Joe Keery
American actor and musician (born 1992)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph David Keery (born April 1992), also known by his musical stage name Djo, is an American actor, singer, musician, and songwriter. He rose to international prominence for his role as Steve Harrington in the sci-fi horror series Stranger Things (2016–2025). He has also starred in films such as Spree (2020) and Free Guy (2021) and the fifth season of the crime drama series Fargo (2023–2024).
April 1992 (age 34)
- Actor
- singer
- musician
- songwriter
Joe Keery | |
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Keery in 2025 | |
| Born | Joseph David Keery April 1992 (age 34) |
| Education | DePaul University (BFA) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2015–present |
| Musical career | |
| Also known as |
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| Origin | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Instruments |
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| Label | AWAL |
| Member of | Post Animal |
| Website | djomusic |
| Signature | |
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As a musician, Keery was a founding member of the psychedelic rock band Post Animal, which he left in 2018 due to acting commitments. Following the departure, he took on the stage name Djo (pronounced "Joe") for his solo musical projects and released the albums Twenty Twenty (2019), Decide (2022), The Crux (2025) and The Crux Deluxe (2025). Decide featured "End of Beginning", which became a sleeper hit and his first Billboard Hot 100 entry after it went viral on TikTok in 2024. He rejoined Post Animal in 2025, during which time he also headlined his solo Back on You World Tour with Post Animal as a supporting act.
Early life
Joseph David Keery was born in April 1992,[1] in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the second of five children.[2] He attended Newburyport High School. When he was young, he participated in Theater in the Open, a performing arts camp at Maudslay State Park. He acted during high school at his older sister's insistence.[3][4] He joined The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, graduating in 2014 with a BFA in acting.[5][6]
Career
Acting
Keery's breakthrough role was as Steve Harrington in the Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things (2016–2025). Having initially auditioned for the role of Jonathan, he later sent in a tape for Steve and was cast in late 2015.[7] The show premiered in 2016 to critical acclaim. He was promoted from recurring cast to a series regular starting with the second season.[8] Before Stranger Things, Keery had appeared in KFC, Domino's, and Amiibo commercials,[9] and had roles in Empire and Chicago Fire.[5][10] His first appearance in a full-length film was in Stephen Cone's 2015 indie, Henry Gamble's Birthday Party.[5]
Outside of Stranger Things, Keery has had roles in several independent films, including starring in the 2020 satire Spree. He also played the role of Walter "Keys" McKey,[11] a game developer, in the 2021 action comedy Free Guy, which went on to become a box-office hit.[12] In 2022, he was cast opposite Liam Neeson in the sci-fi action film Cold Storage[13] and as Gator Tillman in the fifth season of Fargo.[14] In 2024, he played both Steven Malkmus and himself in the biopic Pavements. In 2025, he voiced John Greenwood in the PBS documentary mini-series The American Revolution.[15]
Music
In his early twenties, Keery released music under the stage name Cool Cool Cool.[16][17][18] From 2014 to 2018, he was a co-founder, drummer, guitarist, and vocalist for the Chicago-based psychedelic rock band Post Animal.[19] Keery originally contributed drums on their first EP Post Animal Perform the Most Curious Water Activities (2015), before current drummer Wesley Toledo joined during their second EP The Garden Series (2016). Their debut full-length album When I Think of You in a Castle (2018) saw Keery performing guitar and vocals.[20]
Keery stopped touring with the band in 2017 and officially left due to acting commitments in 2018. He stated in a Bustle interview, "It's important to disassociate Steve from Stranger Things to the band because I think it will eventually hurt the band... I think it's important that they're hitting the pavement for a while and making a name for themselves and it's not necessarily associated with Stranger Things."[21][22]
On July 19, 2019, Keery self-released the single "Roddy" under the stage name Djo.[23] Djo released a second single titled "Chateau (Feel Alright)" on August 9, 2019.[24] On September 13, 2019, Djo released his debut album Twenty Twenty.[25] In a positive review of the album, NME called Keery "a musician of very high calibre who... dabbles in the kind of inventive, warped psychedelia that gently twists your melon and constantly shapeshifts around you" and compared his music to that of Tame Impala and Ariel Pink.[26]
On September 9, 2020, he released a new single, "Keep Your Head Up", which is currently the only single by Djo to not be included in a larger album or re-issue.[27] In 2022, he took part in a summer music festival tour. His second album Decide was announced in June 2022, along with the release of its first single "Change".[28][29] The album was released on September 16, 2022, and received positive reviews.[30] In 2024, the sixth track of the album, "End of Beginning", was released as a single after gaining popularity and becoming viral on social media.[31]
On April 4, 2025, Djo released his third album, The Crux, which was preceded by the singles "Basic Being Basic",[32] "Delete Ya", and "Potion". The album was well received, and the album cover, credited under art director William Wesley II, was nominated for the 2026 Grammy Award for Best Album Cover.[33]
Djo went on the Back on You World Tour in early 2025 to promote the album, with Post Animal as openers for the majority of show dates. On May 2, the tour was extended with the Another Bite Tour, a second leg that mostly covered the United States. During the tour, Post Animal announced their new album Iron, along with Keery's involvement in the album and him re-joining of the band. Iron was preceded by three singles: "Last Goodbye", "Pie in the Sky", and "What's a Good Life" before releasing on July 25th, 2025, around the end of the tour's first leg.[34]
