Andrew Keegan is an American actor best known as the vain Joey Donner in 10 Things I Hate About You, along with recurring roles in 7th Heaven and Party of Five. More recently, interest in him has centred on two very different subjects: the tiny residual payments generated by his 1990s work and his repeated rejection of claims that he once operated a cult. Together, those stories reveal how celebrity culture can preserve an actor’s image while reducing the complicated life behind it to a few irresistible headlines.
Why Andrew Keegan is back in the news
Keegan discussed his career, fatherhood and former spiritual community during a May 2026 appearance on The McBride Rewind podcast. His comments produced headlines about residual cheques worth as little as one cent and renewed questions about Full Circle, the Venice spiritual centre he helped run between 2014 and 2017.
The actor said residuals from older films and television programmes can range from a single cent to more useful payments of $10, $20, $50 or $80. He identified 10 Things I Hate About You as the project that still generates his most significant residual income.
These figures do not establish his salary for the film or his present financial position. Residuals are later payments connected to reruns, licensing and distribution; they are not the same as an actor’s original fee. A film can remain culturally popular while producing surprisingly little ongoing income for an individual supporting performer.
Keegan has also continued acting. His more recent credits include Adverse, The Activated Man and the 2025 psychological horror film Healing Towers, in which he played a detective searching for his missing daughter.
Andrew Keegan and the making of a 1990s heartthrob
Born in Los Angeles on 29 January 1979, Keegan began working in commercials as a young child. His early career developed during a period when American television and teen magazines created an unusually powerful celebrity system around young actors.
His first prominent film role came as Zack Dell in the 1994 comedy Camp Nowhere. Television appearances followed in programmes including Baywatch, Full House, Moesha and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
He then secured more substantial recurring work. On Party of Five, he played Reed Isley, a romantic interest for Lacey Chabert’s Claudia Salinger. In 7th Heaven, he portrayed Wilson West, a teenage single father involved with Jessica Biel’s Mary Camden.
Those characters helped establish him as a recognisable teen idol, but they also created a narrow set of expectations. Keegan was repeatedly cast as the confident boyfriend, attractive outsider or young man whose charm concealed emotional complications.
The attention could be intense. In a 2015 interview with ABC News, he recalled the “mayhem” of mall appearances and public gatherings where groups of teenage fans surrounded him. This was fame before social media, but it still depended on a carefully repeated image distributed through television, magazines and publicity events.
Why Joey Donner became his defining role
10 Things I Hate About You was released in 1999 as a modern high-school adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Its cast included Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, Gabrielle Union and David Krumholtz.
Keegan played Joey Donner, a wealthy, self-absorbed aspiring model who believes his looks and status entitle him to Bianca Stratford’s attention. Joey helps finance the scheme that pays Patrick Verona to date Bianca’s older sister Kat, allowing Bianca to begin dating under her father’s rules.
The character is an antagonist, but he is built for comedy rather than genuine menace. Keegan understands that Joey’s confidence is funniest when it becomes completely detached from reality. His poses, modelling ambitions and certainty that every girl must want him make the character an efficient parody of adolescent male vanity.
The film’s lasting popularity means viewers often encounter Keegan at exactly the same age. Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Gabrielle Union went on to build careers that repeatedly updated their public identities. Heath Ledger’s death in 2008 gave the film additional emotional significance. Keegan, meanwhile, remains visually fixed as Joey whenever a new generation discovers it through streaming.
That kind of nostalgia creates a curious imbalance. The performance continues to circulate, but the actor receives neither the attention nor necessarily the income that audiences might associate with an enduring hit. His one-cent residual anecdote captures the difference between cultural value and individual compensation.
The career that existed beyond 10 Things I Hate About You
Keegan’s work after 1999 was broader than his teen-idol reputation suggests. In The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy, directed by Greg Berlanti, he played Kevin as part of an ensemble depicting a group of gay friends in West Hollywood.
The film, which also featured Timothy Olyphant, Dean Cain, Zach Braff, Billy Porter and John Mahoney, offered Keegan a role far removed from Joey’s swagger. Its emphasis on friendship, identity and chosen family has helped it retain an audience beyond its original release.
He later appeared in O, a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello starring Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett and Julia Stiles. Keegan played Michael Cassio, placing him in his second major modernised Shakespeare production.
Other work included the romantic comedy Love, Wedding, Marriage, the vampire film Living Among Us, the crime drama Adverse and guest appearances in television programmes such as CSI, House and Trinkets. He also performed on stage, including a 2009 Los Angeles production of He Asked for It.
The projects became smaller and less visible than his late-1990s work, but describing him simply as someone who disappeared from acting would be inaccurate. His career shifted from mainstream youth television and studio films towards independent productions.
Did Andrew Keegan really start a cult?
In 2014, Keegan and a group of collaborators established Full Circle in a former temple in Venice, Los Angeles. It hosted meditation, yoga, music, sound-healing sessions, talks and community events.
