Sandbox / The Danza Wick Check

The Danza is for cases of a character being named after the actor portraying them, but a lot of examples are coincidences.

52/59

Unambiguous cases 14/ 59

• Sudden Name Change: Barnacle Boy's first name was originally said to be "Kyle" in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V", but was later changed to "Tim" in "Mermaid Man Begins" to match the name of his actor Tim Conway.
• Live-Action TV: My Big Fat Greek Life: Nia Vardalos's character in My Big Fat Greek Wedding was named Toula, but renamed to Nia for the TV series in order to match the actress.
• Mabel:

Mabel Martin

First Mentioned: Episode 001, The Letters

Portrayed by: Mabel Martin

• MCU: Ten Rings: Ahmed is notably one of the few characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who have the same name of the actor portraying them (Ahmed Ahmed).
• Anne of Green Gables: In the European Portuguese dub for the anime, the main character is named "Ana Silvestre". She's voiced by Emília Silvestre in the dub.
• Adventure Time:
  • Finn's alter-ego, voiced by Davey Johnson, was named "Davey Johnson" in the episode "Davey". In the same episode, Davey's friend Randy is voiced by Randy Liedtke.
  • The horse that makes people happy, voiced by James Baxter, was named "James Baxter" in the episode "James Baxter the Horse".
• Ryan George: The first guy to ever have a name, played by Ryan (like all other characters), comes up with the name Ryan for himself. However, he doesn't go with the name Ryan George because his friends think it sounds dumb.
• Big Little Lies: Meryl Streep plays Mary Louise, which is her birth name. Liane Moriarty even named the character after her. Correct, but the "even" implies the person writing it didn't know
• Thief: Keeper Nate in The Metal Age is a nod to his voice actor, Nate Wells (who also voiced Keeper Artemus, creating something of a Continuity Snarl).
• Tip Not Included: All characters share their first name with their actors, with the exception of Vincent Paulino as The Pizza Guy.
• Titan Academy: Everyone from Class T 1 T 5 — except Madam Soot Beng (played by Amander Liew) and latecomer Terry (played by Leonard Lau) — were named after their actors, as Jian Hao initially had no idea that the series would explode in popularity, and thus didn't think through on character names. Come the introduction of Class N 4 T 1, they managed to assign different names to the new students and generally averting the trope.
• Tiny Toon Adventures:
  • Julie Brown as Julie Bruin.
  • Henny Youngman as "Henny" Youngman.
  • The Roches as The Roches.
• Transformers: The Last Knight: Isabela Merced's character is named Izabella, while Glenn Morshower returns as General Morshower, who was named after him.
• Transformers Film Series: Glenn Morshower as General Morshower in ROTF and DOTM.
• Transformers: Rescue Bots: Dr. Mc Swain is voiced by the show's voice director, Ginny Mc Swain. Also counts as Descended Creator The name is too uncommon for it to be a coincidence
• Two of a Kind: Unlike most of the Olsen twins works, their characters have the same names as them in this show.

Not explicitly stated, but almost certainly the case 11/ 59

• Stock Foreign Name: Ranbir Raj, who is played by Ranbir Kapoor, the grandson of Raj Kapoor.
• In the first two series of The Men from the Ministry, the "One" of General Assistance Department was Roland Hamilton-Jones, played by Wilfrid Hyde-White. After he left "One" became Deryck Guyler's Deryck Lennox-Brown for the rest of the series. The two were practically the exact same characters with different names, and the show never acknowledged the change.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As: Her Iryou Shoujo Medical Shamal counterpart, Kanae Kagurai, is Yuzuko's ill adoptive mother.
• Lucky Star: The resemblance between Minoru and Minoru is quite notable.
• Amityville: The Awakening: Bella Thorne as Belle Walker.
• Dad: Carl Millins is played by Carl McDowell.
• Henry Danger: Frankini is played by Frankie Grande, brother of former Nickelodeon star Ariana Grande.
• Tiny Meat Gang: Cody's character in the Dhar Man sketch he co-wrote is named Cody.
• There Will Be Blood: The main character is played by Daniel "Plainview" Day-Lewis, and Paul Dano plays both Paul Sunday and his twin brother Eli.
• Toys: Nurse Debbie is played by Debi Mazar.
• Two for the Road: Jacqueline Bisset makes a brief appearance as a character named Jackie.
• Ace Attorney Investigations Minor Characters: In Japanese, his last name is Yūki, just like his voice actor's first name.

