Ralph George Macchio Jr. ( MAH-chee-oh; Italian: [ˈmakkjo]; born November 4, 1961) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Daniel LaRusso in four Karate Kid films (1984–2025) and in Cobra Kai (2018–2025), a sequel television series. For his work in the latter, Macchio was nominated for two Critics' Choice Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. He is also known for portraying Johnny Cade in Francis Ford Coppola's ensemble 1983 film, The Outsiders, and Bill Gambini in Joe Pesci's 1992 film My Cousin Vinny. Additional notable performances were in Eight Is Enough (1980–1981), Crossroads (1986), Ugly Betty (2008–2009), and The Deuce (2017–2019). He has also worked as a director and has produced two short films. Macchio received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2024.
Macchio was born in Huntington, New York, a suburb of New York City, on November 4, 1961. He is the son of Rosalie (née DeSantis) and Ralph George Macchio Sr., who owned a few laundromats and a wastewater disposal company. Macchio has a younger brother named Steven. Ralph Sr. is of half Italian and half Greek descent while Rosalie is of Italian ancestry. In a 1980 screen test, Macchio said that his family was from Naples. In 1979, Macchio graduated from Half Hollow Hills High School West in Dix Hills, New York.
Macchio began tap dancing lessons at age three and was discovered by a talent agent at age 16. He also learned a small amount of karate and jiujitsu in elementary school.
Macchio is known for appearing to be younger than he actually is and for portraying characters who are younger than he is. At age 20, he played a 16-year-old Johnny Cade in The Outsiders. At age 22, he played the 17-year-old Daniel LaRusso for the first time in The Karate Kid.
Eight Is Enough and The Outsiders
Macchio's first role came in a 1980 Bubble Yum commercial. That same year, Macchio was cast as Jeremy Andretti in the final season of Eight Is Enough. He next won the role of Johnny Cade in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 cinematic adaptation of S. E. Hinton's novel, The Outsiders, and shared the screen with an ensemble cast that included Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Leif Garrett, C. Thomas Howell, Diane Lane, Rob Lowe, and Patrick Swayze.
Macchio's work on The Outsiders helped him win the role of Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 blockbuster film The Karate Kid. Macchio continued to portray the character in two of its sequels, The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Karate Kid Part III (1989). In The Karate Kid, he portrayed a "high school weakling turned bullybuster" who learns karate from his friend and mentor, Mr. Miyagi (portrayed by Pat Morita). Macchio's work in the Karate Kid series made him "stratospherically famous."
Macchio appeared in the 2007 music video for the song "Sweep the Leg" by No More Kings as a caricature of himself and Daniel LaRusso.
In June 2010, Macchio appeared in Funny or Die's online short, "Wax On, F*ck Off", where 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 Karate Kid. A recurring joke in the sketch is that Macchio is confused for an adolescent. The short was lauded by TV Guide's Bruce Fretts, who referred to the video as "sidesplitting" and "comic gold."
In 2013, Macchio appeared in How I Met Your Mother. One of the main characters, Barney Stinson, asserts that Macchio's character, Daniel LaRusso, in The Karate Kid is not the real karate kid; instead, it is Johnny Lawrence, Daniel's nemesis in the film. That same year, he also voiced Daniel LaRusso along with a few other characters in an episode of Robot Chicken. During a celebration of the 30th anniversary of The Karate Kid at the Japanese American National Museum in 2014, Macchio said that the yellow 1947 Ford Super Deluxe convertible that his character Daniel receives from Mr. Miyagi in the first film was sitting in his garage.
From 2018 to 2025, Macchio reprised the role of Daniel LaRusso for the martial arts comedy drama television series Cobra Kai created by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, and distributed by Sony Pictures Television. Cobra Kai premiered on May 2, 2018, and concluded on February 13, 2025, after six seasons consisting of 65 episodes. Originally released on YouTube Red / YouTube Premium for its first two seasons, the series later moved to Netflix. Cobra Kai re-examines The Karate Kid films as Johnny Lawrence's "redemption story" that questions his role as a villain and also introduces the struggles that both Daniel and Johnny face with their respective father figures.
In 2022, Macchio published his memoir Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me, where he reflects upon the legacy of the Karate Kid films and Cobra Kai. The book went on to become a New York Times best seller.
In 2025, Macchio teamed up with Jackie Chan to again reprise the role of Daniel LaRusso in Karate Kid: Legends.
In 1986, Macchio appeared in the film Crossroads, portraying music student Eugene Martone. That same year, Macchio starred in Cuba and His Teddy Bear on Broadway, alongside Robert De Niro.
In 1992, Macchio starred opposite Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei in the hit comedy film My Cousin Vinny, playing Billy Gambini, who was wrongfully accused of murder while passing through a small Alabama town.
In 1996, Macchio performed the lead role of J. Pierrepont Finch in the U.S. tour revival of the 1962 Tony Award-winning musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and received positive reviews. Referring to his performance as a chorister in a high school production of the same musical, Macchio said, "I was known as the 'Dancing Kid,' not that I was all that great. But I had been dancing since the age of three, taking lessons at the June Claire School of Dance in Babylon, Long Island."
In 2005, Macchio played himself in the HBO series Entourage. Beginning in October 2008, Macchio appeared in several episodes of the ABC Network television series Ugly Betty as Archie Rodriguez, a local politician who is Hilda's love interest.
On September 20, 2010, Macchio played the adult Carl Morelli in a staged reading of the Charles Messina play A Room of My Own presented by The Bleecker Street Theatre Company. His Funny or Die video entitled Wax On, F*ck Off, became a viral sensation in 2010. In February 2011, it was announced that Macchio would compete on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. He was eliminated during the semi-finals, placing fourth in the overall competition. Macchio appeared in Canadian band Danko Jones' music videos for "Had Enough" and "I Think Bad Thoughts."