Line #33 Main/LivingADoubleLife


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10	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/AvengingAngel https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avenging_angel.png]]]]
11
12	->''"New friends I have made are fascinated with the international intrigue associated with my father's line of work. However, I let them know that life with a spy was as normal as theirs except that their fathers planned corporate strategies while mine planned embassy break-ins, assisted defectors and their families seeking asylum, and created counterintelligence strategies. Pretty normal stuff as I saw it."''
13	-->-- ''Spies Wives: Stories of CIA Families Abroad'' by Karen L. Chiao and Mariellen B. O'Brien
14
15	Any character secretly living another life (or even more than that) can be a very powerful plot device in fiction, allowing for any number of stories. What kind of life is being led normally? What kind of life is being led secretly? Will the secret life be revealed? If not, how will it be avoided? If it is revealed, how soon in the story, and what are the repercussions?
16
17	And this is TruthInTelevision, where reveals of such lives make up quite a number of scandalous tales.
18
19	Compare DoubleConsciousness.
20
21	Subtropes include:
22
23	[[index]]
24	* DeepCoverAgent
25	* KingIncognito
26	* TheMasquerade (whole groups of people living two lives)
27	* TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife
28	* NaughtyByNight
29	* PartTimeHero
30	* SecretIdentity (and all its {{Sub trope}}s)
31	* SecretOtherFamily
32	* SecretSexWorker
33	* SeeminglyWholesome50sGirl
34	* TripleShifter (don't they sleep?)
35	* TwoPersonLoveTriangle
36	* WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld
37	[[/index]]
38
39	----
40	!!Examples:
41	[[foldercontrol]]
42
43	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
44	* ''Anime/CodeGeass'':
45	** Main character [[Characters/CodeGeassLelouchLamperouge Lelouch Lamperouge]] balances being a BrilliantButLazy OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent by day, and the flamboyant, masked revolutionary/terrorist (depending on how you view him) "Zero" by night. It's implied the only reason he even bothers keeping up the school-boy persona, instead of just embracing being Zero full time, is because someone needs to be there to look after his sickly little sister, Nunnally.
46	** Kallen Statdfeld is likewise one of Zero's subordinates, but still continues pretending to be a frail school girl when she's not with the Black Knights - she also has no idea that her irritating classmate Lelouch is also her boss, Zero.
47	* ''Manga/DontBecomeAnOtakuShinozakiSan'' feels like she's in this situation. On the one hand, she befriends otaku Kaede and Micchy with the intent of "saving" them from Otaku life. On the other, she was previously a LovableAlphaBitch in middle school. She tries to keep her growing otaku side hidden from everyone who isn't Kaede, Micchy, and their own friends. Akina "feels like" this because she eventually realizes, to her horror, that the ''only'' person in her class who thought Akina wasn't an otaku was Akina herself.
48	* ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': While Akira is working as a hunter (PrivateMilitaryContractors who also search for LostTechnology) in both lives with the same name, there is a large distinction shown in Akira's interactions between two different groups. Akira’s time in the slums involving Sheryl and her slum gang, play up the UnscrupulousHero and TheParanoiac side of himself is on one side, and the time he spends with Elena, Sara, and Shizuka, where he lets his guard down and they see him like an innocent kid, is on the other. The rare interactions between these two sets of characters allow for a lot of drama.
49	* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': To outsiders, the protagonists are a happy family unit comprised of a psychiatrist, a government clerk, and their daughter. In reality, the father is a superspy and the mother an assassin, who married each other for cover unaware of the other's real job. As for the daughter, she is a telepath who ''is'' aware of their real job.
50	* In ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'', when Lovelitchi is initially introduced, she keeps her job as the IdolSinger Lovelin a secret from her new classmates. Then Mametchi considers her one of his Tama-Friends, and she starts to have a bit of a crisis when she realizes Tama-Friends aren't supposed to keep secrets from each other, leading to her revealing her identity as Lovelin to Mametchi and his gang in episode 6b, and later to some Tamagotchi School students besides them in episode 47.
51	* In ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'', some Ghouls choose to establish human identities and live as humans. The staff of Anteiku balance running a Coffee Shop by day with being the peacekeepers of the 20th Ward by night, while several characters struggle to balance an active school life with their night-time activities of protecting their territories and satisfying their HorrorHunger for human flesh. Then there's a major ChekhovsGunman of the series, [[spoiler:author Takatsuki Sen, who balances her life as a famous novelist with being the leader of Aogiri Tree]].
