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A character whose name is clearly taken from the actor/actress portraying him/her. Sometimes it goes so far as to have the actor use their full name for their character, in which case they are often playing a warped or exaggerated version of themselves, especially common for the main character when the series is largely a vehicle for their fame, in which case, the actor also lends his/her name to the show (this is by far the number one reason why this trope is invoked, regardless of whether or not the actor's last name is carried over as well). The most obvious way to spot this is to see if the title of the show incorporates the lead actor/actress' name.
Also sometimes used for token ethnic minority characters, where it seemed that the program's staff were frightened to think up an original name and just used the name of the actor.
Or sometimes it's just a coincidence.
Compare Character As Himself.
Named for Tony Danza, whose frequent portrayal of people named Tony (see Taxi and Who's The Boss? ) has made him the butt of a few jokes, for example, this one for April Fools Day from Teevee.org.
Examples
Anime
- Zenjiro in Kodomo No Omocha.
- A borderline case is Nabeshin in Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemi, who is voiced by director Watanabe Shinichi. Furthermore, Watanabe himself appears a few times in both shows with the same character model.
- A weird twist would be Poemi of Puni Puni Poemi, who believes that she is actually her voice actress Yumiko Kobayashi, and continually refers to herself by that name. (She's also convinced that her father, Nabeshin, is actually the director and her boss...)
- Megumi Hayashibara as Megumi Amatsuka in Tenshi Na Konamaiki, although this is likely a coincidence, as the character existed in the original manga long before Hayashibara was cast in the anime.
- It might've been helped her to secure the role, though, given that it exactly fits her type.
- Sakura Tange played Sakura Kinomoto of Card Captor Sakura, who is also obviously not based on her.
- Minoru Shiraishi from Lucky Star is voiced... by Minoru Shiraishi. It goes further than that, since Shiraishi plays himself in the Lucky Channel segments... who plays a character named Minoru Shiraishi in the main program.
- Gotouther-sama, the scary biker gang leader is voiced by Yuko Goto, who is normally typecast as moe characters. This is a homage to her real-life biker lifestyle.
- There's also Daisuke Ono, whose voice is provided by... Daisuke Ono. Not to mention Aya Hirano, predictably voiced by Aya Hirano (who also did Konata).
- A dub coincidence: Patricia Martin's English VA is Patricia Ja Lee. Then again, she did do the live-action previews for Haruhi Suzumiya...
- Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge has Tomokazu Seki starring as himself. Mostly.
- Could be a coincidence, but in the English dub of Code Geass, the VA for Kallen Stadtfeld is Karen Strassman.
- As an in-joke, many of the characters in the Tenchi Muyo Spin Off Magical Girl Pretty Sammy have the same last name as their voice actors.
- In another coincidental one the English dub of Kyo Kara Maoh, Yuri was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal.
Film
- Annette Funicello in the Beach movies.
- Long before Sandra Oh was cast in Greys Anatomy, she won a Best Actress Genie Award (the modern day Canadian equivalent of the Oscars) for her role in 1998's "Last Night"... playing a character named just Sandra.
- All the main characters from The Wrong Guys.
- To cash in even further on the fame of its cast, the entire cast of Love, Honour and Obey were named after the actors who play them.
- This may not have been just to cash in on the fame of the cast... the directors, Dominic Anciano and Ray Burdis, directed a previous movie, Final Cut, starring much of the same cast (Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Ray Winstone etc) which also had the majority of the characters named after their actors. The films are clearly not sequels to each other, however - Ray is an actor in one film and a gangster in another, Sadie is with Ray in one film and Jude in the other, and most significantly, Jude dies at the beginning of one film (the film cuts between his funeral and a video being screened at his funeral which Jude made before his death), and is alive and well in the other.
- The Star Wars films offer many examples, usually background characters with little importance. These are often anagrams. Some examples: Cin Drallig (Nick Gillard), Roth-Del Masona (Leonard Thomas), Dannl Faytonni (Anthony Daniels), Nicanas Tassu (Nic Anastassiou), Jeremoch Colton (Jeremy Bulloch). An especially notable example is Amy Allen (mostly known for her portrayal of Aayla Secura, a character taken from a comic series), who has three characters she portrayed named after her: Mya Nalle, Yma Nalle and Lela Mayn.
