The Danza - Television Tropes & Idioms

A character whose name is clearly taken from the actor/actress portraying him/her. This shows up in TV a lot, where the show is a vehicle for the actor's fame. By lending their name to the fictional character, there's some familiarity created already. The most obvious way to spot this is to see if the title of the show incorporates the lead actor/actress' name, but not always.

Sometimes this is used for child actors, to make things a little less confusing around the set. 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.

Not to be confused with an actor or celebrity actually playing themselves. That's As Himself (if they're a main character) or Special Guest (if they show up for a single episode). How to differentiate? Is Bob the Actor playing Bob the Actor? Or does he just happen to be playing a character that's also named Bob? The second one is The Danza.

Compare Character As Himself, Adam Westing and Ink Suit Actor. See also Names The Same.

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.

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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.
- If This Troper remembers correctly, Nabeshin was Watanabe's real nickname from before Excel Saga times, and he still uses it. And he indeed dresses like his animated counterpart.
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.
- She plays all types of characters and do them all damn well.
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 (or a version of himself that's only slightly older than Akira) 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).
- Patricia Martin's character has been confirmed to be inspired by Patricia Ja Lee. And then, in the English dub, was actually voiced by Patricia Ja Lee.
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.
- Also, there's Inoue, Kento Sugiyama and Nagisa Chiba who are voiced by Kikuko Inoue, Noriaki Sugiyama and Saeko Chiba respectively. In their case, the characters were named for their actors.
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 (or maybe a casting director was being cute), in the English dub of Kyo Kara Maoh, Yuri was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal.
In Detective Conan (AKA Case Closed in North America), several police officers were named after their voice actors. The most notable is of course Detective Wataru Takagi, bearing the same name as his voice actor, but other minor police officers bear the surnames of their respective voice actors.
Shigeo Shiba in Patlabor was voiced by Shigeru Chiba.
In yet another coincidental one in the dub of Gundam 00 President Brian Stegmeyer is voiced (among other minors roles) by Brian Drummond. Also, rivals Kati Mannequin and Leesa Kujoh (aka Sumeragi Lee Noriega) are voiced by Cathy Weseluck and Lisa Ann Beley respectively.
Hideyuki Tanaka was the voice of Hideyuki Makimura in City Hunter. Tsukasa Hojo intentionally named the character after him in the manga.
Mai Nakahara is the voice behind Mai-HiME's lead heroine, Mai Tokiha.
To voice Momoko Touyoko of Saki, they chose... Momoko Saito.
In Hayate The Combat Butler, Saki is voiced by Saki Nakajima.
Everybody in Shinesman
Soichiro Hoshi as Soichiro Nagi.

