Back in 2011, stock images of a pained-looking older man using a computer and sipping coffee first made the rounds online, his bushy furrowed brow and a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes capturing that universal "grin and bear it" feeling.

The internet gave him nicknames like "Maurice" and "Hide the Pain Harold." But "Harold" was actually András Arató, a retired Hungarian engineer who went on to spend the last decade embracing his fame, appearing everywhere from TEDx stages to Formula 1 paddocks.

Here's what the legendary András Arató has been up to since becoming a meme over a decade ago.

What's the Hide the Pain Harold Meme, and How Did It First Spread Online?

The images of an older white gentleman giving a pained, almost pleading smile in a number of staged stock photos were first posted online in January 2011, but only received the name "Hide the Pain Harold" months later in September, when an anonymous user named "Greenen72" proposed a Photoshop Battle featuring the stock model on now-defunct Facepunch forums.

The white-haired stock model's striking expression, often tagged as "severe" on stock image websites, clearly suggested emotional distress hiding behind forced enthusiasm, whether he meant for it to or not.

The name "Hide the Pain Harold" soon stuck, with Facebook pages taking up the moniker by October 2011 and generating hundreds of memes featuring "Harold," or as some pages called him, "Maurice."

These memes often showed "Harold" acting as a placeholder for people reflecting on situations in which they have to paint on a happier expression to cover up their true pain, like procrastinating on homework or lagging behind their peers.

A notable bookmark in "Hide the Pain Harold" meme lore revolves around a 4chan thread in which users riffed on the deluge of stock photos featuring Harold to create an entirely fictional backstory for his life, and his relationship with his short-haired stock photo costar.

Someone later brought the 4chan thread to life in a YouTube video narrated by text-to-speech, laying bare all the pain that "Harold" was hiding.

Who Is "Hide the Pain Harold," and What's the Backstory Behind the Stock Photos?

The man behind Harold's strained smile is András István Arató, a retired electrical engineer from Hungary. Born in 1945 in the small town of Kőszeg, Arató’s childhood was shaped by postwar recovery in Hungary, with his family resettling in Budapest after fleeing the siege during WW2.

There, he earned his degree in electrical engineering, served in the Hungarian army, and went on to spend most of his professional life working in lighting design.

András Arató never set out to be a stock model, but that changed after a vacation to Turkey in the early 2010s. Arató posted a few sunlit selfies to iWiW, a Hungarian social media site, and was spotted by a stock photographer who invited him to a test shoot.

The two then hit it off, and over time, they produced several hundred images of Arató playing doctors, professors, dads and various other stock archetypes.

Memes with his likeness started circulating years later, but up until 2016, many internet users weren't even sure if he was a real person.

Arató eventually confirmed his existence years after the memes took hold in 2016 on the Russian social network VK by posting a photo of himself holding a sign that read, "Я ЖИВ" or "I'm alive."

How Did András Arató React To Becoming a Meme?

András Arató's reaction to meme fame was not an immediate delight to him. He found the images unsettling at first and even considered withdrawing the photos, but the stock license he'd signed gave him little legal recourse.

"It was a scary experience to see myself as a meme," he told Know Your Meme in a 2020 interview. Arató also said that his friends found it amusing, but his son, not so much.

Early "Hide the Pain Harold" memes also violated the terms Arató had originally set with the photographer: no religious, political or obscene use.

However, Arató still found humor in some meme variants, especially when meme-makers edited his face into famous works of art, like Michelangelo's Creation of Adam or all four heads of Mount Rushmore.

Eventually, András Arató decided to take control. As fake fan pages began racking up followers using his face and the "Hide the Pain Harold" moniker, he launched his own official Facebook and Instagram accounts to reassert ownership of the image and narrative.

He also posted memes created by him and his team, and even posted new meme fuel for his fans, like a photo in which he's being doted on by two age-appropriate women.

What Has András Arató Been Up To Since His Meme Fame?

By 2018, András Arató had embraced the meme entirely. In March, he visited Manchester for a soccer game as part of a mini-documentary produced by Dugout.

The video showed him soaking in local U.K. traditions like downing pints of beer at a football match and shouting, "Come on you Blues!" at Etihad Stadium.

In September 2018, Arató gave a TEDx Talk in Kyiv, reflecting on his life as an engineer, accidental model and reluctant meme.

Speaking in English, he described how even though his face was once someone else's punchline, it had come to symbolize something universal: a smile that holds it all together in the face of great adversity.

Arató has since parlayed his notoriety into some legitimate commercial work. He appeared in ads for Zatecky Gus Rubinovy, a Czech non-alcoholic beer and made a surprise appearance on Hungary's version of The Masked Singer, where he performed in a fuzzy costume as "The Monster."

What's András Arató Up To Today, And Where Can I Find Him Online?

In early 2025, a Solana-based meme coin called $PAIN launched with branding inspired by András Arató's likeness. The 48-hour presale raised nearly $40 million in SOL, one of the highest valuations in meme coin presale history, before the team refunded 80 percent of their earnings, probably to mitigate risks in secondary markets.

András Arató cross-promoted the coin on his personal Twitter / X account, @painharold, in February 2025, and thanked his fans and followers for supporting him a whole decade after he first rose to meme fame.

Thank you for all your support! I LOVE YOU ALL. ❤️ https://t.co/3YpxUYYdyz

— Hide the Pain Harold (@painharold) February 20, 2025

More recently, Arató made a surprise appearance at the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, held in early August at the Hungaroring in Mogyoród, Hungary.

Videos of Arató visiting the paddock on Sunday went viral online in early August, showing chronically online F1 racers Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto giggling with excitement over seeing "the meme" and Gabriel Bortoleto stopping to take a photo with the Hungarian icon.

@f1 isack is all of us rn 🤣 #f1 #hungariangp #isackhadjar #meme @Visa Cash App RB F1 Team @Gabriel Bortoleto @Fernando Alonso ♬ original sound – Formula 1

András Arató keeps active on most social media platforms. He's online under the name PainHarold on Twitter and Instagram and the name RealHidethePainHarold on TikTok, where he recently posted a video celebrating his 80th birthday in style.

@realhidethepainharold 🎂Thamks for the greetings! I love you all! 🫶 😬 The 80ys smile 😬#hidethepainharold ♬ original sound – realhidethepainharold

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For the full history of Hide the Pain Harold, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry more information. To see the rest of our "Where Are They Now" series, you can find them all here. Stay tuned for next week's editorial!

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