- Borderline case: in one of the books, there was a character named "Entoo Needaan E-elz" (the author has actually confirmed that he was named after Anthony Daniels).
- Bizarre example: The characters of Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows are all first-name Danzas. It had been originally intended for them to be full-name Danzas, carrying on the previous film's gimmick of "No, this is really happening to the actual people you see on film", but the director decided this was "dishonest" and changed their last names — he would have changed their first names too, but too much of the movie had already been filmed. The change was made so late in the day, however, that the new last names only appear in the credits, and we see the actor's last names on-screen briefly in a police report.
- Everyone on the mission in Aliens — Jenette "Vasquez" Goldstein, Al "Apone" Matthews, Will (Bill) "Hudson" Paxton etc. The only exceptions are Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn), Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) and S. Gorman (first name never revealed — William Hope). Oh, and Bishop (Lance Henriksen), but he was an android, so he doesn't count.
- Often happens to Jackie Chan in his movies.
- Jack Nicholson played Jack "The Joker" Napier in the 1989 film Batman, Jake Gittes in Chinatown and The Two Jakes, and Jack Torrence in The Shining. (Okay, so Jack is a common name...)
- Daniel "Plainview" Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood, went one better than Sandra's Genie win, winning an Oscar for that role.
- Also in that film, we have Paul Dano as Paul Sunday (and as Sunday's twin brother).
- Sid James' characters often had the first name of Sid in the Carry On films.
- The title character of Being John Malkovich. Not quite a full name Danza, as John Gavin Malkovich plays "John Horatio Malkovich".
- Betty Garrett as "Betty Barrett" in Neptune's Daughter. This single-letter difference might have been to not mislead audiences into thinking that "Eve Barrett" (Esther Williams) was her sister in Real Life as well as in the movie.
- Neil Patrick Harris was credited as himself in Harold And Kumar go to White Castle, but as "Neil Patrick Harris" in Harold And Kumar Escape from Guatanamo Bay.
- The Beatles were this in A Hard Days Night and Help!
- In Labyrinth, they had to change the name of the baby boy to 'Toby' to avoid confusing the infant who played him. (Toby Froud, son of goblin designer Brian Froud.)
- Neil Connery as Dr Neil Connery in the James Bond parody OK Connery (aka Operation Kid Brother). And yes, The Alkazar of having Sean's younger brother play
Bond's an unnamed agent's younger brother is pretty much the entire plot. In the same film Lois "Miss Moneypenny" Maxwell plays "Miss Maxwell".
Literature
- Robert Newton Peck has at least two protagonists with his exact name, one from the humorous Soup series, one from the much grimmer A Day No Pigs Would Die. Both live in Learning, Vermont with their parents and an aunt.
- Both books are semi-autobiographical, however, so it stands to reason the main characters would have his name.
- Though arguably when literature tries to do this its more seen as a Mary Sue attempt.
Live Action TV
- Mayko Tran on Re Genesis is played by Mayko Ngyuen.
- Bob Newhart as "Bob Hartley" on The Bob Newhart Show, and "Bob McKay" on Bob. His other show was named Newhart, but the character's name was Dick Loudon (also see Bill Cosby's Cliff Huxtable).
- Ray Romano as Ray Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond.
- Ellen Degeneres played "Ellen Morgan" in the 1993-98 sitcom Ellen, which was known as These Friends Of Mine for the first season. In 2001, she played "Ellen Richmond" in the sitcom The Ellen Show.
- Sandy Duncan as "Sandy Stockton" in Funny Face (later called The Sandy Duncan Show). Duncan was also "Sandy Hogan" in her Jonas Quinn role on the show known variously as Valerie, Valeries Family, The Hogan Family and The Hogans.
- Speaking of which, Valerie Harper as "Valerie Hogan" in the early seasons of the same show.
- Tim Allen as "Tim Taylor" in Home Improvement.
- Raven Simone as "Raven Baxter" in Thats So Raven.
- Harry Anderson as "Harry The Hat" in Cheers and as "Harry Stone" in Night Court (the latter may not be a true Danza: the Night Court character was called Harry Stone — and was a devoted Torme fan — before real-life Harry/Torme Fan Harry Anderson auditioned, according to Reinhold Weege on the DVD. However, Anderson had used 'Harry the Hat' as a stage name for years before appearing on TV, when he was a stage magician and real-life con man, making it in some ways even more of a Danza than usual).
