Cast of 'Cobra Kai'

Tanner Buchanan | Biography

Actor of Series like 'Designated Survivor,' 'Cobra Kai,' and 'Game Shakers'

• By Ojasbi
• Update : September 29, 2021

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Tanner Buchanan is an American actor known as Robby Keene in The Karate Kid’s sequel and continuing television series Cobra Kai.

Who is Tanner Buchanan?

Tanner Buchanan is an American actor acclaimed for his appearance in several TV series, including Girl Meets World, The Fosters, Game Shakers, Fuller House, The Goldbergs, and Designated Survivor. In addition, he is known for the lead role as Robby Keene in the Karate Kid franchise-continuing TV series Cobra Kai. He has also starred in short films, including Alone in the Dust. His other recent project credits include ABC’s Designated Survivor, Nickelodeon’s Game Shakers, and Freeform’s The Fosters.

Early Life and Education

Tanner Buchanan was born in Lima, Ohio, USA, on 8 December 1998 to father Steve Buchanan and mother Marlona Buchanan. He attended Glandorf Elementary there in Lima from kindergarten to fourth grade. He grew up playing sports like baseball, soccer, and basketball. He eventually got fascinated by tap dancing at the Center Stage Academy in Ottawa. 

According to his mother, he has always been an outgoing person who had impressive soccer skills and magnificent coordination in dancing from childhood. Besides these extracurricular activities, he was pretty good at music as well. Buchanan’s tap-dancing ability progressed him towards competing in a national-level competition in New York, where he held the second position.

After that, managers and agents from the entertainment industry approached Buchanan, asking if he wanted to move to California or New York to start a career in acting. After a brief ponder regarding the proposal, his family relocated to Burbank, California. His mother even quit her job to help him advance his career in acting. 

Albeit, they never expected to stay in California permanently. But after getting featured in several national advertisements within a week of arrival in California, their interim stay turned into a permanent stay. As soon as they moved to Burbank, California, Buchanan enrolled in online schooling as well. He pursued his acting and studies at the same time.

Dance

Tap dancing is one of Buchanan’s adept abilities. He shared on Anna Faris’ Unqualified podcast in August 2021 that he had won tap-dancing contests as a child. Before that, in 2017, Buchanan had posted a video of himself tap dancing at a rehearsal studio on his Instagram profile.

Stereotypes 

In the same podcast interview, he explained Buchanan was expected to be more drawn to sports because of a masculine guy’s ingrained conventional gender standards in his Midwest community. However, growing up with primarily female cousins who loved to dance, he developed an interest in performance. For years, he was the one and only boy in his community to dance. Moreover, tap dancing wasn’t just a passing fancy for Buchanan. He prepared for contests at Center Stage Dance Academy, the top dance school in Ottawa, Ohio.

His dance instructor was Jill Kuhlman. She taught dance to people of all genders, but because Buchanan was the only guy interested in dancing, the academy had more female students. Nonetheless, he made it through everything, as well as competitive dancing. He would travel across Ohio to dance contests, where he would perform his solo work and a collaboration performance with girls while he was young.

Early Career

Shortly after moving to California, Buchanan enrolled for professional training at the Edge Performing Arts Center and Huckleberry Friends Production. In 2010, the actor made his television debut as a guest child actor in season 2, episode six, Halloween of Modern Family. He was just eleven then. Three years later, in 2013, he took hold of arrays of guest roles on the famous Grey’s Anatomy, Major Crimes, and The Goldbergs.  

Rise To Fame

In 2013, Buchanan made his feature-film debut in Jake Squared, alongside his co-stars Jennifer Leigh and Elias Koteas. A year later, he appeared in three short films, Ellie, Guests, and Alone in the Dust and the American sitcom Growing Up Fisher. He shot to fame with his breakthrough role as Charlie Gardner in the second season of the hit teen show Girl Meets World. 

He also got featured in Stephen Belber’s comedy theatre, The Power of Duff, at the Geffen Playhouse. In 2016, he portrayed the role of socially incompetent juvenile Jack Downey on ABC’s family drama The Fosters. He also bagged the role of Leo Kirkman, a rebellious teenager on Designated Survivor, the same year.

‘Cobra Kai’

Cobra Kai is a franchise-continuing comedy-drama television series centered on Robert Mark Kamen’s original films, The Karate Kid. Created by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, the series premiered on YouTube Red in 2018, followed by season 2 in 2019. After wrapping up the production of season three, YouTube stopped producing it, pushing its stream off the edge. However, in June 2020, Netflix was granted the right to stream the series. On 1 January 2021, Netflix released its third season; the series was already renewed for its fourth season. The fourth season will premiere in fall 2021. The series has been renewed for its fifth season in August 2021.

His Character

In the hit series Cobra Kai, Buchanan rose to prominence as the brooding bad boy, Robby Keene. He says his character had layers, referring to Robby’s transformation from a sarcastic and devious thief to an organized karate student. 

“He was dealt such a bad hand of cards in his life, and he’s just trying to figure out what the right thing to do is and who the right people to surround himself with are. Robby, deep down, wants to be something, and he doesn’t want to throw his life away. He wants to better himself and truly live a life that he enjoys,” he said.

