Patrick Hogan is the supervising sound editor on Cobra Kai. He has been there since episode one. He has been the sonic architect of the show's evolution from a small-scale comedy-drama about a handyman who drives around the San Fernando Valley into a multi-season, multi-thousand-viewer karate epic.
If you ask him which of the ten seasons-worth of episodes he has worked on is his favourite, he doesn't pause.
"Episode 613. The 13th episode of the new season. It's my favourite episode of the entire show of all time. To me, that's the one that embodies everything that's Cobra Kai."
Hogan and his wife and creative partner, Ana Krista Johnson, were in London on their thirtieth wedding anniversary trip when they sat down with Zebra Home Cinema. What followed was a long conversation about how television sound is actually made, why Cobra Kai has changed shape from season to season, how the show's mentoring culture shaped its young cast, and the independent-filmmaking life that sits underneath the day job.
Who Patrick Hogan and Ana Krista Johnson Are
Patrick Hogan is a Los Angeles-based supervising sound editor for television and film. His current show list includes:
- ▪*Cobra Kai* (Netflix) — supervising sound editor since the first season
- ▪*The Umbrella Academy* (Netflix)
- ▪*Fire Country* (CBS) — one of the network's biggest current hits
- ▪*The Vampire Diaries, The Closer*, and a long prior list of network drama credits
On top of the day-job sound work, Hogan is a writer-director of short films (Killing Time, Virtually, Shadow of the Glass, Quiet Mom's Working), a four-time director of the narrative sci-fi podcast Agent Stoker, and — currently in development — a YouTube channel on filmmaking and content-creation craft.
Ana Krista Johnson is an actor, a published author, a sociologist with a master's degree in Media with Impact, and (her framing) Hogan's "plus one." She's produced several of Hogan's short films and stars in Quiet Mom's Working, their most recent. The partnership is both personal and creative: for the pair's twenty-ninth anniversary, they shot Quiet Mom's Working at their home, hosting nineteen crew members for the weekend.
"What do other people do for their 29th wedding anniversary? I don't know. But what we do is we make a film for the weekend."
How Cobra Kai's Sound Has Scaled
Cobra Kai began as a small show. The first episode's sound palette was a drill, a squeaking TV mount, the rattle of a beat-up car with a bad muffler, and a single low-key fight sequence shot in a natural-realism register. There was no speed-ramping, no Bullet Time, no orchestral build.
By season six, the same sonic tradition has to serve:
- ▪Montages of twenty simultaneous fights
- ▪Speed-ramps in and out of slow-motion
- ▪Triple-flip aerial choreography
- ▪Fifty overlaid fight threads carrying simultaneously
The technical challenge is keeping all of that legible. Hogan's solution is the same one that drives most great episodic sound: escalate within the grammar the show has already established. The fight sequences get bigger, but the sonic language that marked small fights in season one — specific, physical, grounded — is still recognisable in the mix. The audience isn't told this is a bigger show now. They're taken there gradually, over episodes and seasons.
"We don't want to see more episodes of the same. A lot of shows either just keep giving you the same thing and it gets boring, or when they try to do something different, they don't do it the right way — they upset the fans, they don't stay true to the show."
Season 6's Three-Block Release Explained
The show's final season is airing in three blocks of five episodes. This isn't a random scheduling choice. It was Netflix's response to the 2023 writers' and actors' strikes, which delayed delivery and created a choice: wait a full year to release an entire season together, or stagger the release so the first blocks come out sooner.
The show chose the latter. The structure:
| Block | Episodes | Status at time of interview |
|---|---|---|
| Block 1 | Episodes 1–5 | Released — setup for the rest of the season |
| Block 2 | Episodes 6–10 | Mixed, delivered, release November |
| Block 3 | Episodes 11–15 | In active post-production |
Hogan's framing on block 1 is worth repeating for any viewer who felt the first five episodes didn't deliver a conventional season climax.
"These first five are basically just setting up the epic final ten. So think of this as the precursor to the real ten-episode season. Whatever you see in these first five — no matter how cool and crazy and fun they were — the last ten are where it all comes together."
On block 3, Hogan singled out episode 613 as his favourite of the entire show's run — the episode that, in his words, "embodies everything that's Cobra Kai." For the fandom, that's a specific tip: mark it down.