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Comedy]]
55	* ''Creator/TheFiresignTheatre'' gives us Captain Equinox! By day, Adolf Tree, a mild-mannered college professor. By night, Kiki, a mini-skirted habitué of Hollywood's starstruck Sunset Strip! But twice a year, he's Captain Equinox!
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Film]]
59	* ''Film/TwentyOneJumpStreet'': Schmidt and Jenko are cops who must go undercover at their old high school and pose as students in order to bust a drug ring. The [[Film/TwentyTwoJumpStreet sequel]] has a similar plot except it is set at a university.
60	* Angel in ''Film/Angel1984''. Schoolgirl by day, hooker by night.
61	* ''Film/BetterLuckTomorrow'': The Asian-American teens in the film appear to be stereotypical overachievers and honor students bound for college, but their perfectionism masks a darker side -- engaging in petty crime and drug dealing.
62	* ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'' centered on the story of Frank Abagnale, a young ConMan who allegedly passed himself off in a variety of identities, including as a pilot, a doctor in Georgia, and an attorney in Louisiana.
63	* In ''Film/TheDeparted'', a police officer is going undercover to infiltrate the inner circle of a mob boss, while the boss's underling is infiltrating the police department.
64	* ''Film/TheDevilsOwn'' is about an IRA member who conceals [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles his true identity]] when he arrives in New York City and is given a place to stay at the home of an NYPD sergeant and his family.
65	* ''Film/FishTank'': Conor presents himself as a bachelor dating Mia’s mom, when [[spoiler: he is actually [[TheReveal married with a family]]]].
66	* ''Film/TheHandThatRocksTheCradle'': The Bartels hire Peyton Flanders as a nanny. What they do not know is Peyton blames Claire Bartel for the death of her husband and baby, and is secretly planning to wreak havoc on the Bartel family as revenge.
67	* Platt & Matix in ''Film/InTheLineOfDutyTheFBIMurders'' are regular businessmen and churchgoers on top of bank robbers.
68	* ''Film/TheMask'': During daytime, Stanley Ipkiss is an insecure bank clerk who can't catch a break. At night, he is The Mask, a green-faced mischief-maker who wows crowds with his outrageous antics.
69	* Neo from ''Film/TheMatrix'' leads a double life as a regular white-collar worker Thomas Anderson and an infamous hacker of international renown.
70	-->'''Agent Smith:''' As you can see, we've had our eyes on you for quite some time now, ''Mr. Anderson''. It seems that you've been living two lives. In one life, you're Thomas A. Anderson, program writer for a respectable software company. You have a social security number, you pay your taxes, and you … help your landlady carry out her garbage. The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias "Neo" and are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for. [[{{Foreshadowing}} One of these lives has a future … and one of them does not.]]
71	* ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'': Daniel Hillard disguises himself as an elderly, matronly Scottish woman named Euphegenia Doubtfire so he can be a nanny for his kids, over whom he is in a custody battle with his ex-wife. Much of the humor is generated from Daniel trying to balance his two separate "identities".
72	* ''Film/NeverBeenKissed'': Josie Geller, a twenty-something reporter for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', poses as a high school student at her alma mater as part of research for a story.
73	* ''Film/PromisingYoungWoman'': Cassie works at a coffee shop, but at night she goes to clubs and bars pretending to be drunk so she can catch male would-be predators in the act.
74	* ''Film/ShesTheMan'': After her soccer team at school is cut, teenager Viola disguises herself as her twin brother Sebastian so she can play soccer on the boys' team at an elite boarding school.
75	* Superhero films like the ComicBook/{{Batman}}, ComicBook/{{Superman}}, and ComicBook/SpiderMan films usually revolve around a protagonist who has a normal life in addition to a secret identity fighting crime as a vigilante.
76	* Averted with ''Film/IronMan1,'' which teases Tony Stark living a double life before he blurts out his superhero identity at a packed press conference. This sets the stage for the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse as a place where most heroes don't bother with secret identities.
77	* Theodora, in ''Film/TheodoraGoesWild'' is a kinky novel writer, but don't tell her aunts---or anyone else in her small, prudish town.
78	* ''Film/{{Tootsie}}'': Michael Dorsey, an unemployed actor, disguises himself as a woman in order to land a role on a TV soap opera.
