I have photos taken of me at conventions with fans and from just participating in panels and talks related to comics. If you’re an industry person you lose anonymity pretty quick just because the job itself usually requires some in-person legwork.
I have never used my real name though but I wish I had. Luckily, my pen name just sounds like a regular name though. My real name does sound more ~professional~ but my pen name is cuter and more memorable when I’m at cons making connections in person.
I will say when I see a proper name on social media that is just a recognizable name I always always always click through because my first assumption is that they must be a professional in some field and I’m positive a lot of people in hiring and scouting positions feel the same way. I’ve literally seen publishers at cons throw away business cards for things like a deviantart link or a name that’s clearly a username like AngelCutie7. Its already hard enough to get attention from those people so I wouldn’t have liked to limit my chances even further.
I feel like there’s more looseness related to that in webcomics but since that’s not my only goal I wouldn’t choose a cutesy username for how I present myself professionally.
For my author bios so far I’ve either made it mysterious, no image, just a question mark and a bio that makes me seem like a cryptid or just a simple drawing of me with the vaguest amount of personal info in the world.