What a TV Sound Supervisor Actually Does
Hogan's role on Cobra Kai — supervising sound editor — is the position responsible for the whole sound edit for each episode. The work includes:
- ▪Dialogue editing — cleaning and assembling what was captured on location, plus ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement, re-recorded dialogue) to fix or add lines post-shoot
- ▪Foley — the performed, on-stage sound effects for specific on-screen actions (footsteps, cloth movement, impacts)
- ▪Sound design — the stylised, invented, layered audio that gives the show its sonic identity
- ▪Managing all of this inside the locked-picture cut so the music team and the re-recording mixer can finish the mix
One craft advantage Hogan cites: most supervisors come up through music backgrounds or straight through the sound pipeline. Hogan came up through film school and directing work. That means when he's coaching an actor through ADR — and in TV, the director is usually gone by the time ADR is being recorded — he can talk to the actor in the language of performance, not the language of waveforms.
"I can talk in an actor's language from my directing background, which helps an ADR booth get the proper ADR. In television, 99.9% of the time the director is not there."
There's a direct quality impact from that. The dialogue you hear on Cobra Kai — including lines added in ADR that weren't in the original script — has the same performative truth as the on-set takes because Hogan can coach the performance, not just capture it.
The Cobra Kai Mentoring Culture
One of the stories from the conversation that stays with you is about Xolo Maridueña, who plays Miguel on Cobra Kai. When the show started, Xolo was 16 or 17, without a driver's licence, living in Los Angeles. For his first ADR session — an eight-hour block — he arrived at the studio two hours early. He'd taken the bus from school, and the LA public-transport schedule only ran buses that would have gotten him there either two hours early or substantially late. He chose early.
"Now he has probably five cars. He shows up on time. He drives himself. But back then, he didn't even have a driver's licence yet."
That behaviour wasn't inherited from nowhere. Ralph Macchio and William Zabka — who carry the show as Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence — are executive producers and the show's de facto senior presence on set. The young cast absorbed professionalism from them across seasons of close work.
Both Macchio and Zabka also direct episodes in season six. Hogan witnessed Macchio filming in Mr. Miyagi's house between takes, headphones on and a laptop open on his lap, watching the cut of a different episode he'd directed a few months earlier. That's the working reality of episodic television for a lead who's also a producer and a director: you're often three roles deep on the same Tuesday.
Patrick Hogan, Independent Filmmaker — Shorts and Feature Scripts
Parallel to the television sound career, Hogan writes and directs independent short films. His recent titles:
- ▪*Killing Time* — a drama with twists and an intense performance register
- ▪*Virtually — shares production designer with Quiet Mom's Working*; tonally very different
- ▪*Shadow of the Glass* — a more serious drama adaptation
- ▪*Quiet Mom's Working — quirky, off-beat, comedy-forward, with Ana Krista Johnson in the lead and the Cobra Kai* sound team providing audio expertise
The strategy underneath the shorts is real: Hogan had a long period in which he and a writing partner were developing feature scripts with Hollywood studios, getting close to greenlights three times before the projects collapsed ("almost going to go" and then someone moves on to the next shiny thing, someone drops out, the genre cools). Rather than keep waiting, he went back to short films to:
- 1.Rebuild a community of collaborators he trusts
- 2.Stay in practice as a writer-director
- 3.Develop an infrastructure — recurring composers, production designers, crew — that can scale up to a lower-budget feature when the right script lands
Several feature scripts are in development:
- ▪A horror feature whose concept has recently been sharpened by the research Hogan was doing on the European anniversary trip (where the travel accidentally became location inspiration)
- ▪A sci-fi romance
- ▪A drama based on a true-story book, intended to match the tonal register of Shadow of the Glass
Designing a Short Film From the Sound First
The next short Hogan plans to make is, in his words, something he has never seen attempted before: a film whose entire sound design is built first, before any picture is shot.
"The sound is going to be so important. So we're actually going to build the sound design for it first, before we film it. I've never seen a film that will do what we're hoping to do."
The normal order in features and TV is picture first, sound last. Sound is finalised in the final weeks of post, often with time pressure. Reversing the order — knowing exactly how the film will sound before the first frame is captured — would let every production choice (framing, pacing, performance) be made against a fully-designed sonic template.
It's an experiment that only makes sense for a supervisor with Hogan's specific combination of skills. It wouldn't work for most filmmakers. For him, it's the next thing to try.
Ana Krista Johnson — Acting, Sociology, and Creative Partnership
Ana Krista Johnson's half of the creative partnership is more visible than her "plus one" framing suggests. She's:
- ▪A trained actor with a theatre background — her undergraduate degree is in theatre
- ▪A published author
- ▪A sociologist with a master's in Media with Impact, specialising in social change and media influence
- ▪The producer on several of Hogan's recent shorts, and the lead actor in Quiet Mom's Working
On the craft side, Johnson's framing of theatre vs film is one of the better explanations of live performance we've heard:
"It's always a challenge to create something that's really two-dimensional, like a film, and make it come to life in this three-dimensional space with a live audience. And in live performance, every night when things happen can be slightly different — if the audience laughs for a long time, you've got to pause. You have to have all the sounds prepared, but you can't have pre-recorded little clips. You have to trigger each sound at the particular moment."
