History Main / SecretIdentity

* British grafitti artist Creator/{{Banksy}}.

* Every single "cape" in ''WebOriginal/Worm'' has one. Though some, like the members of New Wave, aren't exactly secret anymore, this still applies to the vast majority of them.

* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', high-school chemistry teacher turned meth cook, Walter White, uses the name "Heisenberg" as a secret identity. As time goes on the name "Heisenberg" becomes legendary and feared throughout the American Southwest. And as Walter loses more and more of his humanity, [[BecomingTheMask "Heisenberg" starts becoming the true person.]]

* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', high-school chemistry teacher turned meth cook, Walter White, uses the name "Heisenberg" as a secret identity. As time goes on the name "Heisenberg" becomes legendary and feared throughout the American Southwest. And as Walter loses more and more of his humanity, [[BecomingTheMask "Heisenberg" starts become the true person.]]

** In the TV series ''CovertAffairs'', Anne Walker, CIA Officer, is publicly known as Anne Walker, Smithsonian Employee. [[spoiler:And it turns out the professor she went to help for in the pilot is himself a retired Officer.]]

** SuperSentai rarely bothers with Secret Identities except when the Rangers are still in school such as [[KousokuSentaiTurboranger Turboranger]] or [[DenjiSentaiMegaranger Megaranger]], and this is solely to prevent alienating them from their peers at school [[GoGoSentaiBoukenger Boukenger]] plays this straight (in early episode a least) and [[TensouSentaiGoseiger Goseiger]] plays this straight as well with The V cinema special revolving around their Identities becoming public knowledge. Otherwise the teams are either military sponsored with the members belonging to the military ([[HimitsuSentaiGoranger Goranger]], [[JAKQDengekitai JAKQ]], [[DengekiSentaiChangeman Changeman]], [[HikariSentaiMaskman Maskman]], [[ChourikiSentaiOhranger Ohranger]], etc), the teams abandon their civilian lives after becoming Rangers and live and operate solely out of the team's base ([[ChoudenshiBioman Bioman]] & [[ChoujuuSentaiLiveman Liveman]]), or the teams are not from Earth and have no civilian lives at all, and operate out of their bases ([[ChoushinseiFlashman Flashman]], [[KyoryuSentaiZyuranger Zyuranger]] & [[SeijuuSentaiGingaman Gingaman]]).

* British grafitti artist {{Banksy}}.

* Many paperback original series featured protagonists who operated as "mystery men" without the public knowing their true identities. These include the Hitman (Mike Ross), the Hitman (Dirk Spencer), Hawker, the Sharpshooter (Johnny Rock), the Avenger (Matthew Hawke), the Marksman (Philip Magellan), the Assassin (Peter [=McCurtin=] series), the Revenger, the Revenger (yet another series), the Protector (Alex Dartagnan), .357 Vigilante, Cross (AndrewVachss series), the Vigilante (V.J. Santiago series) and Chant.

* In the film version of ''Mystery Men'', famous superhero Captain Amazing has [[ClarkKenting Clark Kent glasses]] (which fool just about everyone except the protagonist), and the Mystery Men themselves. The Shoveller is open with his family though. The Blue Rajah is initially embarrassed and doesn't want his mother to think he's weird, but when he gets caught pilfering her silverware, he comes out of the closet and she turns out to be really proud of it. The scene is treated like a gay man coming out to his mother.

