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Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña) is a 16-year-old Ecuadorian American teenager who was born on November 22nd, 2001 in America to a single mother with asthma and low self-esteem who moves in next door to Johnny. While shopping for Pepto-Bismol for his grandmother at a strip mall in Reseda, he is attacked by a group of rich bullies led by Kyler after accidentally foiling their plans to buy beer. The bullies nickname him "Rhea" after noticing the bottle of Pepto-Bismol and dump it all over him. When the bullies shove him onto Johnny's car, Johnny attacks them, beating them senselessly before he is arrested. Miguel becomes Johnny's first student in the new Cobra Kai dojo. Aside from learning karate, he is the dojo's housekeeper and website administrator. Though initially reluctant and mocking toward him, Johnny quickly comes to care for Miguel, becoming a father figure to him, despite objections from his mother.
When Daniel's daughter Sam confronts Kyler over vicious rumors he spread about her after she fought off his attempt to date rape her, Miguel beats up Kyler and his clique, gaining popularity in the school and earning Johnny's gi as the fight leads to an influx of new members to Cobra Kai. Despite Johnny's warning that he should avoid the LaRussos, Miguel begins dating Sam. Unfortunately, they break up after four months of dating when Miguel wrongly suspects Sam of cheating on him with Daniel's student and Johnny's estranged son, Robby Keene, leading to an altercation in which Miguel accidentally punches Sam. Cobra Kai's thuggish philosophy begins to affect Miguel's values, and he becomes much more violent and ruthless, to Johnny's eventual disapproval, especially when Miguel fights dirty against Robby to win the championship for Cobra Kai in the 2018 All-Valley Tournament.
In Season 2, Miguel is devastated when Sam blocks him on social media. Friction develops between Johnny and Miguel when Miguel finds out the truth about Robby's parentage after seeing a picture of Robby on Johnny's refrigerator. Johnny makes amends with his star pupil by telling him the story of Robby's birth and how he was absent for most of his life, naming it as his biggest regret. He promises to do better with Miguel than he did with Robby. Miguel is also wary of Kreese, noticing inconsistencies in Kreese's stories about his supposed military exploits during the '80s and '90s. He vehemently disapproves of Kreese's style of teaching, and when he finds out that Hawk's gang trashed Miyagi-Do and stole Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor, he defeats Hawk in a brutal fight during a competition at Coyote Creek and returns the medal to the LaRussos' house, but not before appalling Johnny with his ruthlessness by delivering an aggressive finishing kick to Hawk, which Johnny realizes is a result of Kreese's harsher teachings.
Miguel develops a relationship with new Cobra Kai student Tory Nichols, but he still has feelings for Sam, culminating in him kissing her at Moon's party after she learns from Aisha the truth about the medal (which Robby had withheld from her). The act is seen by Tory, who furiously challenges Sam to a fight in school the next morning. In the ensuing rumble, Miguel once again gets into a fight with Robby and even taunts him by mocking his relationship problems with Johnny and Sam. After a lengthy fight, Miguel eventually traps Robby in an arm lock and nearly decides to break his arm to end the school brawl once and for all but chooses to show him mercy and even apologizes to him after remembering a conversation where Johnny expressed regret over not teaching him the difference between mercy and honor. However, Robby, furious with Miguel for having a better relationship with Johnny than he ever did and taking advantage of Sam at Moon's party as well as his dishonorable actions against him at the 2018 All-Valley Tournament, furiously retaliates by kicking him over a balcony railing and sending him falling off the second floor. Miguel hits his back on the stair railing as he lands, paralyzing him and rendering him unconscious. Robby is horrified at the fact that he accidentally crippled Miguel and flees the scene while Sam, Hawk, and a police officer check on an unconscious Miguel. Miguel spends the next two weeks in a coma while Robby is expelled from school and eventually sentenced to juvenile detention for crippling Miguel at the end of the school brawl.
In Season 3, when Miguel wakes up from his coma, he is initially resentful toward Johnny for his predicament about showing mercy to Robby due to accidentally being crippled by Robby at the end of the school brawl. He furiously rebuffs him by tearfully telling him to leave but slowly reconciles with him when Johnny becomes personally involved in his physical rehabilitation. Several people pitch in to pay for Miguel's surgery, Johnny by stealing and pawning a modern art sculpture from his stepfather, Bobby using proceeds from his church, and Miyagi-Do by organizing a car wash fundraiser, although the Cobra Kais decide to initiate hostilities with the Miyagi-Dos by mugging Nathaniel and stealing the proceeds to donate in their own name in retaliation for Robby's actions against Miguel during the school brawl.
