Ever Curious to Know Who Dril Is in Real Life? Get to Know the Man Behind the Chaotic Tweets
Published April 13 2023, 12:09 p.m. ET
Let's face it. The internet is pure chaos. We're not just talking about the threat of our personal information on every database, the never-ending political discourse around current events, or ever-worsening collapse of our social infrastructure, but the content we consume on a regular basis can border on pure nonsense. From weird names for streamers to uncanny memes and absurd TikTok trends, it can be difficult to make sense of the internet. Dril is a massive contributor to that chaos.
Having posted several strange and viral tweets, Dril has become a prominent figure and provider of meme fodder on the internet. In the years that he's been on the platform, he's become the quintessential icon of "Weird Twitter," and has even published several books that collect many of his more popular tweets.
For all intents and purposes, he's become a celebrity on the internet. But have you ever been curious to know what Dril's real name is?
What is Dril's real name?
If you're keyed in on the weirder sides of Twitter, then chances are you've seen a tweet from Dril pop up on your timeline, easily identifiable by their grainy Jack Nicholson icon. Dril is known for the absurdist humor that he injects into his tweets.
Many of his tweets have gone on to become well-known reaction images, and some of his humor had inspired their own internet slang. If you've ever posted a picture of a corncob in response to someone who very clearly lost an argument on the internet, you have Dril to thank for that.
The tweets are absurd but timeless, the content is uncanny but memorable, and Dril has ridden this inexplicable popularity to over 1.7 million followers as of this writing. He's even active on other sites.
It may surprise you to remember, though, that a regular person still exists behind Dril and his chaos. Between his viral popularity and the nonsensical but poignant nature of his tweets, there is Paul Dochney.
Dril's real name is Paul Dochney.
You may have missed the drama when it first happened, but Dril's real name was originally deduced by fans back in November 2017 after fans drew a connection between a LinkedIn page and Dril's Twitter account. His real name is Paul Dochney. Reportedly, he was born in New Jersey. He currently lives in Los Angeles and strives to get a job in entertainment. However, he's been making a living off of residuals from his books and Dril-related content.
Though his identity was revealed well after he joined Twitter in 2008, he continues to post to this day. In a recent interview with The Ringer, Paul mentioned that he doesn't mind being exposed.
"My name is already out there," he tells the outlet. "It's in my Wikipedia article. Maybe people need to grow up. Just accept that I'm not like Santa Claus. I'm not a magic elf who posts."
He prefers not to be called an influencer, despite how much reach he's had on the internet over the years.
For all intents and purposes, he's just Paul Dochney, the man behind Dril.