Biography

Sean Kanan

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Overview

Born
November 2, 1966 · Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Height
5′ 11″ (1.80 m)

Mini bio

Sean Kanan's career encompasses many facets of the entertainment world including actor, author, comedian, and producer. Early in his career, Kanan was chosen at an open call by Oscar-winning Director, John Avildsen from over 2000 hopefuls for the role of Mike Barnes in the Karate Kid III. He went on to create two iconic characters, AJ QUARTERMAINE (GH) and DEACON SHARP (B&B/Y&R). Kanan's popularity as DEACON in Italy and ability to speak fluent Italian landed him on the Italian version of the popular show Dancing with the Stars where he lasted 9 weeks.

On the comedy stage, Kanan has performed at some of the countries leading clubs including the Laugh Factory, the Comedy Store, Dangerfield's, the Brokerage, Uncle Vinny's and other venues. On the theater stage, he has performed in Sam Shepard's True West twice, once at the Zephyr theater and once at the Palm Canyon Theater.

Sean penned The Modern Gentleman; Cooking and Entertaining with Sean Kanan (Dunham Books) and Secret of My Success. Kanan co-hosted a celebrity parenting radio talk show called Kanan's Rules, available for download on iTunes podcast. Sean Kanan spends his free time studying martial arts, writing scripts, cooking, performing his stand-up routine and further pursuing the study of the Italian, French, Mandarin, Russian and Japanese language. Sean also dedicates much of his time to numerous charitable and nonprofit endeavors including ASPCA, anti-bullying and the Red Cross.
- IMDb mini biography by: Michele Kanan
Actor, writer, author, comedian, and Emmy® award-winning producer Sean Kanan's first role in Hollywood was bad-boy "Mike Barnes" in the blockbuster franchise film Karate Kid III. In 2022 Kanan reprised his iconic role, receiving critical acclaim in the pop-culture hit series' fifth season of Cobra Kai, now streaming on Netflix.

Kanan also appears as bad boy with a heart of gold, "Deacon Sharpe," on the world's most-watched daytime drama, CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful, and has portrayed the same role on its sister show, the number one daytime drama in the U.S., The Young, and the Restless. Before joining the premiere daytime lineup, Kanan played "AJ Quartermaine" on General Hospital. His other credits include two 2021 films with Bruce Willis, Survive the Game and The Fortress, and the Lifetime movie Sinister Society.

In 2021, Kanan won the Daytime Emmy® award for Outstanding Limited Series as the Executive Producer and Creator of Studio City (Amazon Prime), for which he was also Emmy® nominated in the categories of Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Writing Team. Kanan won the Indie Series Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in 2019 and 2023 for portraying Studio City protagonist "Sam Stephens."

Kanan has authored four books. His latest, Welcome to the Kumite, draws on intimate personal stories to illustrate his strategies and philosophy for achieving success. He is part of a series with his third book, Way of the Cobra (WOTC), "Transform yourself, and you can transform the world." Sean's first book, The Modern Gentleman: Cooking and Entertaining with Sean Kanan, received rave reviews. His second, Success Factor X, became an Amazon New Release Best Seller after less than one week and was named one of the twenty most inspirational books in the last two decades by Book Authority.

Whether lobbying on Capitol Hill to raise awareness about bullying or performing stand-up comedy in Bosnia to entertain the troops for the USO, Kanan remains active in numerous charitable organizations, including The American Cancer Society, various animal advocacy groups, and serving as the international youth ambassador for Boo2Bullying.

In 2016, Kanan received the 400th star on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame for his creative work and acts of charity in Hollywood.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Kanan resides with his wife, Emmy®, award-winning producer and writer Michele Kanan, in California. He celebrates his birthday on November 2.

Follow him on Instagram @sean.kanan and Twitter @seankanan.
- IMDb mini biography by: Eva Basler

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Trivia

He nearly died in 1988 from injuries suffered making The Karate Kid Part III (1989).
In 1995, six years after making The Karate Kid Part III (1989) (in which he performed most of his own stuntwork), he made a public appearance at the Eagle Rock Plaza in Southern California. The first person in Kanan's autograph line asked him to sign "Mike Barnes," following Sean's own name. Kanan happily obliged; according to himself, it was the first time he had ever been asked for an "autograph" from his KK3 character.
Sean is extremely well known in Italy and speaks Italian.
Laughingly refers to Mike Barnes, his character from The Karate Kid Part III (1989), as "Johnny to the Tenth Power".
Collects baseball cards from the 1940s and 1950s.