79	* ''Film/TrueLies'': Helen thinks her husband is a mild-mannered computer salesman, but he is actually a spy. The irony is that Helen has some secrets of her own.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Literature]]
83	* ''Literature/MurderForTheModernGirl'': Ruby Newhouse leads a double life where she acts like an independent, party-going flapper to hide the fact that she's a vigilante killer going after men who abuse women. In one particular moment, after poisoning Francis Mather, she heads straight to Tommy Gibson's party to keep her public image and hang out with her friends.
84	* Literature/{{Raffles}} is a famous athlete by day and a GentlemanThief by night.
85	* ''Literature/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'': A significant source of the series' drama is the fact that main protagonist Oliver Horn is simultaneously the upstanding de facto leader of the Sword Roses and rising star in Kimberly Magic Academy's student body, and [[spoiler:an AntiHero leading a secret conspiracy to assassinate six Kimberly teachers and the headmistress to avenge the murder of his mother]]. {{Discussed}} in his InternalMonologue in volume 10: he comments that he's only able to stay sane by keeping a hard line between the two, [[spoiler:which his comrades' just-floated proposal to recruit his friends Katie Aalto and Vera Miligan into the conspiracy risks upending]].
86	* The ''Literature/{{Ripliad}}'' series by Patricia Highsmith follows the sociopathic character Tom Ripley, whose MO is [[DeadPersonImpersonation assuming the identities of deceased persons]].
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
90	* ''Series/TheAmericans'': The [[The80s 1980s]]-set series centers on two Soviet intelligence agents posing as a typical American couple.
91	* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Walt is a high school chemistry teacher with a family. In order to pay the mounting bills for his cancer treatment, he turns to a life of crime cooking and selling methamphetamine. [[spoiler: One of the drug kingpins in his area, Gus Fring, owns a chain of fast-food restaurants that he uses as a front for his drug operation]].
92	* ''Series/ChasingLife'': Thomas had a second family living in Florida, and at the time of his death was working on a manuscript that [[DrivenToSuicide leads to the revelation of his death actually being suicide]].
93	* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' had many characters keeping secrets underneath the facade of suburban charm, but the narrator’s secret provides the basis for the show. Mary Alice [[spoiler: appeared to all who knew her as a doting mother and wife, but unbeknownst to them she committed a crime many years earlier. A drug addict left her son with Mary Alice (who then went by the name Angela) and her husband, who thereafter raised the kid as their own. When the newly sober mother later returned to claim her child, Mary Alice killed the young mother and hid the body. Years later, Mary Alice received an anonymous letter claiming knowledge about the body and threatening to reveal the crime to authorities, which leads Mary Alice to commit suicide out of desperation]].
94	* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': Dexter Morgan’s day job is solving crimes as a forensic analyst. He’s so good at it because his night job is being a serial killer, targeting other killers who have escaped the justice system.
95	* ''Series/HannahMontana'': By day, Miley Stewart is a typical teenager. At night, she is famous pop singer Hannah Montana.
96	* ''Series/MadMen'': In the series pilot, Don Draper is introduced as a creative director at the tony [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity Manhattan]] ad agency Sterling Cooper. He is also shown to be a womanizing bachelor. [[spoiler:The episode ends in [[TheReveal a reveal]] that shows Don is actually a married man with a family living in the suburbs. At the end of the first season, it is revealed Don was born into poverty as “Dick Whitman” [[DeadPersonImpersonation but assumed the identity of Don Draper, a fallen soldier during the Korean War]].]]
97	* ''Series/TrueLies2023'': As in the original film, Harry has been keeping his spy career a secret from his family.
98	* ''Series/{{Weeds}}'': Nancy Botwin, a suburban soccer mom, gets involved in the marijuana business to support her family after her husband dies. The series charts the increasing lengths she goes to in order to keep her business a secret.
99	* ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'': The show takes place in [[The90s 1996]] as well as the present. In the present time frame, the now-adult survivors of a plane crash appear to be well-adjusted, but they mask the trauma they still carry from their time stranded in the wilderness. [[spoiler: Taissa, an attorney who is running for state senate, has a double life where she sleepwalks and commits unspeakable acts. Misty works as a nurse at an elderly care facility, but retains her sociopathic personality and keeps a woman whom she suspects of blackmail tied up in her basement. Shauna is a stay-at-home mom who engages in an extramarital affair to compensate for missing out on a normal teenage experience]].