Definitely not an example 16/ 59

• Peanuts:
  • In the Latin American Spanish dubs of the recent specials, Peppermint Patty is voiced by Patricia Acevedo. The character definitely wasn't named after her
  • Averted by Sally Dryer, who in the first few years of the animated shows voiced Violet, Lucy and Patty at various times...but never Sally. An aversion
• Scooby-Doo (2002): Freddie Prinze Jr. plays Fred. The character was around before Freddie Prinze Jr. was even born.
• A Discovery of Witches: Matthew Goode plays vampire Matthew Clairmont. Since it's a book adaptation, in this case it's a coincidence.
• Adventures of the Gummi Bears: Princess Marie is voiced in the Mexican Spanish dub by Maria Fernanda Morales (Marie is the French form of the Spanish name Maria). The name was the same in the original English, where she was voiced by someone with a different name
• Anne of Green Gables: Invoked. Actress Dawn O'Day changed her name to Anne Shirley after playing the character. That would actually be an inversion if anything
• Penn & Teller Get Killed: Of the weirdest sort - it's pure coincidence that the film is directed by Arthur Penn.
• Smaller & Smaller Circles: By coincidence: Fr Jerome Lucero is played by Sid Lucero.
• The Sarah Jane Adventures S4 E5-6 "Death of the Doctor": Finn Jones plays Santiago Jones. Coincidental, as Jo Grant's marriage to Clifford Jones had been established long beforehand in the expanded universe.
• My Little Bossings: Subverted with Ice Seguerra in that he was at the time credited by his birth name, only for him to later adopt his character's name when he came out as a transgender man a year after the film was released. Not sure what this is, but it's not a subversion
• Watch It: Subverted: Jon Tenney plays Michael, while Peter Gallagher plays John. Not even subverted, just not an example
• Elliot Goes To School: Averted. At first, it seemed that the titular character is named after kitty0706, with many of his social media outlets giving credence to this. Following his death however, kitty0706's real name was revealed to be Colin Wykoff, not Elliot. Though, as stated above, this was implied in the very first episode.
• Annabelle: Averted. Annabelle Wallis plays as the protagonist of Annabelle...but her character isn't named Annabelle (it's Mia). The title does refer to a character (well, two if you count the doll), though, namely the cultist who threatens the main characters.
• The Jungle Book (1967): Louis Prima as King Louie. He was named after Louis Armstrong, the original choice of actor
• Safe Haven: Subverted. Josh Duhamel playing the father of someone named Josh.
• The Man with the Golden Arm: Frank Sinatra as Frankie Machine. A coincidence, since that's the character's name in the novel.
• Toy Story 4: Carl Weathers reprises his role as Combat Carl from Toy Story of Terror. Combat Carl was created for the first film and was not voiced
• Sliding Scale of Like Reality Unless Noted: Professional Wrestling (Though, in some cases, actors essentially play themselves, edging it closer to Real-Person Fic.) This is just about the character having the same name, not attempting to play themselves

Uncertain 8/ 59

• An American Tail: It's quite possible that Fievel's nickname 'Philly' was chosen because of the name of his voice actor, Phillip Glasser. Although since Steven Spielberg's grandfather was also named Fievel but renamed Phillip in America, it could have just been a very fitting coincidence.
• LBX: Little Battlers eXperience: Hiro Oozora, the new protagonist introduced in W, is voiced by Hiro Shimono. Likely a coincidence, but still. Outright admits it's probably not the case
• The Tribe: Ryan, though as it's most likely just a coincidence seeing how he's no more prominent than most of the characters.
• My Roommate is a Cat: Haru is voiced by Haruka Yamazaki in the anime, though this is likely coincidence.
• Money Movers: Bryan Brown as Brian Jackson. This is almost certainly a coincidence as Brian was a very common Australian name at the time.
• The Ropers: Jeffrey Tambor as Jeffrey P. Brookes III. This may be a coincidence, as the equivalent character on George & Mildred was also named Jeffrey (but played by Norman Eshley).
• Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow: By sheer coincidence, Azari is voiced in the Japanese dub by voice actor Ryota Asari (who voiced Hirano Toshirou, Akashi Kuniyuki and Sohayanotsurugi in Touken Ranbu)
• Rush Hour: Barely counts as an example. Commander Thomas Griffin is played by Tom Wilkinson, but is only addressed once by his first name.