Plenty of actors and musicians work under a stage name. Sometimes, however, they pull what I'd describe as a "Hannah Montana is actually Miley Stewart" moment and drop their stage name for their real one.
Here are 15 celebs who ditched their stage name for their real name:
1. Angela White rose to fame under the stage name Blac Chyna. However, in 2023, she went through a series of major changes, such as removing her silicone butt injections and dissolving her facial fillers. Along with her external changes came the internal decision to reclaim her birth name as part of "getting back to [her]self."
Angela told Forbes, "Nobody ever really calls me Angela. So sometimes I would forget who I am because it's always about the brand, brand, brand, but not about the person."
2. The first casting director James Rodriguez auditioned for refused to cast him as the lead because of his Mexican last name. His second audition landed him a role in a TV pilot, but production encouraged him to "give some real consideration" to changing his name because they didn't think he "look[ed] Mexican enough." So, after talking the decision through with his dad, he chose the stage name James Roday from a Chekhov play he was in.
However, 20 years later, he realized he "essentially perpetuated an institutionalized element of what's broken about this industry." So, he decided to change his professional name to James Roday Rodriguez (which is also his legal name).
3. In 1991, the Flirting credits misspelled Thandiwe Newton's name as Thandie Newton. She used the misspelling as her stage name for 30 years, but in 2021, she decided she was "taking back what’s [hers]" and reverted back to the original spelling of Thandiwe.
4. When he was six, Shad Moss got the stage name Li'l Bow Wow from his mentor Snoop Dogg. In 2002, he dropped the "Li'l," then in 2014, he dropped the stage name altogether.
5. Nicholas Diego Leanos rose to fame under the name Lil Xan, but after moving toward anti-drug messages in his music, he started going by Diego.
6. Born Dante Terrell Smith, the rapper and actor formerly known as Mos Def decided to change his name to Yasiin Bey both personally and professionally in 2011. He'd already been using the name Yasiin with family and friends since 1999.
7. In order to release his 1976 debut album, John Mellencamp had to give in to his manager Tony Defries's wishes and change his name to Johnny Cougar. His management team thought no one would buy records from someone with his "strange" German last name and wanted "something uniquely American" instead.
After that management team and his record label dropped him, he altered the name to John Cougar. As his fame grew in 1983, he started going by John Cougar Mellencamp and released some of the most successful music of his career. Finally, in 1991, he dropped "Cougar" from his name and never looked back.
8. Kesha Sebert launched her music career under the stylized name Ke$ha. However, in 2017, she decided to go by Kesha after entering rehab for an eating disorder. She dropped the dollar sign because she "let go of [her] facade about being a girl who didn't care" and "realized that was part of the facade."
9. Early in Jsu Garcia's career, his agent made him change his name to Nick Corri because "there were no Latin actors, except for Ricardo Montalbán, and he lucked out." He had to be "this fake Italian guy" because his agent thought "no Latin actor was going to make it."
He booked his first role (a guest spot on Fame) under the name Thom Fox in 1982. Afterwards, he was credited as Nick Corri until 1999, when he finally started using his real name as an actor.
10. As a teenager, Jermaine Cole chose the stage name "Therapist," but a few years down the road, he realized it "sounded like a wrestler's name." Disliking how the name felt like "an alias," he switched to J. Cole, which "was a real natural fit" and "didn't feel like [he] was trying to be anything."
11. For most of his career, Prince Rogers Nelson used his given first name as a mononym. However, in 1993, he started using the "love symbol" as his stage name because Warner Bros. "own[ed] the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince, and [he] became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros."
However, after his Warner Bros. contract expired in 2000, he began going by Prince again.
12. When Mamie Gummer played her first role in 1986's Heartburn alongside her mother Meryl Streep, she was credited as Natalie Stern. However, after she booked her next role in 2003, she's always been credited as Mamie.
13. Similarly, her sister Grace Gummer was first credited as Jane Gray when she appeared in The House of the Spirits (which Meryl starred in) in 1993. She's been credited under her real name since her acting career took off in 2010.
14. Actor/producer Ramón Luis Estévez (whose dad Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez uses the stage name Martin Sheen) was often credited as Ramon Sheen throughout the '80s and '90s. However, he's been billed as Ramón Estévez since 1995. His brother Charlie Sheen still uses the family stage last name.
15. And finally, when Tori Spelling's agent told her about Beverly Hills, 90210, she opted to audition under the stage name Tori Mitchell (inspired by a Heather Locklear character) without telling her dad, producer Aaron Spelling. After booking the role of Donna, she was credited under her real name.
