Exclusive: Ahead of next month’s release of Karate Kid: Legends, actor, filmmaker and New York Times bestselling author Ralph Macchio has signed with Gersh for representation in all areas.

Macchio is of course best known for his leading role of Daniel Larusso in the Karate Kid franchise, which he’s now played in four feature films and one hit TV series. Larusso is first introduced in 1984 classic The Karate Kid, as a bullied teenager new to California who’s taken under the wing of Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), a handyman who teaches him karate as a means of self-defense and a way of life. Macchio reprised the part across another two films spanning the rest of the 1980s, amd then put it aside until 2018, when he came on to lead Cobra Kai, a series from Sony Pictures Television that began its life on YouTube before finding critical acclaim and a large following on Netflix,...