The brothers are back!
The Lawrence brothers — Matthew, Joey and Andrew — took the stage at 90s Con on Friday, March 28, at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn.
In the panel moderated by PEOPLE’s Dory Jackson, the trio opened up about how they got their last name — and why they wish they could change it back.
“It was my middle name,” Joey, whose full legal name is Joseph Lawrence Mignogna, explained. “So I was named after our dad, and our grandfather on our dad’s side.” Joey, 48, said that in the early ’80s, when he began acting, he was told, “No one can pronounce Mignogna. That’s not a name people will say.”
“Today, things like that are celebrated,” he said. “In the ’80s, it was like, ‘We’re going to need to water this down. There are silent Gs.’ ”
They decided to use his middle name, Lawrence, as his last name, and when Matthew, 45, and Andrew, 37, followed him into show business, it “just made sense” for them to use it too.
Matthew pointed out that there was a benefit to this, as it gave the child stars some privacy in their off-screen lives. “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.”
However, he said, “Now I’m just stuck with two different names and I can’t travel internationally.”
All three brothers agreed that they wish they could go back to their original name. “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.”
Matthew added, “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,” he explained. “So when I grew up and used my real name on my passport, there was absolutely no correlation. I didn’t exist.”
The brothers starred as the fictional Roman siblings in the sitcom Brotherly Love together from 1995 to 1997. The series also starred Liz Vassey and Melinda Culea.
Joey found further success in the early ‘90s with a starring role on Blossom. He also voiced Oliver in Disney’s Oliver & Company. Matthew received attention for his role in 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire and his part as Jack Hunter, the brother of Rider Strong’s Shawn Hunter, on Boy Meets World. Andrew broke through with his role on Brotherly Love and also voiced T.J. Detweiler in the beloved cartoon Recess.
In 2023, the brothers launched a podcast, also called Brotherly Love, on which they talk about their lives, careers and other pop culture topics. Andrew told Entertainment Tonight in 2023, “[The reason] why I was so excited about this podcast is because it was an excuse for me to sit around a table and talk with my brothers and get to hang out with them. It’s something I really enjoy in life.”
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90s Con is running through Sunday, March 30, at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.
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