* TheDarkKnightSaga: Deconstructed, even when Bruce has a SecretIdentity because ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies, it’s practically impossible for him to hide from all others, even when they are not {{SecretChaser}}s actively looking to know who TheBatman is, all they agree to be {{SecretKeeper}}s or even better, {{SecretSecretKeeper}}s, or even [[MasterOfDelusion Masters Of Delusion]]:
** BatmanBegins:
*** The BigBad immediately knows TheBatman is Bruce Wayne because he was his EvilMentor, becoming a SecretKeeper.
*** The OmnidisciplinaryScientist that provides Wayne Batman’s toys will be a SecretKeeper to Bruce and a SecretSecretKeeper to anyone else.
-->''If you don't want to tell [[SecretKeeper me exactly what you're doing]] - [[SecretSecretKeeper when I'm asked, I don't have to lie.]] But don't think of me as an idiot.''
*** Batman reveals his own identity to his LoveInterest asking her to leave him alone because ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies. She would become another SecretKeeper.
** TheDarkKnight:
*** The BigBad figures out TheBatman SecretIdentity when he risks everything to save the LoveInterest, making him a SecretKeeper.
*** Accountant Coleman Reese discovers WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys and attempts to {{Blackmail}} Bruce Wayne first, is dissuaded by the GenreSavvy OmnidisciplinaryScientist and when he tries to sell out TheBatman SecretIdentity, he discovers that the BigBad is not happy with the secret being public. He is saved by TheBatman and maybe shamed enough into being a SecretKeeper.
*** TheBatman reveals his identity to TheCommissionerGordon and he becomes a SecretKeeper, but it’s implied Gordon was smart enough to have discovered it beforehand, being a SecretSecretKeeper.
** TheDarkKnightRises:
*** John Blake, ''anoter'' StepfordSmiler recognizes Bruce Wayne façade, and early figures out a millionaire with DarkAndTroubledPast must be TheBatman, so he is a SecretSecretKeeper.
*** The {{BigBad}}s knew exactly who TheBatman was because they are AvengingTheVillain of the first movie, making them {{SecretSecretKeeper}}s.
*** The new LoveInterest will discover TheBatman identity seeing him in action, making her another SecretKeeper.
*** The doctor that diagnoses Bruce Wayne founds something strange with him, but being a inhabitant of Gotham City (and after Coleman Reese’s example from the Second Movie) he is DangerouslyGenreSavvy enough to avoid being a SecretKeeper or even a SecretSecretKeeper, he'd rather invoke being a MasterOfDelusion:
-->'''Doctor:''' ''I've seen worse cartilage in knees.''
-->'''Bruce Wayne:''' ''That's good.''
-->'''Doctor:''' ''No, that's because there is NO cartilage in your knee, and not much of any use in your elbows or your shoulders. Between that and the scar tissue on your kidneys, the residual concussive damage to your brain tissue, and the general scarred-over quality of your body, I cannot recommend that you go heliskiing, Mr. Wayne''
-->'''Bruce Wayne:''' ''Right.''

* The [[TooGoodToLast short-lived]] comic ''ComicBook/{{Aztek}}'' introduced two background characters, a married superhero couple, neither of whom knew the other's secret identity. Think about it.

* Edogawa Conan and Haibara Ai in ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' must keep secret the fact that they were youthened instead of killed by a poison used by a shadowy secret organization. The original rationale was to pretend Conan's prior identity, Kudo Shinichi, was dead — but he can't stop phoning his girlfriend using his Shinichi voice, so it seems to be a pretty open secret that Kudo is still alive. (And some people are clever enough to put two and two together and figure out who he is, too.)

* In ''Manga/DragonBall Z'', there is Gohan as the Great Saiyaman. As Gohan, he's a fairly nerdy high school student. As the Great Saiyaman, he's a LargeHam crimefighter who's fond of {{Sentai}}-spoofing poses. He's also quite bad at actually maintaining the secret identity.

Experts point to ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'', written [[OlderThanRadio at the turn of the 20th century]] by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, as one of the [[TropeMaker earliest examples]] of this trope. However, the OlderThanPrint ChivalricRomance ''Roswall and Lillian'' has the hero work as a servant at court and fight three times at TheTourney disguised in armor, without revealing his identity; it also appears in various {{Fairy Tale}}s, though in all these it is a temporary measure, and not the perpetual double identity of the modern secret identity. [[http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/law/back19990713.shtml Bob Ingersoll]] considers secret identities to be actually detrimental to fighting crime. Even so, it has become a staple of the SuperHero genre, to the point where it's easier to list exceptions, subversions and variations than straight examples -- such as ...

* ColorCodedScretIdentity

* Series/{{Dexter}} Morgan carries out his slayings of fellow, but less selective serial murderers anonymously, since he knows that his lack of normal empathy alone would land him in an asylum. Morgan's daily feigning of normal human emotions represents as careful a masquerade as Don Diego Vega and Sir Percy Blakeney's role playing as fops.

** And by now, on Earth-616, only the ComicBook/FantasticFour and his fellow Avengers know who Spider-Man is under the mask.

-->''If you don't want to tell [[SecretKeeper me exactly what you're doing]] - [[SecretSecretKeeper when I'm asked, I don't have to lie.]] But don't think of me as an idiot.''

!!Examples: