"As a different name"??

There's an IMDb profile for an actress named Gloria Tesch, who recently began self-publishing books under the pseudonym "Sofia Nova" (she has no acting credits as "Sofia Nova" and this is not her legal name). I noticed a Quora thread pointing out that Tesch, or whichever party manages her profile, has removed the name "Gloria Tesch" and replaced it with "as a different name". It seems to be upsetting some people online and I have to admit it's confusing. Is there any way that the information can be fixed? I understand this actress is trying to start a new writing career under the "Sofia Nova" pseudonym but all of her acting roles have her credited as Gloria Tesch, which someone has stripped from the IMDb page for the actress entirely. There's also another actress in California whose legal name and acting name actually IS Sofia Nova, so this just makes it even more confusing.

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NobodyLovesRaymond

3 Messages

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92 Points

1 month ago

This is the Quora thing I found: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-actor-Gloria-Tesch-listed-on-IMDb-as-Another-Name-and-Sofia-Nova-despite-being-credited-in-all-of-her-film-appearances-as-Gloria-Tesch

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gromit82

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7.7K Messages

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279.1K Points

1 month ago

The "as a different name" attribute was created, most likely, so that transgender people could avoid revealing their former names. However, since IMDb could not limit this attribute by gender identity, it is available to anyone. At least "Gloria Tesch" and "Sofia Nova" are very different names. All too often, people use the "as a different name" attribute for inappropriate purposes such as hiding a middle initial or a nickname. Nobody has ever explained a good reason why they would want to do that. I suspect that some of them might be doing so because they misunderstood the purpose of the attribute, but I can't be sure.

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NobodyLovesRaymond

3 Messages

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92 Points

Makes sense. TBH I don't know how IMDb would begin moderating that sort of thing anyway, and at least they have a policy protecting gender-diverse professionals who change their names (Goodreads leaves it up to its own discretion and doesn't allow authors control over the name that appears on their profile or what books they publish). I guess it's sort of just something bound to happen, especially in the 2020s gig economy where identity changes are commonplace and nobody really has a fixed persona. I guess my personal concern would be less how the name displays and more about the ambiguity it creates, but since Gloria Tesch isn't a professional actress, it probably wouldn't affect much.

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1 month ago

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NobodyLovesRaymond

"As a different name"??

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gromit82

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