Under Johnny's close mentorship, Miguel is able to gain full function of his legs and leaves Cobra Kai for good. Since Johnny has been kicked out of Cobra Kai by Kreese in the wake of the school brawl, he and Miguel open a new martial arts dojo, Eagle Fang, with students Kreese had ejected from Cobra Kai for their perceived weaknesses such as when Bert refuses to feed a live hamster to a snake and Mitch loses a sparring match to Kyler. He also cuts his ties with his Cobra Kai friends after he finds out about the vengeful and aggressive activities they have been doing under Kreese while he was away, particularly Hawk for breaking Demetri's right arm during the laser tag fight, and subsequently breaks up with Tory for picking a fight with Sam and her plan to get revenge on her, as well as not visiting him in the hospital earlier. This act wins over Sam, who resumes her romance with Miguel and gets her father to connect with him when he catches them making out in the Miyagi dojo. Miguel meets Daniel, who is surprised to find common ground with Miguel over their shared upbringings (both came from poor, single-parent families, were bullied by wealthier kids, and found guidance through karate) and agrees to let them continue dating. Miguel (with some help from Sam) manages to save the All-Valley Tournament with a passionate and mature speech and aids Sam in creating an alliance between Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do, helping them fight off the Cobra Kais when Tory leads them in a gang assault on the LaRusso residence. In the fight, Miguel is singled out for a one-on-one fight with a vengeful Kyler, who seeks payback for the cafeteria fight. Kyler brutally beats Miguel and initially has the upper hand due to Miguel having recently recovered from accidentally being crippled by Robby during the school brawl, but Miguel, remembering all of Johnny's encouragement from when he was hospitalized and quickly defeats Kyler with a takedown counterattack consisting of a roundhouse kick, a back kick, an acrobatic flip, and a final knockout punch. After defeating Kyler, Miguel reconciles his friendship with Hawk and the two alongside Demetri decide to stop Sam and Tory from fighting. Sam and Tory stop fighting before Tory leaves the house she calls both Miguel and Hawk traitors.
Miguel returns to his mother's apartment to tend to his wounds from the fight, which is how Johnny finds him when he shows up at the Diaz apartment seeking to declare his love to Carmen. An enraged Johnny immediately sets out to Cobra Kai to confront Kreese, as does Daniel. Miguel and Sam manage to chase them down, showing up at Cobra Kai just as Daniel is about to finish off Kreese, bringing him and Johnny back to their senses. Miguel and Sam are just as dismayed as Daniel and Johnny to learn that Robby has firmly sided with Kreese. In the aftermath, Johnny and Miguel bring their fellow Eagle Fang students to the Miyagi dojo to help train both dojo's students. His recovery is assumed to be speeding up at this point.
In Season 4, Miguel continues training under both Daniel and Johnny while also continuing his relationship with Sam. Throughout their training, he begins to develop a close friendship with Daniel while taking an appreciation for Miyagi-Do's passive approach toward fighting, much to Johnny's jealousy. He also learns that Johnny is dating his mother, which later leads to friction between him and Johnny, with Johnny starting to treat him differently from the other students and Miguel beginning to spend less time with Johnny. After Eagle Fang and Miyagi Do split, Miguel remains with Johnny and Eagle Fang. He later helps recruit new female students into the new dojo, despite its initial failure. During the junior prom, Miguel and Sam become distracted by Tory and Robby. When he returns home, he finds a drunken Johnny, who explains that he loves Miguel as a son, leading Miguel to shed a tear of happiness that changes to dejection and heartbreak as Johnny calls him Robby instead, straining their relationship, due to Robby taunting Miguel about Johnny using him to compensate for his relationship problems with Robby. During the semifinals, Miguel faces off against Hawk who is going by Eli again and has joined Miyagi-Do. He gains the upper hand but pulls a muscle in his back and falls to the ground. Ultimately, he decides to step down from the match due to his belief that he's no longer fighting for himself, having been pressured by Johnny to return and further straining their relationship. He abruptly leaves the tournament. In a letter to his mother, he reveals that he is heading to Mexico City to find his biological father in order to get answers about who he is and his place in the world. However, unknown to Miguel, Miguel's father is unaware of his existence because Carmen never told him of her pregnancy before she fled.
In Season 5, Miguel meets his father, Hector Salazar, in Ceuta, Mexico only to discover that he has supposedly changed and is married to another woman named Maria and has a son. After rescuing Luis from a speedy car, Maria and Hector invite him to stay with them. There, he learns more about his father's past with Carmen, revealing that Hector has no idea Miguel is his son. The discovery briefly leads Miguel to become angry with Carmen. After learning of Hector's illegal business ventures, Miguel realizes his true nature and leaves Mexico with Johnny (with whom he reconciles). On the other hand, his rivalry with Robby comes to a head when Johnny tries to get the two boys to end their rivalry while his relationship with Sam goes south, due to their own personal issues. After Daniel and Johnny jokingly reminisce that their rivalry may have ended earlier if they had simply fought it out, Johnny makes Miguel and Robby fight each other, in which Miguel gains the upper hand and is poised to kick Robby over the balcony in a similar manner to the school fight. Miguel stops himself and makes amends with Robby. Afterward, Johnny accidentally reveals that Carmen is pregnant (with her and Johnny's child), easing the tensions even more as the boys celebrate their future half-sibling. Meanwhile, Sam decides to take a break from Miguel so that she can resolve her identity crisis. Miguel participates in the final fight at the Cobra Kai dojo in an attempt to expose Terry Silver. During the break-in, Miguel defends Robby from Kenny before Kenny attacks him to ignite the brawl. Miguel arrives to save a helpless Robby and defeats multiple students who managed to gang up on a incapacitated Robby (who was struck by Kenny's "silver bullet"). In the brawl's aftermath and following Terry Silver's arrest, Miguel reconciles with Sam with a kiss and reveals that he loves her.