Rayna Vallandingham plays Zara Mailk in Cobra Kai Season 6, leading many to wonder where the young actress came from.
Vallandingham made her debut in the series as a part of its recently released Season 6 Part 2, showing up as a member of the Iron Dragons at the Sekai Taikai tournament.
Biography Details & Facts on Rayna Vallandingham
Rayna Is a 4th Degree Black Belt
It is not much of a stretch to call Rayna Vallandingham's Zara the Queen of Karate in Cobra Kai.
The 21-year-old Netflix star is a fourth-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She got her first-degree black belt at just six years old and says she has plans to go for her fifth in the "next couple of years" (via 1st Phorm).
Rayna has made a career out of her martial arts work, specializing in both hand-to-hand combat as well as various weapons, including bo staff and nunchucks.
Rayna Is a Martial Arts Champion
Hailing from Encinitas, California, Rayna Vallandinghan is a multi-time martial arts champion.
Over the years, she has won 13 world championships under her belt. According to her representation, she is the youngest black belt martial artist to attain 12 World Championship Titles and, at just eight years old, won four different world championships, making her the youngest black belt ever to win such an honor.
According to Vallandingham, she started "Tae Kwon Do when [she] was 2 years old," and all these years later, she still loves it (via Squatgolf):
"I began Tae Kwon Do when I was 2 years old. Throughout the past sixteen years, I have obtained thirteen world championship titles and my fourth-degree black belt. Martial Arts is my main passion, and my love for training and acting has stemmed from that."
She remarked in that same interview that even after all these accolades, she still finds motivation to get out of bed every morning, thanks to the "desire to be proud of [her] daily dedication:"
"The desire to be proud of my daily dedication and investments motivates me to get out of bed every morning. The opportunity to slightly change the world and people’s lives around me instills immense motivation whenever I’m lacking it."
As a competitor in 2020, Vallandinghan stood at 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed 104 pounds.
Rayna Has Appeared in a Music Video
Outside of Cobra Kai, Vallandingham is starting to build up quite an impressive list of credits, including one on a Shawn Mendes music video.
In 2018, she appeared in the music video for Shawn Mendes and Khalid's song "Youth." In it, she stars, showing off her martial arts skills alongside several other teens participating in their passions, including a drummer, a pair of wrestlers, and several contemporary dancers.
This came after her work in the karate-themed teen movie Underdog Kids, which was released in 2015.
She would then get her big break on the screen in Cobra Kai Season 6, with no future roles lined up as of yet.
Rayna Is a Social Media Star
One of the reasons Rayna Vallandingham has popped up on the radar of some of Hollywood's biggest names is her gargantuan following on social media.
To call Vallandingham a social media star would be an understatement. She has amassed over 5 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, with 100s of millions of views on her various videos.
She mostly shares martial arts content, including epic videos of her showing off her championship-winning skills.
Talking about her viral rise to fame with Muscle and Fitness, Vallandingham posited that she is trying to do "something that’s not really been done before" by "taking martial arts and adapting into content creation."
She said that she has seen plenty of hate because of it and continues doing it to hopefully inspire the next generation:
"I’m doing something that’s not really been done before, in the sense of taking martial arts and adapting into content creation. That’s where some of the hate comes from. And I’ve just decided to commit to that and feed into it and be true to myself and who I want to be. Hopefully, that can inspire a lot of people to be authentic to themselves as well and not care about what other people say."
Rayna Wants To Be the Female Bruce Lee
Given her propensity for martial arts, one of Rayna Vallandingham's biggest inspirations is Bruce Lee, so much so that she wants to be a female version of the martial arts icon.
Vallandingham calls herself an official ambassador for Bruce Lee, using her platform to help spread a love of martial arts just like Lee did for decades.
She has called the experience of carrying on Lee's legacy "a huge blessing," saying like him, she hopes to "inspire generations and generations to come" (via Muscle and Fitness):
"It was such a huge blessing, and just a cultivation of everything I have dreamt of, because I always saw that for myself— to make a similar impact that he’s had on the world ever since his career flourished, even if it was for a short amount of time. His impact is going to inspire generations and generations to come and, and he inspired me, and so I would love to do that for all those little girls out there who are told that they’re not strong enough to dominate a sport like martial arts."
Vallandingham has been outspoken about being a role model for young girls getting into martial arts, saying, "There’s nothing more womanly than just being badass:"
"There’s nothing more womanly than just being badass—that encapsulates everything that a woman is."
How To Follow Rayna On Social Media
Fans looking to follow Rayna Vallandingham can do so on Instagram and TikTok.
With word that there is one more batch of episodes coming in Netflix's high-kicking karate drama, Vallandingham's Zara may just be getting started.
Cobra Kai is now streaming on Netflix.
