Sean Kanan

Sean Kanan’s interest in acting began in high school, and though he attended Boston University as a political science major, he relocated to LA and got his big break in 1989 playing bad guy Mike Barnes in The Karate Kid Part III. He made his daytime debut taking over the role of General Hospital’s black sheep AJ Quartermaine in 1993, earning a Soap Opera Digest Award nomination for Outstanding Male Newcomer in 1994. After exiting Port Charles in 1997, Kanan relocated to Sunset Beach in 1999, playing Jude Cavanaugh on the NBC sudser until its final episode later that year.

In 2000, Kanan joined the cast of Bold and Beautiful as Deacon Sharpe, a short-term villain who wound up stirring up drama until 2005. He reprised the role in 2009, bringing Deacon over to sister soap Young and Restless, until 2012, when he returned to B&B. The actor then went back to GH in 2012, remaining with the show until AJ was killed off in 2014. After a 2014-17 run as Deacon on B&B, he came back for more in 2021. While appearing in his various soap roles, Kanan also created the Daytime Emmy Award-winning streaming series Studio City, reprised his role as Mike Barnes for the Karate Kid television series Cobra Kai, and has written books that include Way of the COBRA, Welcome to the Kumite, and Way of the COBRA Couples, co-authored with his wife, Michele.