It's also an argument for why working theatre makers often make better film producers: they understand that storytelling is a performance discipline, not a production discipline.
What They're Watching
Hogan and Johnson watch widely and without snobbery. Their current recommendations:
- ▪*Slow Horses* (Apple TV) — Gary Oldman at his best; "just the acting."
- ▪*The Diplomat (Netflix) — Keri Russell; second season imminent. One of the Agent Stoker* cast (Otto Sasano — Hogan's podcast collaborator) also appears.
- ▪*Godzilla Minus One* — Hogan's favourite film of the last year. "It's a special effects movie, made for I think $10 million. It was my favourite film of last year… it has heart. It has the emotional arc. It's better than any drama I saw last year."
- ▪*Reservation Dogs* — Hogan worked on it; loved the writing. Up for Best Comedy Series at the Emmys.
The through-line: genre filmmaking done right — low-budget or high-budget — beats most prestige TV that's done wrong. Hogan's instinct as a sound supervisor and a filmmaker is that the craft matters more than the genre label.
Key Takeaways
- ▪Patrick Hogan has been the supervising sound editor on Cobra Kai since the first season. He also supervises The Umbrella Academy and Fire Country, runs a parallel career as a writer-director of independent short films, and comes to sound from a film-school and directing background — which he credits for his ability to coach actors effectively through ADR.
- ▪Cobra Kai's sound has scaled deliberately across seasons from a small handyman-drama palette to a large-scale, speed-ramping, multi-fight epic — while preserving the grounded sonic language that established the show in season one.
- ▪The final season is released in three blocks of five episodes because of 2023 strike delays. The first five are setup; the final ten are where the season's arc plays out. Hogan's single favourite episode of the show is 613 — the third episode of the final block.
- ▪A supervising sound editor is responsible for dialogue editing, ADR, Foley, sound design, and the integrity of the whole sound edit before the mix stage. Coaching actors' performances in ADR — when the director is almost always absent in TV — is one of the underrated craft skills.
- ▪The Cobra Kai cast absorbed professional discipline from Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, both of whom also direct episodes in season 6 while continuing to act in it.
- ▪Hogan's next short film will be designed sound-first — the entire sound palette built before a single frame is shot. An experiment that's only feasible for someone with his specific skill overlap.
- ▪On watching: Slow Horses, The Diplomat, Godzilla Minus One, Reservation Dogs — genre filmmaking done right beats prestige drama done poorly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the sound supervisor on Cobra Kai?
Patrick Hogan is the supervising sound editor on Cobra Kai, the Netflix series continuing the Karate Kid universe. He has been in the role since the first season. He also supervises sound on Netflix's The Umbrella Academy and CBS's Fire Country.
Why is Cobra Kai season 6 being released in three blocks?
The 2023 Hollywood writers' and actors' strikes delayed delivery. Rather than wait a full year to release the final season as a single block, Netflix and the show chose to release it in three blocks of five episodes each, with Block 1 out first, Block 2 following, and Block 3 concluding the series in 2025. The structure lets viewers see the setup sooner without the final conclusion being held back a full year further.
Which episode of Cobra Kai does Patrick Hogan consider his favourite?
Episode 613 — the third episode of the final five-episode block. Hogan called it "the one that embodies everything that's Cobra Kai" and his single favourite episode of the show's entire run.
Who is Ana Krista Johnson?
Ana Krista Johnson is Patrick Hogan's wife, an actor with a theatre-trained background, a published author, and a sociologist with a master's degree in Media with Impact. She also produces Hogan's short films and stars in Quiet Mom's Working — their most recent short film, which they shot at their home over their 29th wedding anniversary weekend.
What short films has Patrick Hogan directed?
Among others: Killing Time, Virtually, Shadow of the Glass, and Quiet Mom's Working. His shorts work out of a consistent production team, and he has multiple feature scripts in development across horror, sci-fi romance, and true-story drama.
What's unusual about Hogan's next short film?
He plans to design the entire sound first, before shooting any picture. This reverses the normal feature and television order (picture first, sound last) and is an experiment that's really only feasible for a filmmaker who is also a sound supervisor.
What does a supervising sound editor actually do on a TV show?
They are responsible for the full sound edit of each episode: dialogue editing, ADR (re-recorded dialogue), Foley (performed sound effects), sound design (the stylised invented audio), and the integrity of the whole sound package before it goes to the re-recording mixer. On television, the show's director is usually absent by the ADR stage, which means the supervising sound editor often directs the ADR performance as well.
