zabka, who plays Johnny Lawrence, the antagonist in the first “The Karate Kid” film who gets a chance at redemption in the Netflix series. “We knew right away that was our Miguel.”
“He was lanky and had that long-limbed clumsiness that LaRusso typically had,” Macchio said, alluding to the fact that Miguel Diaz is a modern version of his own character. “It was perfect from the start.”
In taking on the lead role, Maridueña took on the responsibility of being one of the few Latino characters on the show (Miguel was intentionally written to better reflect the demographics of the San Fernando Valley). He says the writers consulted with him to further develop his storyline with Ecuadorian ethnicity in mind (Maridueña himself is of Mexican, Cuban and Ecuadorian descent).
“[It’s important] “We have to have these roles where people are allowed to just be in character and the first point is not their ethnicity,” Maridueña said. “As we have more of these diverse roles, people will start to get used to it.” [seeing us].”
(Sarahi Apaez / Los Angeles Times)
“They were honest in their lack of knowledge in [Miguel’s] culture,” he said, making sure to point out that this lack of familiarity with Latinos is a problem that affects the entire industry.
“You throw a stone in [Los Angeles] “And 1 in 2 people are Latino,” said Maridueña, who grew up in El Sereno. “Hollywood needs to catch up in that regard because if you throw a rock on the set, 1 in 2 people are definitely not Latino.”
He also credits the writers for not making Miguel one-dimensional.
“[It’s important] “We have to have these roles where people are allowed to just be in character and the first point is not their ethnicity,” Maridueña said. “As we have more of these diverse roles, people will start to get used to it.” [seeing us].”
Despite his age, the actor is a veteran at portraying nuanced Latino characters. Before “Cobra Kai,” he played Victor Graham on the popular NBC drama “Parenthood.” He also spent years honing his craft at Casa 0101, the Boyle Heights theater company founded by “Real Women Have Curves” playwright Josefina Lopez.
“He approached his job with a lot of humility. There was no pomposity about him,” said Edward Padilla, a former lead youth educator at Casa 0101 and a family friend. “He really came in there with dedication and a willingness to adapt to the role he was playing.”
Padilla attributes part of Maridueña’s love of acting to the “Cobra Kai” star’s family members, who are involved in community arts activism. Maridueña’s younger sister, Oshún Ramírez, was a voice actress on Disney’s “Future-Worm!”, her mother, Carmelita Ramírez-Sánchez, runs the Boyle Heights Conservatory of the Arts, and her father, Omar G. Ramírez, is a Chicano artist.
“The family wanted him to start expanding beyond the kinds of things he had already done,” Padilla said.
Maridueña's face lights up at the mention of Casa 0101, and she even hints at the possibility of returning to the theater if she's given the chance to direct her own play now that “Cobra Kai” is about to end.
“I can’t help but feel that the community I grew up in, El Sereno, Los Angeles, my family, my friends, Casa 0101, everyone who helped raise me and made me feel so comfortable in my skin, allowed me to be myself,” he said.
As Maridueña enters a new phase of his career, Padilla says he hopes his former student won't feel obligated to always shoulder the burden of representing his community on screen.
“I want you to choose projects that really lift you up, because that’s the only way we’re all going to have an impact. [is] “If we continue to choose things that lift our individual spirit,” Padilla said.
Plus, Maridueña has done more than enough to highlight the richness and complexity of Latino culture. The actor played Jaime Reyes in last year’s “Blue Beetle,” the first live-action superhero movie with a Latino lead. And just as Jaime was chosen by the alien beetle that gave him superpowers, Maridueña was handpicked for this groundbreaking role.
“I thought it was Xolo and it had to be Xolo,” said “Blue Beetle” director Angel Manuel Soto, who affectionately refers to his protagonist as “mijo” or “my son.” Soto said working with Maridueña was a “dream come true,” highlighting his charisma, talent, energy and lack of ego among the many qualities that make him a standout actor.
“He really went above and beyond to the point of almost doing a lot of his own stunts and preparing for it even on the toughest days,” Soto said, crediting Maridueña’s martial arts background on “Cobra Kai.”
Despite the landmark status of “Blue Beetle,” the film had the misfortune of being released in the midst of the SAG-AFTRA strikes in Hollywood, which meant that Maridueña and her co-stars were unable to promote the film.
Strike or not, Maridueña's family, friends and community met The Boyle Heights Conservatory of the Arts, run by his mother, hosted free screenings of “Blue Beetle” in Alhambra, Montebello and Hollywood.
“This is our way of saying, ‘Look, we know you can’t be in front, but we want you to know you have thousands behind you,’” Ramírez-Sánchez said. The times Last year, when one of us can't be present, none of us is as strong as all of us.
Maridueña could easily have been cynical about how the film’s release turned out. Instead, he decided to focus on what “Blue Beetle” managed to accomplish.
“I remember having conversations with Angel and him telling me that this was bigger than all of us,” she said. “I remember that really resonated with me at the time and really allowed that to be the tone of the movie as we were filming.”
“I can’t help but feel that the community I grew up in, El Sereno, Los Angeles, my family, my friends, Casa 0101, everyone who helped raise me and made me feel so comfortable in my skin, allowed me to be myself.”
(Sarahi Apaez / Los Angeles Times)
Talking about “Blue Beetle,” Maridueña recalls how her fear of looking bad on screen was immediately replaced by a feeling of pride.
“As soon as I sat down in that chair for the first screen, I was scared to death,” he said, returning to the real-time spiral. “What if I’m bad? What if it’s terrible?”
“But then we watched it and all that love comes through so strongly in the movie. I couldn’t help but think, ‘Oh my God, my family is going to be proud because they’re going to see themselves in it. ’ This movie is about showing a whole new generation that they can have a superhero that looks like them.”
And while acting has taken up a large portion of his life, Maridueña still finds time to express himself off-screen. He’s an avid photographer who stands behind his Leica Q2 as he snaps his friends on food outings. He’s also a self-proclaimed love doctor on his highly-rated podcast “Lone Lobos,” which he hosts alongside fellow “Cobra Kai” actor and best friend Jacob Betrand. He’s even dabbled in music, releasing a hip-hop song last October.
Maridueña also has several acting projects in the works. She is set to star opposite Al Pacino in the thriller “Killing Castro” and will be part of the star-studded cast of “The Smurfs Movie,” which is set to be released next year.
“I feel very grateful to have worked with this impeccable [‘Cobra Kai’] cast and crew for seven years. At the same time I feel [I’ve] “I have grown from this part of my life,” he said.
“I’m ready to show what I’ve learned in other spaces now.”