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Music]]
103	* The narrator of the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLiVeRJTtqo "Junk Food Junkie"]]:
104	-->''"In the daytime, I'm Mr. Natural\
105	Just as healthy as I can be\
106	But at night I'm a Junk Food Junkie\
107	Good Lord, have pity on me"''
108	* The Music/{{Styx}} song "Double Life" from ''Music/KilroyWasHere'' is a VillainousBreakdown song where the antagonist, Dr. Righteous, realizes just how full of shit he and his anti-music crusade are but is in too deep to abandon it.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
112	* By night, [[TheyCallMeMisterTibbs Dr.]] Wrestling/BrittBaker [[InsistentTerminology D.M.D.]] is one of the biggest stars in Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling. By day, Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. is a dentist. For real. (Though outside the ring, "Dr. Baker" is perfectly acceptable address.)
113	[[/folder]]
114
115	[[folder:Sports]]
116	* Paulo Thiago is a [[UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship UFC]] welterweight fighter who initially was noticed for an underdog victory by knockout in his UFC debut against perennial contender Josh Koscheck... however, his legend took off in the US when it was revealed that his day job is being a member of the Brazilian capital's military police special operations battalion -- aka [[Film/TheEliteSquad BOPE]].
117	** He's a member of the unit in Brasilia, ''not'' the unit in Rio de Janeiro on which the book and movie were based, but the distinction is usually lost in the US, which the UFC has never tried to correct -- in fact, at UFC 134: Rio his entrance music was the ''Elite Squad'' theme song, complete with the (Brazilian) crowd singing it.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Video Games]]
121	* A particularly nasty version of this is Curtis Blackburn from ''VideoGame/{{killer7}}''. The man's ''public'' face is as a ''black-market organ dealer''. Behind closed doors, he's a vicious pedophile, who rapes the young girls he abducts for their organs before murdering them. His "daughter", AYAME Blackburn, [[spoiler:is a teenage girl he abducted and brutalized into becoming his "apprentice"]].
122	* Sharon from the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterEX'' series works as a nun by day, dutifully and painstakingly making it her mission to take care of orphans living at the monastery where she was raised. At night, however, she moonlights as [[ColdSniper a cool and collected]] highly-ranked secret agent usually employed by an unknown intelligence group to carry out [[ProfessionalKiller assassinations]].
123	* ''VideoGame/{{Transistor}}'': Help()'s info on Sybil Reisz's Background notes her involvement with the Camerata as "She was everywhere, and yet somehow she made time to lead a second, hidden life."
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Webcomics]]
127	* ''Webcomic/IFellInLoveSoITriedLivestreaming'': The main cast of the series are all students, with many involved in school club activities and Hakua being an {{Ojou}} with high expectations placed on her. They're also livestreamers who want to keep their streaming a secret from their peers. The protagonist, Yuu, is a former livestreamer but wants to hide his past from others.
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Web Original]]
131	* ''WebAnimation/{{Hololive}}'': Mori Calliope describes the experience of being both a V-Tuber and living her normal "life" out in Underworldian Japan as such, specifically in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0DAH2kIvfo The Grim Reaper Is A Live-Streamer]]".
132	-->''"I never had a life to begin with\
133	And now, I got two\
134	Double the power to sin with"''
135	* In ''WebAnimation/{{TOME}}'', [[spoiler:Zetto and Kirbopher are really the same character using different accounts. While Kirbopher is a main character and a friend to the other members of the main cast who cares about nothing more than having fun, Zetto is the co-leader of the hackers, and is obsessed with finding and wiping out the Forbidden Power.]]
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Western Animation]]
139	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' had many forms of this.
140	** Roger became a master of this when he took up frequent disguising, to the point where the show found many ways to play with this.
141	** As on the picture, Hayley turned out to be an award-winning cook, dressing up like a [[The50s 1950s housewife]] despite her far left-wing views.
142	* ActionPet Perry the Platypus in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' acts like a normal pet around his family, but is actually a badass secret agent.
143	** Also, apparently Ferb.
144	--->'''Phineas''': Anyone else here living a double life? Put your hand down Ferb.
145	* The ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "A Single Pale Rose" reveals that [[spoiler:Rose Quartz was truly [[KingIncognito Pink Diamond all along,]] and she was RunningBothSides for the entirety of the Gem War, even for her [[FakingTheDead "assassination"]]]].
146	* The WesternAnimation/WinxClub in ''WesternAnimation/WorldOfWinx'' pose as talent scouts for a reality tv show, hiding their identity as fairies while in pursuit of an abductor of talented youngsters.
147	[[/folder]]

Context Main / LivingADoubleLife