History Main / InventedIndividual

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': When Tim turns down Bruce's offer to adopt him, which comes less than a month after Bruce's meddling and arrogance led to Tim's girlfriend Stephanie being brutally murdered and then lying to Tim about it until after Steph was already dead, he makes up a fake uncle to go live with and even hires an actor to play the part to ensure it works.

* ''Series/{{Fargo}}''

** During the endgame, you can construct an elaborate ''cabinet noir'' in Balmoral Castle (yes, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balmoral_Castle that one]], it was included in the deal for London) for the purpose of both intercepting and deciphering documents, and the construction, elaboration, documentation and insertion into society and history of alternate identities. You can flesh them out in depth, quirks, connections and credentials, and use secret knowledge to insert them into past events and give them imaginary influence over the flow of history above and below. And then you can use them to insert yourself into others' affairs, or sell them off with documentation and attires included to people that need to do the same; the favours, information and objects you can gain this way are invaluable, including some of the most expensive in the game.

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'', "Todd" is created by the employees to get an empty cubicle for storage. But when nobody at the company can locate him ("There is no Todd!"), Dilbert is sent to jail for his murder. Eventually, Todd is promoted above everyone, becomes a millionaire, and there's a law passed saying he can become a bigamist. ("That was a coup.")\\
\\
A running gag is that many of the discussions about Todd could just as easily be religious debates.
-->'''Dogbert:''' People want to believe that Todd exists, so anything you say in Todd's name they'll tend to buy. You see, you can play Todd, but you still can't play [[MagnificentBastard Dogbert]].\\
'''Wally:''' Amen.

* When the comedian Ronnie Barker wanted to try writing for ''The Frost Report'' (the sketch show he was appearing in at the time), he decided to write under a pseudonym so that his sketches would be accepted on their merit. The ruse worked and 'Gerald Wiley' became one of the most highly regarded writers of the show. The cast and crew speculated as to who he really was (names such as Alan Ayckbourn and Tom Stoppard were suggested). Ronnie Barker kept up the pretense, occasionally criticizing the quality of the writing and at one point when Ronnie Corbett tried to buy the rights to one sketch, telling Corbett that the price 'Wiley' was asking was far too high.

* In ''Film/IrmaLaDouce'' Nestor Patou (Jack Lemmon)creates a fake British nobleman to serve as a wealthy "client" for Irma (Shirley [=MacLaine=]) so she won't have sex with anyone but him. When he grows tired of the deception he throws the costume into the Seine and is arrested for murder.
** And in the end it turns out that "Mr. X" DID exist after all... though this is an example of RuleOfFunny rather than a genuine reveal.

* In ''Film/{{Angel}}'', Molly claims to be living with her invalid mother, and uses this as an excuse not be involved in any extracurricular activities. However, [[ParentalAbandonment her mother actually abandoned her]] when she 12, and there is no else besides Molly living in the apartment.

* In ''Literature/VileBodies'', this is Adam's way of producing a gossip column despite being unable to write about any ''real'' celebrities. He creates an extensive list of fake diplomats and socialites. This becomes briefly inconvenient when his editor asks for an introduction to one particular MarySue society hostess, until he publishes a column the next day describing how she has just emigrated.

* In the 1970's TV movie ''Film/PaperMan'', a group of post-grad students create a fake person in the college computer to back up a mistakenly issued credit card. By the time they try to kill off the fake person, the fake person is apparently killing them off.

* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', the protagonists invent the persona of "Adam Selene" to run their revolution. "Adam" manages to turn up at all sorts of rallies, conventions, and even a few operas, and one person is even convinced that he once met him at an opera house. The Lunar Authority tries to track him down -- without success, naturally. He even gives a live, televised speech on one occasion. Of course, Adam Selene's true identity [[spoiler: happens to be Mike, the [[InstantAIJustAddWater sentient supercomputer]] who runs pretty much everything tied to the electronic grid in Luna City. He manages to be "present" in so many places by constantly monitoring the phone lines, and for his speech he created a digital avatar. In a further twist of irony, he's also the same supercomputer that the Authority's security branch relies on -- because only the main characters know he's sentient, no one else suspects a thing.]]
** The characterization is so accurate too, that the only difference between the protagonist's own ideas for the character and the individual the man at the opera house describes is the hairstyle.

* The 1994 film ''Film/BlankCheck'' involved Preston creating the identity of "Mr. Macintosh", a reclusive billionaire, so that Preston could do anything he desired with his newly acquired money.

* In ''Film/MeetJohnDoe'' Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck), who's being fired by the newspaper she works for, prints a phony letter from a "John Doe" who threatens to commit suicide as a protest. After the paper rehires her they get John Willoughby (Creator/GaryCooper) to portray him.

See also SnowballLie, which is a superset of this trope. Supertrope of FakeTwinGambit. When the Invented Individual also happens to fit the name and/or description of someone who ''does'' exist, they're TheRealRemingtonSteele. A PenName is a real life type of Invented Individual. Not to be confused with InventedInvalid; an ill person made up as an excuse to visit and duck out of responsibility. See also GirlfriendInCanada. Contrast {{Unperson}}.