Close Anime

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.
Often happens to Jackie Chan in his movies - especially those ported from Hong Kong to Western market.
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...)
- Not quite so. The character Jack Torrance was invented by Stephen King when he wrote the book. And Stephen King was against casting Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance because he had made One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest and the moviegoers that hadn't read the book would find out the plot twist in the end. As of today... Everyone knows that Jack goes totally bananas.
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).
In the Carry On films quite a lot of characters had the same first name as the actor playing them. Charles Hawtry being the first. Sid James later did this in Bless This House.
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.
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 Casting Gag 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".
Jason Mewes plays a character named "Jay" in the View Askewniverse movies, as well as some other characters also named "Jay" — and in the 2006 film Jack's Law, a character named Bobby Mewes.
Many of Harold Lloyd's characters have the first name Harold, with various last names. Once this even bled into the title: The Sin of Harold Diddlebock.
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in A Cock And Bull Story, as well as playing Tristram Shandy and his brother, also play "Steve Coogan" and "Rob Brydon".
David Della Rocco in The Boondock Saints. The role was written specifically for him, but then again he was friends with the writer before they even started.
Michael Caine as the mysterious guardian angel-like figure "Mike" in Mr. Destiny.
In Desperado, Steve Buscemi plays a character called "Buscemi".
Subverted in Zack and Miri Make a Porno, with two gay lovers with the name of one being a play on the name of the actor playing another: Bobby Long played by Brandon Routh and Brandon St. Randy played by Justin Long.
Egyptian American actor Ahmed Ahmed has played a few roles as Ahmed, and many others as himself.
Every single character in Purple Rain shares their actor's first name exect for that played by Prince (his name is The Kid) and his movie mother and father (they have fictional names).
Subverted in The Green Mile. Harry Terwilliger was played by Jeffrey DeMunn. Dean Stanton was played by Barry Pepper. Harry Dean Stanton played Toot-Toot.
Stephen Chow directs and plays a character named Stephen Chow in God of Cookery. A particularly brave example since he sets himself up as an ~~asshole~~ Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist from the beginning.
- Considering his birth name was Sing, his characters in Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle are also The Danza.
Rudy Del Campo plays a character named simply "Del Campo" in the film version of West Side Story.
China Strike Force. In the English dub, at least three characters are named for the actor: Coolio plays Coolio, Norika Fujiwara plays Norika, and Ken Lo plays Ken Lo.
Stella Stevens as Stella Purdy in Jerry Lewis's The Nutty Professor.
Done backwards in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V, where Michael Williams plays "Michael Williams".
Subverted in Robert Altman's Images, where every major cast member plays a character with the same first name as another major cast member.
The Vincenzo Natali movie Nothing, and it's two protagonists: Andrew (Miller) and ~~David~~Dave (Hewlett).
In Home Alone 3 the lead character is named Alex after the actor portraying him, Alex D. Linz.
In Knocked Up, the main character's friends all keep the first names of the actors partraying them.
Jeff Bridges played Jeff Lebowski in The Big Lebowski.
Steve McQueen in The Blob.
From 1932 to 1936, John Wayne played many characters named "John", and one named "Wayne".
Jessie Royce Landis as Jessie Stevens in To Catch a Thief.
Happened in the other way around in The Caine Mutiny. Donna Lee Hickey, who played May Wynn, liked the name so much that she adopted it as her stage name. (May Wynn is a stage name in the original novel).
In A Fish Called Wanda, Tom Georgeson plays the character George Thomason.
Where The Wild Things Are, starring Max Records as Max, could be considered an Inversion because the character in the book existed long before Max was born or cast.

