Joey, Matthew, And Andy Lawrence Apparently Haven’t Gone By Their Real Name For Decades, And I’m Having A Mini-Meltdown
Now, if somebody tells me that Ashley, Mary-Kate, and Elizabeth’s last name isn’t Olsen either, I will throw a fit.
They call him Joey.
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They call him Matthew.
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They call him Andrew.
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They’re the Lawrence brothers, but that’s not their name!
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During the ’90s Con panel on March 28, the “Lawrence” brothers took the stage and revealed to People how they came upon the popular moniker and why they wish they could go back to their real name.
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All this time, the three siblings, who portrayed the fictional Roman brothers in the ’90s sitcom Brotherly Love, also went by the fictional last name Lawrence.
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In a way, it’s all the eldest Lawrence brother, Joey’s fault.
Joey’s been acting since the early ’80s with guest roles on Diff’rent Strokes, Silver Spoons, and a starring role on the 1983 sitcom Gimme a Break!
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His career continued into the ’90s when he co-starred in the hit TV series Blossom, playing Joey Russo before joining Brotherly Love.
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Likewise, his little brothers followed him into show business, with Matt being featured in Gimme A Break! in ’80s, and starring in Mrs. Doubtfire and Boy Meets World in the ’90s.
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Andy, the youngest of the trio, would appear in Blossom a couple of times before eventually going on to voice T.J. Detweiler in Disney’s Recess and star in a few made-for-TV movies.
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But, for everyone who remembers Joey and the Lawrence brothers’s four decadeslong careers, we were living a lie. Lawrence is not their last name. “It was my middle name,” Joey said at ’90s Con. “So I was named after our dad and our grandfather on our dad’s side.”
Joey’s full legal name is Joesph Lawrence Mignogna. When he began acting in the ’80s, he was told, “No one can pronounce Mignogna. That’s not a name people will say.”
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They used his middle name as his last name, and his brothers followed suit when they joined the business. Now, they wouldn’t mind going by their actual last name. “Today, things like that are celebrated,” Joey said of Mignogna’s pronunciation. “In the ’80s, it was like, ‘We’re going to need to water this down. There are silent Gs.'”
Matthew noted that having the “Lawrence” stage name had benefits. “There was an insulation factor,” he said. “Some people might check in old school ways, but it would be very, very hard to find us. That was a great thing.”
Matthew did suggest there were a few downsides to having two names. “Now I’m just stuck with two different names, and I can’t travel internationally,” he said. “Even for a while there the government only recognized me as Matt Lawrence because I paid taxes from the time I was a toddler to 18 as Matt Lawrence.”
“But really my name is Matthew William Mignogna,” Matt explained. “So when I grew up and used my real name on my passport, there was absolutely no correlation. I didn’t exist.”
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And for Andy, his real name is Andrew James Mignogna.
The Mignogna* brothers agreed they wish they could just go by their birth names now. “It would have made it easier,” Andrew said. “It’s really a pain in the butt, honestly, like having two names. You have to prove you’re both people.”
The brothers are still going strong, working on projects together like 2021’s Mistletoe Mixup, 2023’s Frankie Meets Jack, 2024 Christmas rom-com Marry Christmas, and the podcast they launched in 2023, Brotherly Love.
So, whether it’s the Roman, Russo, Mignogna, or the Lawrence brothers — we’re guaranteed to see a lot more from these guys, and I’m seated.
