• Faith: Unknown
• Career: Actor and Musician
• Birthday:  April 24, 1992

Joseph David Keery began acting in 2015 as a situational or character actor for a few years. Two years before, Djo began publishing his music with a song called "I'm Not Smart." But something curious happened in 2016–both figures converged in the public eye when the world met Steve Harrington in Netflix's Stranger Things, for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Born the second of five children in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in April 1992, "Joe" Keery discovered being theatrical curried favor in a house of four sisters. When he attended River Valley Charter School, his parents took him to Maudslay State Park for a performing arts camp called "Theater in the Open."

Keery's parents' musical choices, including Bruce Springsteen and Eric Clapton, influenced Keery. Yet, Keery claims his love for music was ignited in middle school when he saw the Jack Black comedy School of Rock.

He began acting in high school, inspired by what he learned in the park. However, his life was before him when he entered DePaul University's Theater School. He was in a KFC, Amiibo, and Domino's Pizza commercial before he graduated in 2014 when he got his first role in the NBC hit drama "Chicago Fire." The following year, Keery auditioned for the role of Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) but was later sent a tape to consider Steve.

Concurrently, Joe Keery's music gained a following through a Chicago-based psychedelic indie pop band, Post Animal (similar to Tame Impala, ELO, or Pink Floyd). He left the band in 2018 because of "Stranger Things." Then, in 2019, he released his first solo single, "Roddy," on the popular album "Twenty Twenty." His character was becoming famous thanks to Netflix distribution and the bewildering success of the series, so he created the artist name Djo, hoping to distract fans from connecting the dots.

"I had a little pipe dream that it would be an Andy Kaufmann sort of thing where, if you know, you know," he explained to Paste magazine in March 2024. "My main intention was that if people could hear the songs for the first time—or maybe the first two times—without the full onslaught that it was this dude from Stranger Things, they could listen to it with an open mind."

Today, Keery enjoys both successful careers and was last connected to actress and professional kiteboarder Maika Monroe. As a thespian since "Stranger Things," he has starred in a period piece set in Rome in 1950 called "Finally Dawn" (Originally "Finalmente l'Alba") and in the Ryan Reynolds video game spoof "Free Guy" as Keys. He continues to build a following in the Coen Brothers-adapted TV series Fargo as "Gator Tillman."

Djo has been discovered musically, which explains the popularity of his second album, "Decide," and the viral hit, "End of Beginning," which has 1.36 billion downloads on Spotify with 22 million listeners.

Joe Keery's Religious Beliefs

He frequently uses his social media platforms to share his affinity for more progressive political leanings, including as a dedicated, inclusive ally and full-fledged supporter of the environment. While none of that indicates whether he believes in the Lord, it could help people think he is either passive about his faith or could be a "cultural Christian."

Keery's tight-knit family dynamic allowed him to express his creativity and exercise his imagination, which could influence an openly dogmatic existence. A 2024 survey from the World Population Review shows the least religious states–all in New England. The Bible Belt is alive and well with up to 85 percent density of "religious adults." Conversely, Maine and Vermont are at 34 percent. New Hampshire and Joe Keery's home state of Massachusetts are at the bottom with 33 percent.

While that is only a hypothetical deduction, it's possible among the breadth of passive Protestant churches in the original colonies (i.e., Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian). Other than the encouragement of evangelism not being a routine act from the pulpit, there's the rumor that Joe Keery came out as bisexual in 2023.