Title: Sitcoms, stardom and self-growth: Peyton List at UCR
Title Blurb: UCR students saw a new side of Peyton List as she steps off-screen.
By: Kishneet Kaur, Contributing Writer, and Emma Manaoat, Contributing Writer
The University of California, Riverside’s (UCR) very own Associated Students Program Board (ASPB) recently held its annual Spring Lecture on April 9, 2025, at the Highlander Union Building (HUB). This quarter, the lecture, “Sitcoms and Stardom” featured Peyton List. Many audience members were excited to meet the actress they grew up watching on the popular sitcom shows “Jessie” and “Bunk’d.”
To the audience’s pleasure, Peyton List addressed this bond and described how she also felt connected to her audience and appreciated how they had grown up together. Yet, throughout this event, Peyton List was better able to showcase her true self while breaking the audience’s preconceived notions from her previous roles. Most people may have assumed that she was just as ditsy and mindless as Emma Ross, the most well-known character she played.
Peyton List displayed her cleverness and quick-witted humor with authenticity. She displayed her true personality throughout the interview by coming up with adept responses while integrating clever jokes and bonding with her listeners by giving them insider information. She humorously describes how Mrs. Kipling from “Jessie” was supposed to be a capybara, not a poisonous lizard. Overall, the audience got to know Peyton List outside of her famous roles better and saw her for who she truly is.
Peyton List also provided valuable advice to her listeners by detailing her life experiences. Referencing the path to landing her first acting gig at a young age, she emphasized how much she valued getting out of being bullied in middle school. It was an opportunity for her to do something that she was not only passionate about, but she was also able to throw in a few sly jabs about getting out of school while doing so. She advised the audience to follow their passions and to cultivate and preserve their uniqueness, as there is intrinsic value in what others find worth bullying.
Additionally, Peyton List highlighted that people must be kind and humble to go far in any industry. She described how fewer people are willing to work with egotistical and individualistic people, as employers would prefer to work with those who are pleasant team players. Altogether, she advises people to follow their unique interests while remaining respectful and considerate to get far in their careers.
For members of Generation Z that grew up watching her, having Peyton List as a speaker at UCR for Sitcoms and Stardom felt as if the past and the present were shaking hands.
When asked whether she preferred acting in TV shows or movies, Peyton List shared that she enjoys filming a series because of its family-bonding with co-stars. But she also looks into taking more movie roles and features in the near future.
She expanded on how her role as Tory Nichols in the Netflix Original series, “Cobra Kai,” has been the most pivotal in shaping her as an actor and a person. Playing Tory in an intense training regime, forced her to leave out of her comfort zone and taught her a new skill: martial arts. Before “Cobra Kai,” she had never even thrown a punch.
During the lecture, Peyton List shared that the idea for “Cobra Kai” stemmed from an episode of “How I Met Your Mother,” a popular sitcom from the 2000s. In this episode, a character by the name of Barney Stinson insists that the “real” Karate Kid is Johnny Lawrence, rather than Daniel LaRusso, who plays the Karate Kid in the movie “Karate Kid.”
This episode inspired the creators of “Cobra Kai,” Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald, to come up with a sequel to the show. In the film industry, oftentimes, actors do not get the opportunity to work with people in their age group. However, List is grateful for the opportunity to work with people her age when filming “Jesse” and “Cobra Kai.”
Overall, having Peyton List as a guest speaker at UCR was an incredible opportunity that truly brought a wave of nostalgia. It was inspiring to see how much she’s evolved beyond her childhood roles into the confident, grounded person she is today.