Some media reports characterised Full Circle as a new religion or cult. A widely circulated Vice article described an “inner circle” of core members and presented Keegan as the group’s leader. The unusual vocabulary used by participants — including references to activation, energy and enlightenment — made the organisation easy to portray as a celebrity-led spiritual movement.
Contemporary reporting confirms that Keegan occupied a prominent position and provided significant financial support. During ABC News’ 2015 visit to Full Circle, he called it an “open source spiritual community” and said it had a creed based on the idea that everything expressed a creator.
Keegan’s later description has been less formal. In 2024 and again in May 2026, he denied running a cult, saying Full Circle had no doctrine and functioned as a community centre. He said the group was inspired partly by the community-building energy surrounding Occupy Wall Street and by The Co-Creator’s Handbook.
There is a noticeable difference between saying in 2015 that Full Circle had a creed and later saying it had no doctrine. That inconsistency does not prove the organisation was a cult, but it helps explain why outsiders found its identity difficult to define.
No credible reporting reviewed for this article has established allegations of forced membership, isolation from families or systematic abuse by Full Circle. The “cult” description was a media characterisation rather than a legal finding. Equally, Keegan’s denial is his account of an organisation in which he had a personal and financial stake, not independent proof that every participant experienced it in the same way.
What happened during the Full Circle kombucha raid?
In 2015, officers from California’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control entered Full Circle during a fundraising event and confiscated containers of kombucha.
Kombucha is fermented tea and can contain a small amount of alcohol. State officials said it was being distributed without the appropriate permit. The incident was frequently described as a “raid”, which made an already eccentric celebrity story appear more dramatic.
Keegan was not arrested for cult activity. The regulatory action concerned the fermented drink and licensing requirements, not the beliefs or practices of Full Circle.
The distinction is important because later retellings often combine the spiritual language and kombucha incident into a single suggestion of criminal secrecy. The verified facts are less cinematic: an unconventional community space encountered an alcohol-licensing problem at an event.
Full Circle stopped operating from its Venice centre in 2017. Keegan has said he invested tens of thousands of dollars in the project and that it held approximately 1,000 events during its three years. He continues to defend the community as a positive attempt to give people space for reflection and connection.
Andrew Keegan’s life and work today
Keegan remains professionally active, although his present career bears little resemblance to the teen-magazine fame of the 1990s. Healing Towers, released in 2025, gave him a leading role as Detective Joe Coolridge in a story involving a missing child and a dangerous psychiatric institution.
He has also appeared at nostalgia conventions and participated in podcasts about the films and television programmes that established his reputation. These events allow actors to reconnect directly with audiences, but they also demonstrate how strongly the entertainment industry continues to market the past.
Away from acting, Keegan is a father. He has a daughter, born in 2016, and has spoken about parenthood changing his priorities. Details about his child’s private life do not need to become part of his public biography.
As of 29 August 2026, Full Circle is defunct, and there is no verified evidence that Keegan currently leads a replacement religious organisation. He remains associated with spiritual and wellness ideas, but the claim that he presently operates a cult is unsupported.
What Andrew Keegan’s story says about lasting fame
Keegan has been assigned two highly marketable identities: the handsome villain from a beloved teen comedy and the actor who supposedly became a cult leader. Both contain fragments of truth, but neither adequately describes his career.
He did play one of the defining arrogant boyfriends of 1990s cinema. He also financed and led events at an unconventional spiritual centre whose language invited scrutiny. Yet he continued acting, became a father and lived through the less glamorous economics of residual payments that can be worth less than the postage used to deliver them.
His story demonstrates how fame survives by simplifying people. Joey Donner remains unchanged every time 10 Things I Hate About You begins, and the “cult leader” headline remains more clickable than a discussion of community spaces, money and failed idealism. Keegan’s real life has moved on, even when popular culture prefers the earlier version.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Andrew Keegan?
Andrew Keegan is an American actor known for 10 Things I Hate About You, 7th Heaven, Party of Five, Camp Nowhere and The Broken Hearts Club.
What role did Andrew Keegan play in 10 Things I Hate About You?
He played Joey Donner, the arrogant aspiring model who pursues Bianca and pays Patrick to date her older sister Kat.
Did Andrew Keegan start a cult?
Keegan helped found Full Circle, a Venice spiritual community that operated from 2014 to 2017. Some publications called it a cult, but Keegan rejects that description, and it was never a legal finding.
What happened to Andrew Keegan’s Full Circle group?
Full Circle closed its Venice centre in 2017 after operating for approximately three years. Keegan says it hosted yoga, meditation, music and community events.
Is Andrew Keegan still acting?
Yes. His recent work includes the 2025 psychological horror film Healing Towers, as well as independent film and television appearances.
How much does Andrew Keegan earn from residuals?
No complete figure is public. In May 2026, he said individual residual cheques can be as low as one cent, while payments from 10 Things I Hate About You sometimes range from about $10 to $80.
If you like Read more on Russell Hantz: Why Survivor’s Greatest Villain Lost.