- Miley Cyrus as Miley Stewart in Hannah Montana- this also counts as Alter Ego acting because Miley is seen performing as Hannah onstage in real life too.
- Both Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell as "Kenan Rockmore" and "Kel Kimble" respectively in Kenan And Kel.
- Jim Belushi (brother of late comedian John Belushi) in According To Jim.
- Victoria Jackson as "Victoria" in the failed 1984 M*A*S*H spinoff, W*A*L*T*E*R.
- Rare last-name Danza: Mackenzie Phillips as "Molly Phillips" in So Weird.
- Another especially convoluted example would be Redd Foxx (born John Elroy Sanford), playing Fred Sanford in Sanford And Son.
- Full-name Danzas include:
- Delores Hall as Nurse Delores Mitchell in Diagnosis Murder
- Yasuko Nagazami as Yasko and Alibe Parsons as Alibe in Space 1999.
- Tia and Tamera Mowry as Tia Landry and Tamera Campbell in Sister Sister (In the series, they're twins separated at birth and adopted by different people, hence different surnames)
- Reba McEntire as "Reba Hart" in Reba.
- Drake & Josh, starring Drake Bell and Josh Peck as Drake Parker and Josh Nichols, respectively.
- UFO had several first-name Danzas: Ed Bishop played Ed Straker, Gabrielle Drake played Gay Ellis and Peter Gordeno played Peter Carlin.
- In The Pretender, Andrea Parker plays female lead character Miss Parker, but this is apparently a genuine coincidence. On the other hand, her mooks are first-name Danzas (with no last name) to a man, apparently as an acknowledgement that it's not worth the effort of giving them real names.
- Matthew Perry's character Matt in Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. Sorkin has actually stated that he called the character "Matt" because when he was writing he couldn't think of another actor to play the part.
- Should've just called him Aaron.
- Many of the supporting cast on the U.S. version of The Office share first names with their characters, including Phyllis, Angela, and Oscar. Creed Bratton plays a fictionalized version of himself.
- Charlie Sheen has played characters named Charlie on several occasions, notably on Spin City and Two And A Half Men. He even played "Charlie" in the sequel to All Dogs Go to Heaven.
- Before Charlie Sheen, Michael J. Fox has played Michael Flaherty for four season on Spin City.
- Third Watch had paramedics Bobby Caffey and Kim Zambrano played by... Bobby Cannavale and Kim Raver. The minor firefighter characters shared their full names with their actors: Firefighter Billy Walsh was played by Bill Walsh, Derek "DK" Kitson by Derek Kelly.
- Alan the cab driver is played by Alan George in Skins
- Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek Voyager who was named Elisabeth Janeway and Nicole Janeway before actress Kate Mulgrew suggested Kathryn.
- Several minor Babylon Five characters who were not given names on their first appearence (usually being referred to only as something like "Emperor" or "Minister") were belatedly given the names of the actors playing them when they appeared or were mentioned in later episodes (such as Malachi Throne's Centauri Prime Minister being later named "Prime Minister Malachi").
- On Gilmore Girls, Sookie's husband Jackson is played by Jackson Douglas. His real-life girlfriend almost played Sookie.
- Long time ago now, but the Britcom Terry And June starred Terry Scott and June Whitfield as Terry and June Medford.
- Cheers - Woody Harrelson played Woody Boyd, although this was apparently a coincidence.
- Comedian Joel Hodgson as "Joel Robinson" (from Robinson Crusoe) in Mystery Science Theater 3000. The last name was only changed because Hodgson was considered hard to pronounce. Michael J. Nelson, his replacement...played Mike Nelson.
- In Newsradio, Dave Nelson was played by Dave Foley.
- Also, Joe Rogan as Joe Girelli. Phil Hartman's character Bill McNeal was intentionally named to be almost a Danza.
- The entire cast of Shinesman.
- Baywatch: A great many one-shot guests kept their actors' full names. One such character goes on to become a regular (Michael Newman, aka Michael "Newmie" Newman.)
- It's so old the most famous ones aren't even in the list yet... Lucille Ball as, variously, Lucy Ricardo (I Love Lucy), Lucy Carmichael (The Lucy Show), Lucy Carter (Here's Lucy)...
- ...and, before she moved to television, as Hollywood actress Lucille Ball in the movie version of Best Foot Forward. (In the stage version, this character was named Gale Joy, originally portrayed by Rosemary Lane.)
- Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards.
- Recurring nurse First Lt Kealani Kellye on M*A*S*H was played by Kellye Nakahara, making this an example of the actress's first name being the character's last name.
- "Ugly John", seen in the first season, was played by John Orchard.
- And the full name version - Corpsman Roy Goldman was played by..... Roy Goldman.
- Weird Al Yankovic in The Weird Al Show.
- Mocked on Extras where Keith Chegwin's character has his name changed to Keith so the actor won't get confused.
- Many of the movie stars play exaggerated or self-parodying versions of themselves. Flagrant Oscar-hunting Kate Winslet, horndog Daniel Radcliffe, crude and lowbrow Patrick Stewart, narcissist Orlando Bloom, etc.
- Rik Mayall's characters in The Young Ones (Rick), Filthy Rich And Catflap (Richie Rich) and Bottom (Richard Richard). Additionally, in The Young Ones Nigel Planer's character was Neil Pye, and in the latter two Adrian Edmondson's character was Eddie, a nickname based on his surname. (And, while it's not strictly this trope, it's no coincidence that his wife played a character called Eddy (Edina) Monsoon.)
- Edmondson actually played a psychotic ex-talk show host called Eddie Monsoon in The Comic Strip Presents Mockumentary episode "Eddie Monsoon - A Life?" (The show was originally intended to be an episode of his talk show "Back To Normal", but it was judged too obscene even for Channel Four, so it was turned into a mock biopic instead.)
- Mayall changed his first name in his teens - he was born Richard Mayall, fitting this trope even better.
- Catherine Sutherland as Katherine "Kat" Hillard in Power Rangers.
- Jack Black as Jack Austin in Heat Vision and Jack.
- Two of Station 51's firefighters in Emergency!, Marco Lopez and Mike Stoker, simply used the actor's name. Stoker, the driver of Engine 51, actually was an LA County firefighter at the time of filming (he retired in 1996), making it convenient for filming as one of the regular cast members was qualified to drive and operate the truck.
- Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as Mary-Kate and Ashley Burke in Two of a Kind.
- WWE wrestlers Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle were the first two wrestlers to main event Wrestle Mania performing under their real names.
- In order to promote Summer Strallen taking over the lead role in The Sound of Music on the West End, its producer Andrew Lloyd Webber had her written into the British soap opera Hollyoaks as a character called Summer Shaw. The character was then talent spotted by Lloyd Webber appearing as himself on the show.
- Most of the Kids Incorporated kids. When a No Name Given character had his name revealed in an episode, it was that of the actor Rahsaan Patterson.
- Most of the main characters of The Sarah Silverman Program.
- Sissy Walker, a very minor character on The Waltons who appeared only five times between 1973 and 1978, was played by Cissy Wellman.
- The Goodies - Tim (Brooke-Taylor), Grahame (Garden) and Bill (Oddie).
- The new series In Plain Sight has lead character Mary Shannon played by Mary Mc Cormack.
- She plays a US Marshal. Her Deadpan Snarker partner is actually named Marshall.
- Subversion: Hope & Faith starred Kelly Ripa and Faith Ford in the title roles...but Faith played Hope and Kelly played Faith.
- This troper was confused to the point of screaming when viewing the show at a young age and learning Faith wasn't Faith.
- Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show.
- Every character in the Australian mockumentary series The Games is named for their actor — for example, Frank Woodley playing, well, Dr. Frank Woodley (who is "partially" a TV vet in the episode). This was lampshaded in the second season when the actor John Howard played a political representative pretending the be the Prime Minister; Brian remarks, "But that's illegal! He's not the prime minister!" to which John replies "He never said he was the prime minister; he said he was John Howard".
- May it be pointed out for non-Australians reading this that the real-life PM at time of that episode's airing was named (by pure coincidence) John Howard.
- Happy Days had Al Molinaro as Al Delvecchio and Marion Ross as Marion Cunningham.
- Not a main character, but Archie Johnson on CSI, played by Archie Kao.
- Dr. Lisa Cuddy from House is played by actress Lisa Edelstein.
- Claire Keelan as "Claire Ashcroft" in Nathan Barley.
- Charlie on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and to a lesser extent Mac. When Glenn Howerton was asked about his character being named Dennis, he remarked on how it seemed like a good idea, and has proven so far to have been a good decision.