In September 2025, Djo released the singles "Carry the Name", "It's Over", and "Awake" before surprise-releasing the companion album The Crux Deluxe on September 12. Despite its cover and design mirroring that of The Crux, Keery stated that he does not consider it a reissue of that album. Deluxe features 12 new tracks that were written at the same time as The Crux and recorded after its release.[35][36][37]
On November 4, Djo announced another tour in South America and Mexico to begin in March 2026.[38][A] Following the tour, Djo is set to support Tame Impala for the first leg of the 2026 Deadbeat tour.[39]
Keery co-wrote the song "Funny Mouth" for Charli XCX's soundtrack to the 2026 film Wuthering Heights.[40]
Personal life
Keery was in a relationship with actress Maika Monroe from 2017 to 2023.[41] In 2023, he moved from Los Angeles to the West Village in New York City. [42] He briefly dated actress Chase Sui Wonders from late 2023 to early 2024.[43]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role(s) | Notes | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Henry Gamble's Birthday Party | Gabe | Debut film | |
| 2016 | The Charnel House | Scott | ||
| 2017 | Molly's Game | Trust Fund Cole | ||
| 2018 | After Everything | Chris | ||
| Slice | Jackson | |||
| 2019 | How to Be Alone | Jack / The Gimp | Short film | |
| 2020 | Spree | Kurt Kunkle | ||
| Death to 2020 | Duke Goolies | |||
| 2021 | Free Guy | Walter "Keys" McKeys | [44] | |
| Death to 2021 | Duke Goolies | |||
| 2023 | Finalmente l'alba | Sean Lockwood | [45] | |
| 2024 | Marmalade | Baron Lamram | ||
| Pavements | Stephen Malkmus, Himself | [46] | ||
| 2026 | Cold Storage | Travis "Teacake" Meacham | [47] |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Sirens | Scenester | Episode: "Screw the One Percent" | |
| Chicago Fire | Emmett | 2 episodes | ||
| Empire | Tony Trichter III | Episode: "Who I Am" | ||
| 2016–2025 | Stranger Things | Steve Harrington | Recurring role (season 1) Main role (season 2–5) |
|
| 2019–2021 | No Activity | Officer Ed Reinhardt | Recurring role (season 3–4) Voice (season 4) |
|
| 2023–2024 | Fargo | Gator Tillman | Main role (season 5) | [14] |
| 2025 | The American Revolution | John Greenwood (voice) | 4 episodes | [15] |
| 2026 | One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 | Himself | Documentary | [48] |
Music videos
| Year | Title | Artist | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | "Loser" | Tame Impala | [49] |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Dead by Daylight | Steve Harrington | Likeness | [50][51] |
Discography
Studio albums
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [52] |
AUS [53] |
BEL (FL) [54] |
CAN [55] |
GER [56] |
LTU [57] |
NLD [58] |
NZ [59] |
SCO [60] |
UK [60] | |||
| Twenty Twenty |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Decide | 24 | — | 180 | 35 | 16 | 55 | 10 | — | 33 | —[B] | ||
| The Crux |
|
50 | 19 | 7 | 96 | 71 | 89 | 23 | 27 | 11 | 54 | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||
Extended plays
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| D-Sides |
|
Singles
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [63] |
AUS [64] |
CAN [65] |
IRE [66] |
ITA [67] |
NLD [68] |
NZ [69] |
SWE [70] |
UK [60] |
WW [71] | ||||
| "Roddy" | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Twenty Twenty | |
| "Chateau (Feel Alright)" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Mortal Projections" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Keep Your Head Up" | 2020 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | |
| "Change" | 2022 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Decide | |
| "Gloom" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Figure You Out" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Half Life" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "End of Beginning" | 2024 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| "Basic Being Basic" | 2025 | — | — | — | 81 | — | — | —[C] | — | 62 | — | The Crux | |
| "Delete Ya" | — | — | — | 78 | — | — | —[D] | — | 74 | — | |||
| "Potion" | — | — | — | — | — | — | —[E] | — | — | — | |||
| "Carry the Name" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | The Crux Deluxe | ||
| "It's Over" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Awake" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "—" denotes single that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
Other charted songs
Songwriting credits
| Title | Year | Artist | Album | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Funny Mouth"[82] | 2026 | Charli XCX | Wuthering Heights | Co-written with Charli XCX and Finn Keane |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Stranger Things | Won | [83] |
| 2018 | Nominated | [84] | |||
| Teen Choice Awards | Choice Hissy Fit | [85] | |||
| 2020 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | [86] | ||
| 2022 | Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards | Best Supporting Actor in a Streaming Series, Drama | [87] | ||
| 2024 | Astra TV Awards | Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie | Fargo | [88] | |
| Billboard Music Awards | Top Rock Song | "End of Beginning" | [89] | ||
| Kids' Choice Awards | Favorite Social Music Star | Himself | [90] | ||
| 2025 | Favorite Male Breakout Artist | [91] | |||
| iHeartRadio Music Awards | Best New Alternative/Rock Artist | [92] | |||
| Brit Awards | Best International Song | "End of Beginning" | [93] | ||
| American Music Awards | Social Song of the Year | [94] | |||
| 2026 | Grammy Awards | Best Album Cover | The Crux | [95] |
Tours
Headlining
- Back on You World Tour (2025)
- South America & Mexico Tour (2026)
- Summer North American Tour (2026)
Supporting
- Noah Kahan (2025)
- Gracie Abrams – The Secret of Us Deluxe Tour (2025)
- Tame Impala – Deadbeat Tour (2026)
Notes
- The announcement was made through the Instagram account "Djocorp", which is an official updates account that fans received a link to through Djo's mailing list. The post was later shared to Djo's story on his main account.
- Decide did not enter the UK Albums Chart, but peaked at number 67 on the UK Albums Sales Chart.[60]
- "Basic Being Basic" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 11 on the NZ Hot Singles Chart.[78]