When he's back in Chicago, Joe Keery doesn't want you to know he's the one feeling it.
When the song "End of the Beginning" recently went viral on TikTok, fans were surprised to learn that the musician Djo was actually the Stranger Things star. And for the actor behind Steve Harrington, the quasi-pseudonym, which is pronounced "Joe," was an intentional choice.
"‘What is the most confusing way to spell my name?' And that's it," Joe explained during a March 20 appearance on SiriusXM's TikTok Radio. "I came up with it at maybe 11 o'clock, I had finished the first record I did—I was uploading it to AWAL myself—and was not sure what I was going to call the project and sort of last minute ended up on that, and the rest is history."
Joe also added that he was somewhat inspired by jazz musician Jean Reinhardt, who went colloquially by Django (pronounced "Jango."), adding, "I was like, ‘Oh, he did that!'"
But the Free Guy actor—whose viral song calls back to his time exploring the indie music scene in Chicago while studying at DePaul University—also wanted people to listen to the track before casting his identity on it, comparing himself to comedian Andy Kaufmann's alter ego Tony Clifton.
"I had a little pipe dream that it would be an Andy Kaufmann sort of thing where, if you know, you know," the 31-year-old explained to Paste magazine in an article published March 11. "My main intention was that, if people could hear the songs for the first time—or maybe the first two times—without the full onslaught that it was this dude from Stranger Things, then they could listen to it with an open mind."
Still, Joe—who also performed with the Chicago-based band Post Animal until 2019—wasn't surprised that his cover was blown when his 2022 release started taking off on TikTok earlier this year.
"I'm not a total idiot—you're gonna put it together, eventually," he added. "It definitely served its purpose, and it's an investment—it makes people feel a bit of that discovery factor, which is an exciting thing, and it makes you feel like you discovered it."
And as Joe gears up for the final season of Stranger Things, he views his song's virality as a way to gracefully exit his time on the Netflix sci-fi series. In fact, it may provide him a gateway to pursue a music career full time.
"In my downtime, I've been able to fill it in with music in the studio and recording," he divulged. "Once all the dust is settled from my time on Stranger Things, it's definitely something that I would be interested in doing."
And Djo Keery isn't the only celebrity who has deployed the bait and switch for his namesake. Read on for more stars who've used a moniker for their careers.