Cobra Kai Star Jacob Bertrand Says Girlfriend Peyton List Is His Muse: 'Hardest Working Woman on Planet Earth' (Exclusive)

Cobra Kai star Jacob Bertrand has nothing but love for his girlfriend and costar, Peyton List

"She's my muse," Bertrand, 24, tells PEOPLE of List, 26.

He says that she's also the one who encouraged him to take some career risks after the sixth and final season of the Netflix series ended. "I would say she's the inspiration for a lot of the things that I do," he continues.

"She's the person who was really pushing me to direct and write," he says, adding that he's been working on his first short film. "She, probably, was honestly just tired of me telling her all of my ideas and was like, 'Well then just do it!' But yeah, she's the person that really gets me going."

The duo, who have been dating since 2022, grew up onscreen at the same time, with Bertrand landing his first commercial at age 7 and then going on to star in shows like Nickelodeon's Bubble Guppies and the Disney series Kirby Buckets.

Meanwhile, List was starring in Disney shows Jessie and then its spinoff Bunk'd, while doing countless films at the same time, including the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies.

"She's also just the hardest working person on planet Earth, so it's kind of hard not to catch a little bit of that spunk that she's got," Bertrand says. "But, she's the most supportive, awesome person ever. She gives me a lot of confidence to try to be as creative as I can be."

He says that despite List being "on the cover of every magazine," she couldn't be more down to earth. "We both got good parents," he says. "I think that's the key and the biggest benefit you can have in this industry — coming from having a good, supportive family."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Bertrand's own family had zero experience in show business when one of his sisters said that she wanted to be an actress.

"My mom Googled child agents, and a few of them popped up. She didn't know what to do, so she sent them Christmas cards with our faces on them. One of them called her and said, "Hey, your kid is just weird enough looking that we want to use him!" he says of his career beginnings.

"From there, I started auditioning for commercials and landed an Oscar Meyer ad that ran during the American Idol finale. When I went to school the next day, all the kids were like, 'Oh my God, we saw you on TV!' I thought, 'I could get used to this!' But mostly I wanted to work because I wanted to get out of school."

He says his experience on Nickelodeon's Marvin was what gave him the acting bug. "All the older actors took me under their wing and that's when I really fell in love with acting and realized I wanted to do this for a long time. Because it's just so much fun."

While he'll miss working with his colleagues on Cobra Kai, he says he's not worried they'll lose touch once the series ends.

"We hang out all the time," he says.

All six seasons of Cobra Kai are now streaming on Netflix.