‘He’s All That’

TikTok star Addison Rae and actor Tanner Buchanan starred in a remake version of the 1999 film; She’s All That named He’s All That. It is a gender-flip titular narration based on the same plotline as the original film. The film was released on Netflix on 27 August 2021. 

Rae portrayed the character of Padgett, a social media influencer who helped transform the appearance of her antisocial classmate Cameron (Buchanan) in the movie. Previously, in the original film, Zackary Siler (played by Freddie Prinze Jr) had represented the character of Rae, while Laney Boggs (played by Rachael Leigh Cook) portrayed the character of Buchanan. Rachael Leigh Cook was also a part of He’s All That, taking over Padgett’s mother’s role. 

This remake version recounts the original story from the perspective of an adolescent female. “It holds true to the original story,” Buchanan told PEOPLE of He’s All That remake narration in 2021. However, he also added it has been “updated in a way that feels current cell phones and social media are pretty integral parts of our lives now!” which were not that influential back in 1999.

Rae and Buchanan On Working Together

Rae and Buchanan appeared in an interview with Brief Take (by Leora Heilbronn) in August 2021. There, they shared their perspectives on working together. 

“Even though it was her [Addison Rae’s] first movie, she came in extremely prepared like she had been doing it for years,” Buchanan said about Rae. “So, honestly just the fact that we came in and had so much fun doing the movie and talking about scenes and just playing with it and trying to put in as much as fun as possible was the best part of the movie.” 

Subsequently, Rae talked about how much she loved working with Tanner and the crew, all of whom had extensive field experience than her, and how much she learned from them all. She also mentioned how filming for He’s All That was a one-of-a-kind event for everyone because it occurred amidst the pandemic.

Furthermore, in another interview with Entertainment in August 2021, the TV couple discussed a challenging scene in the movie. Because Rae kept messing up, Buchanan had to reshoot the scene of getting drenched while wearing a suit many times at a 40 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit temperature. He had to take a shower every 30 minutes, walk outdoors, and repeat the process.

New Projects

Buchanan is announced to star in a few of his upcoming projects under the post-production phase as of September 2021. It includes Painted Beauty, where he would portray the character of young Peter, and The Hyperions, where he would star as Apollo. Besides, he is signed with ICM Partners and is additionally supported by Brillstein Entertainment and Myman Greenspan. 

‘The Hyperions’

The Hyperions, Buchanan’s upcoming action project, is based on the Titan badge, a gadget created by Professor Ruckus Mandulbaum in 1960 that allows individuals to have a specific superpower. 

Mandulbaum took in three down-and-out kids to form an odd superhero family that instantly grew to popularity and prominence. The family, however, fell apart over time, and the Professor replaced the team with a new group of teenage superheroes. Fast-forward to 1979, when two of the original superheroes have grown up and wanted their Titan badges back, they attempt to steal them from the Professor without hesitation in inadvertently kidnapping a few hostages. Buchanan will portray the character Apollo in The Hyperions.

Open To Playing LGBTIQ+ Roles

In an August 2021 edition of the Just For Variety Podcast, Tanner Buchanan stated that if he ever had the chance to play a superhero role, he would want to play Robin opposite Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader. He also stated that he would be open to playing the bisexual role like Robin in ‘Batman: Urban Legends.’

“If I have the opportunity to represent something like that, that’s incredible,” Buchanan said in the podcast. “If they’re willing to write it, then you know what? Of course, I’m going to play it. I do come from the Midwest and it can be a little conservative sometimes. Growing up, people aren’t exposed to the world and I was lucky enough to have come out to LA where it’s a completely different world than the Midwest. And my eyes were open to that from a very young age. I was like, ‘Yeah, that makes sense,’” he further added to his openness to portraying LGBTIQ+ roles.

Buchanan has already portrayed an LGBTIQ+ character on The Fosters (2013) and one episode of TNT’s Major Crimes (2013).

Music

Buchanan is also interested in music, but he keeps it latent. He discussed the similarities between his musical goals and Connor’s (his character on Cobra Kai) with Showbiz Cheatsheet in 2020. On Cobra Kai, Connor kept his musical skill hidden, which intrigued Buchanan since he also has hidden musical dreams. 

“Connor is kind of a kid that played music his entire life,” Buchanan told Showbiz Cheatsheet. “It’s kind of his own personal thing. For me, especially too, I’ve played guitar since I was four years old and music is really a personal thing to me when I write songs and stuff. I never sing them in front of people or play them for people because it’s such a personal thing,” he added.

Despite his talent and enthusiasm for music, Buchanan has no desire to become a rock star. Instead, he is devoted to his job as an actor as of now. “Acting is my number one thing that I want to do but music is definitely something that I would like to pursue later in life,” Buchanan told Showbiz Cheatsheet in 2020.  

Net Worth

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Buchanan has a net worth of $1 million as of September 2021 because of his acting profession.

Who Is Tanner Buchanan Dating?

Buchanan is currently in a relationship with actress Lizzie Broadway. They also have a joint YouTube channel called Lizzie & Tanner. They have posted one video about the behind-the-scenes of the 2019 Comic-Con. In the video, they were seen snuggling up to each other and kissing. Besides, that video paparazzi have also caught them greeting fans while holding hands outside the Hard Rock Hotel.