Close Film

Literature

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-Symone as "Raven Baxter" in Thats So Raven.
Ben Vereen as "Mayor Ben" in Zoobilee Zoo
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. More so since she legally changed her name to "Miley" from her birth name of "Destiny Hope Cyrus". ("Smiley Miley" was a nickname her father gave her as an infant.)
Both Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell as "Kenan Rockmore" and "Kel Kimble", respectively, in Kenan And Kel.
Jim 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:
- Jerry Seinfeld in Seinfeld.
- Brendon Small in Home Movies.
- George Lopez in George Lopez.
- Drew Carey in The Drew Carey Show. (Yes, that includes "Alison".)
- Jennifer Grey in It's Like, You Know... (In an odd subversion, Grey claimed more than once that the character she played was not based on herself.)
- Fred Rogers in Mister Rogers Neighborhood.
- Lenny Henry in The Lenny Henry show
- Morecambe and Wise
- The Two Ronnies
- Armstrong and Miller
- That Mitchell and Web Look
- Bob McGrath in Sesame Street.
- Will Smith in The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air (the only difference being that in the show "Will" was short for "William". The actor's first name is actually Willard).
- Tracy Morgan plays Tracy Jordan in 30Rock. Tracy Jordan is essentially an exaggerated, simple-minded caricature of Tracy Morgan.
- Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report.
- Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiamis actually an As Himself, but the show has a number of Danzas — regular characters, Cheryl, Jeff, Suzie, plus some one-shot characters with just one name, which happens to be the actor's.
- Everyone on You Cant Do That On Television.
- Sean Hughes in 'Seans Show''.
- Norman Lovett in I Lovett.
- Weird Al Yankovic in The Weird Al Show.
- Jack Benny in The Jack Benny Program.
- Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain in Stella. Oddly, the show was adapted from their comedy act and short films where they're playing exaggerated versions of themselves(e.g. they're still comedians in an act named "Stella"), but on the TV show itself, they were usually unemployed and picked up different, bizarre moneymaking schemes in nearly every episode.
- Sarah Silverman in The Sarah Silverman Program.
- Nicholas Parsons in The Comic Strip Presents episode "Mr Jolly Lives Next Door".
- Christopher Titus in Titus.
- Andy Richter in Andy Richter Controls the Universe (and partially in Andy Barker, P.I.).
- Bernie Mac on The Bernie Mac Show.
- Jack Dee and Jeremy Hardy in Jack And Jeremys Real Lives.
- Tim Stack as "TV's Tim Stack" in My Name Is Earl. Whether he's as much of a raging drunk in real life remains to be seen, right? Right?
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.
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, so he skirts into As Himself territory.
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, Michael J. Fox played Michael Flaherty for four seasons 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.
- Mulgrew also played Kate Columbo in Mrs Columbo.
Several minor Babylon Five characters who were not given names on their first appearance (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.
- Many minor characters in episodes who are only given first names have the same first names as their actors.
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. And "TV's Frank" was played by Frank Conniff.
In Newsradio, Dave Nelson was played by Dave Foley and Joe Garelli was played by Joe Rogan. Phil Hartman's character Bill McNeal was intentionally named to be almost a Danza.
- In the episode "Chock", Dave's old a cappella singing group stops by, the other three members being named David, Bob, and Brian. They were played by Mr. Show alums David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, and Brian Posehn.
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.)
Both members of Flight Of The Conchords: Jemaine Clement plays Jemaine Clemaine; Bret McKenzie plays Bret McClegnie.
- Additionally, a few guest characters have been Danzas: Demetri (Demetri Martin), Todd (Todd Barry), and Jim (Jim Gaffigan).
That80s Show: Margaret Smith as Margaret.
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.)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show had Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards and Ted Knight as Ted Baxter.
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.
Mocked on Extras where Keith Chegwin's character has his name changed to Keith so the actor won't get confused.
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 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Likely a coincidence, considering it started as a Meaningful Name (She could turn into a cat in her introductory arc).
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.
Then-WWE wrestlers Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle were the first two wrestlers to main event Wrestle Mania performing under their real names.
- Sure, if you don't include Paul Orndorff, Ted DiBiase, Bret Hart, Lawrence Taylor and Mick Foley (who wrestled exactly once under his real name, the night after Owen Hart died). However, Lesnar and Angle's match was the first main event in which all the participants performed under their real name.
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.
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), Graeme (Garden) and Bill (Oddie). Plus, the books that spun off from the show give their full names in appropriate places, and their "brochure" in The Goodies File lists their real-life years and places of birth. Needless to say, the characters are just highly exaggerated versions of themselves.
The new series In Plain Sight has lead character Mary Shannon played by Mary McCormack. Whenever she needs an alias-to testify in court, let's say-she goes by "Mary Shepherd".
- She plays a US Marshal. Her Deadpan Snarker partner is actually named Marshall.
  - US Marshal Marshall Mann. Hee.
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.
In Make Room For Daddy (aka The Danny Thomas Show), Danny Thomas starred as Danny Williams.
