Cobra Kai alum and rising star Gianni DeCenzo joins us this week to talk all things acting! It’s Actors With Issues, what else would we do? Gianni began his career at just eight years old, booking roles in commercials and co-starring roles in television series like The Middle, The League, and Disney Channel series Liv and Maddie. Since 2018, Gianni has starred in the hit action dramedy series Cobra Kai as Demetri where he was able to use his own martial arts skills in Krav Maga.
This episode focuses a lot on transitioning, growing and learning as Gianni chats with us about his work as a child actor and shifting his career as a young adult, what his experience was like working on Cobra Kai when it was a YouTube Red series which was then bought by Netflix during the pandemic, and how the industry has changed in recent years, from streaming and content creating to self-tapes and Zoom auditions.
“We didn’t really get to see the audience and fans’ reactions to things in public, we were kind of sheltered from that. It wasn’t until COVID died down and we were able to do premieres for the show that we really saw that not only did we have our extremely loyal fanbase from YouTube, but it had spread everywhere. I wasn’t expecting the show to blow up as much as it did when I first auditioned for it, I was 15. It just took off and it’s been awesome.”