** Hiding Identity:[[spoiler: At least there are two known cases with different tweak; One case involve murder of a family member with the fake character created by ''the killer'' while another one has ''the victim'' creating another identity which was used by the killer in the scheme. The second one overlaps with SecretIdentity]]

* ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun'': In Sharon [=McCrumb's=] fannish murder mystery, several fans created the imaginary persona of "Chip Livingstone", who became very popular. However, after a famous author was murdered, the police declared Livingstone the top suspect because of his well-documented hatred of the man. This forces the conspirators to publicly confess, not wanting to taint the investigation (they add that the hatred of the author was just a character quirk they invented and didn't reflect their individual feelings). The confession prompts one girl (who tearfully says she dumped her boyfriend for Livingstone) to cut all ties with the fandom, and a wake was promptly declared to mourn the lost BigNameFan.

** During the endgame, you can construct an elaborate ''cabinet noir'' for the purpose of both intercepting and deciphering documents, and the construction, elaboration, documentation and insertion into society and history of alternate identities. You can flesh them out in depth, quirks, connections and credentials, and use secret knowledge to insert them into past events and give them imaginary influence over the flow of history above and below. And then you can use them to insert yourself into others' affairs, or sell them off with documentation and attires included to people that need to do the same; the favours, information and objects you can gain this way are invaluable, including some of the most expensive in the game.

* In ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', the story goes that Mr Slowcake prefers to remain in his mansion in Hell, and do all his dealings through his unnamed Amanuensis. The reason for all this is that he doesn't actually exist -- a mid-level Watchful card lets you investigate him and determine that he is in fact "the invention of a cabal of devils". As for why the Brass Embassy would do all that... [[RiddleForTheAges that much is still unknown]]. Yet somehow, the seemingly-insurmountable hurdle of not actually existing didn't prevent him from running for Mayor of London in 1896.

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'''Andy''': Sure you can, if you know how the system works, where the cracks are. It's amazing what you can accomplish by mail. Mr. Stevens has a birth certificate, driver's license, social security number... If they ever trace any of those accounts, they're gonna wind up chasing a figment of my imagination.

* Musician [[http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/07/17/423612001/can-you-have-an-album-on-itunes-if-you-dont-exist?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150720 Lucia Cole]] had 64,000 Twitter followers, was interviewed in a few web publications, and was endorsed by Shaquille O'Neal. But the consensus is that her entire existence was an elaborate hoax: her supposed label, Republic Records, said no one was signed with them under that name, photographs posted to her official site turned out to be pictures of a model named Reese Cromwell, and her digital album consisted entirely of old, slightly re-titled Music/JessicaSimpson songs. Following these revelations, Cole's only album ''Innocence'' was quickly pulled from all digital platforms - it's not exactly a LostEpisode because, again, it consisted entirely of re-labeled Jessica Simpson songs.

* It is very likely that Homer, the Greek historian who told the tales of ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', was not a real person at all. The root of this theory is that the stories had their roots in oral retellings which were passed from town to town, the details changing along the way like a game of 'telephone'. Many historians believe that Homer was invented to give the cobbled together tales a source of origin. There's three base elements to this theory: 1) Homeric epic shares many stylistic characteristics with known oral traditions; 2) Thanks to the sophistication and mnemonic power of the formulaic system in Homeric poetry, it is entirely possible for epics as large as the Iliad and Odyssey to have been created in an oral tradition, 3) many curious features that offended the ancient Alexandrians and the Analysts are most probably symptomatic of the poems' evolution through oral transmission and, within limits, poets re-inventing them in performance, and 4) various continuity errors within the work.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Tate Nat Tate]], supposedly a famous artist who destroyed most of his work before killing himself, whose "biography" was written by William Boyd. In reality, Boyd seems to have just wanted to make fun of art critics. Only one editor at the book's launch party realized it was a hoax; he realized something was off when everyone ''except'' him claimed that yes, of course they were familiar with Tate and his work.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat Operation Mincemeat]]. In 1943 a ruse was conducted to trick the Germans into believing the invasion of southern Europe would start with Greece instead of Sicily. A homeless man's corpse was given the fictional identity of a Royal Marine named Major William Martin, his body was planted with fake documents detailing the planned invasion of Greece and he was dropped off near the Spanish coast. The Germans were completely taken in and redirected vital military units from Sicily to Greece, ensuring the success of the Sicilian Invasion. The subterfuge was extremely detailed; "Major Martin's" body was planted with fake letters from his 'fiancee' (one of the department secretaries contributed a photograph of herself) and 'father', as well as facsimile concert stubs, restaurant receipts, an unpaid jeweler's invoice for an engagement ring, and other assorted pocket-clutter designed to create the illusion of a slightly forgetful and occasionally careless man. This personality was concocted in order to provide an explanation of why the official document case was handcuffed to the body - which was necessary to ensure that body and case would wash up together, but not normal practice for military couriers. The story later became a book and a movie, under the name ''Film/TheManWhoNeverWas''; more recently, a detailed investigative account was written by Ben [=MacIntyre=], which uncovered, among other things, the fact that [[CrazyPrepared someone had gone to the trouble]] of inserting a fake entry in an inn's registration book, to make it appear that the equally fictional father of "Martin" had been staying there during the period when one of the fake personal letters was written.