William Zabaka is a screenwriter, director, producer, and actor with a net worth of $3 million dollars. He is best known for his outstanding performances as villains in a couple of films from the 1980s. He also produced and co-wrote the film Most, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Zabka is the son of Nancy Zabka, a business liaison, producer, and production assistant, and Stan Zabka, a director, writer, and composer, and was born in New York City. His father worked as a production manager on a number of motion pictures, including the Chuck Norris film, Forced Vengeance, and was assistant director of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for the first two years of Carson's tenure.

In his late teens, Zabka began acting. On the television series The Greatest American Hero, he made his first official appearance. A year later, William landed the role of Johnny Lawrence, the high school bully who threatens Ralph Macchio's character in The Karate Kid, which would make him famous for the rest of his life. The Karate Kid went on to gross $100 million in the United States alone, effectively launching a global Karate craze. William would later study the martial art of Tang Soo Do and earn a second-degree green belt after being inspired by his experience during the film.

During the 1980s, he alternated between film and television roles, appearing in films such as Just One of the Guys, National Lampoon's European Vacation, The Karate Kid: Part II, The Greatest American Hero, E/R, and The Equalizer.

William has not only acted in but also produced a number of films, including Shootfighter and The Power Within. He wrote and produced the short film Most in 2003. The film went on to be nominated for an Academy Award. In addition, he has directed a number of music videos. After a long stint behind the camera, he recently returned to acting in an episode of How I Met Your Mother.

William Zabka and Ralph Macchio teamed up with a group of producers in 2017 to pitch a reboot of their Karate Kid characters. According to IMBD, Macchio and Zabka not only reprised their roles as Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence in Cobra Kai, but they also served as co-executive producers. A few studios made offers, including Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Apple, but YouTube Red was chosen as the winning bidder. The pair have been successful in bringing their 80s magic to the small screen, with 15 million viewers in the first week of the show. The success of the show has helped William in reviving his career as well as increasing his net worth. For the first two seasons, both Ralph and William reportedly earned $100,000 per episode, bringing it to around $1 million per season per person. Fortunately, the show was finally released on Netflix in August 2020, where it found a wider audience and quickly became one of the platform's most popular shows. On Netflix, the show will have at least four seasons.

In 2008, he married Stacie Zabka, and the couple has two children together.

Sources: People Magazine, Live Ramp Up, Celebrity Net Worth, Heavy 

This article was updated on April 8, 2021 by Vanessa Shumbanhete

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