- Steve from Blues Clues—his actor's name was Steven in real life. Oddly enough, his Jonas Quinn is named Joe in the show, but has the real-life name of Donovan.
- Brent Butt as Brent Leroy on Corner Gas.
- Mr Mackay in Porridge was played by Fulton Mackay
- Neil (Buchanan) and Kim (Goody) on No 73, a 1980s ITV kids' Sit Com Magazine Show. None of the other main characters were Danzas. Possibly this was because Neil and Kim were generally more involved with the magazine show elements (artwork and interviewing popstars respectively) than the plots (at least to begin with), and were therefore more presenters than characters.
- Phil Collins as Phil Mayhew in Miami Vice. This could be a nod to John Mayhew, Collins' predecessor as drummer for the rock band Genesis.
Radio
- All three of the central characters in the radio sitcom The Navy Lark had the same names as the actors who played them.
- Hancock's Half Hour starred Tony Hancock as "Anthony Aloysius St. John Hancock", Sid James as "Sidney Balmoral James" and Bill Kerr as "William Montmorency Beaumont Kerr". The only other regular character was "Griselda Pugh", played by Hattie (not Griselda) Jacques. Kenneth Williams played several bit-parts, none of them called Kenneth.
- The sitcom Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting starred Linda Smith as Linda Smith. Like many of the full-name TV examples above, the character was essentially a fictionalised version of the comedienne herself.
- Ben Lyon, his wife Bebe Daniels and their children in Life With The Lyons, also a fictionalised version of the actors.
- And Jeremy Hardy and Kit Hollerbach as Jeremy and Kit in Unnatural Acts (later retitled At Home With The Hardys in parody of Life With The Lyons).
Video Games
- Heather Morris in Silent Hill 3 is actually named after her voice actress. The producers apparently had trouble thinking of a surname for this character, until they noticed the Danzariffic coincidence of "Heather" being played by another Heather.
- Michael Jackson as the voice of Space Michael in Space Channel 5.
- Michael Jackson was the inspiration for that particular character, and, when approached about voicing him, Jackson said, "Yes!" because he absolutely loved the tribute.
- Solid Snake is supposedly named David. His voice actor in the English Dub is David Hayter. Coincidence? We may never know...
- Yes, actually. He's named after the character from 2001: A Space Odyssey, as is Hal Emmerich.
- Sadly averted in Tales Of Vesperia where, due to the policy of not reusing voice actors too frequently, Yuri Lowell is not voiced by voice actor Yuri Lowenthal.
Western Animation
- Adam West as Mayor Adam West on Family Guy.
- Lampshaded in that Mayor Adam West actually is Adam West. ...then again, Word Of God says he's not.... All of this just to intentionally make it confusing.
- John Candy in "Camp Candy".
- One Danza who's not the main character, or even their biggest part is Cree Lincoln from Kids Next Door (voice of Cree Summer).
- Another minor character example — in several episodes of Kim Possible, Tara Strong has played a character named "Tara". But then, she's played so many roles that it was bound to happen eventually.
- Also Julie Brown as "Julie Bruin" in Tiny Toon Adventures. In this case, she's effectively parodying herself.
- Louie Prima as "King Louie" in Disney's The Jungle Book (a cross-species Danza!)
- Kappa Mikey has its main characters playing characters with the same name in the Show Within A Show. As a bonus, Mikey Simon's voice actor is Michael Sinterniklaas, setting up a recursive Danza.
- Home Movies through the entire cast, though Paula became an exception when her original voice actress, Paula Poundstone, was replaced.
- Yet another minor character example, similar to the Kim Possible one above: John Ratzenberger has been doing voices for Pixar in all of their films. Eventually, he was bound to get a character with his first name, and he did — John, the first human WALL-E meets.
- Almost the entire cast of Dr Katz Professional Therapist is named after their voice actor's first name with no last name given (Laura Silverman as Laura, Todd Barry as Todd). Even the guests that appear on the show are credited as Dave as Dave Attell. There are only three exceptions I can think of to this rule: Dr. Jonathan Katz uses his full name, Benjamin Katz was named after his last name (most likely because his first name is Jon and that would be confusing), and Stanley's voice actor is Will Le Bow.
- Ray Romano voices a character named Ray Magini in an episode of The Simpsons.
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