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.
- Also David Phillips, played by David Berman.
Dr. Lisa Cuddy from House is played by actress Lisa Edelstein.
Prison Break featured Paul Adelstein as Paul Kellerman and Sara Wayne Callies as Sarah Tancredi.
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.
Playboy Playmate Julie McCullough as Mike's girlfriend Julie Costello on Growing Pains in the 1989-1990 season.
In a roundabout way, the character Gordon's last name in Sesame Street was eventually revealed to be Robinson. Of course, this was long after Matt Robinson's term as the character, and this is thus more of a Mythology Gag (Gordon is currently played by Roscoe Orman).
Cybill Shephard as Cybill Sheridan in... Cybill.
In The Tomorrow People Elizabeth was played by Elzabeth Adare and Mike by Michaul Holloway.
In The Wire the character Felicia "Snoop" Pearson is played by Felicia "Snoop" Pearson — who also happens to be a former Baltimore drug dealer with a conviction for second-degree murder.
- Also Detective Ed(ward) Norris is played by Ed Norris (Cast List)
- And while Jay Landsman is played by Delaney Williams, from Season 3 the character Dennis Mello is played by Jay Landsman.
Cherie Johnson as Cherie Johnson on Punky Brewster.
Half the cast of Out Of This World: Donna Pescow as Donna Garland, Buzz Belmondo as Buzz, and Peter Petofsky as Peter.
Mary Kay Stearns as essentially herself in the very first TV Sit Com, Mary Kay And Johnny, which first aired in 1947 on the Dumont Network.
Interesting usage in the German kids' show Tom Turbo. Many of the kids use their real names for their characters.
Spoofed on Mega64, with Rocco Botte as Rocko Boaty, Derrick Acosta as Derek Ackawzdha, and Shawn Chatfield as Sean Chatfield. In other words, the same names, yet different spellings.
If not for Danza this trope should be called The Joey for Joey Lawrence who made guest appearances on both Diff'rent Strokes and Silver Spoons as a kid named Joey before landing the role of Joey Donovan on Gimme a Break!. This was followed by Joey Russo on Blossom and Joe Roman on Brotherly Love (in which brothers Matt and Andy play Matt and Andy Roman). He ices the cake by playing himself in the 2008 horror/comedy Killer Pad.
Chuck Campell plays Chuck the Gate Tech on Stargate: Atlantis, though this may actually have been a mistake. The character was without a name for quite a while, and it's rumored that another actor dropped his name into a line. He is, however, later called Chuck again by another character. Notable in that fans had been calling him Chuck the Gate Tech (or, alternately, "Chucknician") for some time previous.
Both lead characters in Not Going Out.
Rhodri Meilir played a character called Rhodri in the Doctor Who episode "The Runaway Bride."
Larry Bagby III as Larry Blaisdell in Buffy.
Comedian Mark Curry as Mark Cooper in Hangin With Mr Cooper.
Get a Life had Chris Elliott as Chris Peterson.
Stella has Michael, Michael, and David, played by Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, and David Wain, respectively.
Carrying on the tradition, Michael And Michael Have Issues stars Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black.
Fran Drescher played Fran Fein on The Nanny.
Brian Stepanek as Brian O'Brian in the mini-show of the same name.
Many minor characters on M*A*S*H took on the names of their actors, either by accident (in some episodes, a character that had a name would be referred to by their actor's name instead) or on purpose. Most notably, Nurse Kellye, played by Kellye Nakahara. (Interesting in that the character's last name was Kellye; her first name according to the cast, though never mentioned on the show, was Kealani.)
Lucy Brown as Claudia Brown on Primeval.
Keisuke Kato as Keisuke Nago/Kamen Rider IXA in Kamen Rider Kiva.
Diane Martin, the first Miss America, in Battle Fever J. Both the character and the actress are called Diane Martin.
Jennifer Love Hewitt guest-starred in an episode of Boy Meets World, "And Then There was Shawn", as Jennifer Love Fefferman
In many episodes of El Chapulin Colorado, the supporting cast is named after the actors who play them: therefore, we have Carlos Villagrán as Carlos, Ramón Valdés as Ramón, Rubén Aguirre as Rubén and so on. Roberto Gomez Bolaños (a.k.a. Chespirito) once explained he did this to allow the actors to form a bond with their characters (even though they were mostly just innocent bystanders).
- Conversely, in El Chavo Del Ocho, Doña Florinda and Don Ramón are respectively played by Florinda Meza and Ramón Valdés.
Most of the main characters of The Sarah Silverman Program.

Close Live Action TV

Radio

Theater

Video Games

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.
- The in universe explanation is that Adam West became a politician instead of an actor in this reality. Makes more sense than 7 year old anthropomorphic dogs having a 13 year old human child.
- And Catman on The Fairly Odd Parents.
  - Norm the Genie is named after Norm MacDonald, who plays him in two eps. Norm the Genie has been said to be based on MacDonald but I don't tend to think of him as Norm MacDonald AS A GENIE!
- Also on The Fairly Oddparents, Adam West as TV's Adam West as The Crimson Chin in the Crimson Chin Movie-Within-the-Show.
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.
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.
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.
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 to this rule: Dr. Jonathan Katz uses his full name, Benjamin Katz was named after his actor's 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.
- Lunchlady Doris was originally voiced by script supervisor Doris Grau.
Penthouse pet Julie Strain voiced the main character of Julie in Heavy Metal 2000. Of course, the character later changed her name to "FAKK-2", but what're you gonna do? She DID change it back to Julie after saving her sister though.
Subverted due to Author Existence Failure in Bebe's Kids; Robin Harris, who popularized the sketch, died before production started on the film. He'd be voiced by Faizon Love.

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