Joseph Andrew Starkey is an American actor. He began his career with supporting roles in the teen drama films Love, Simon and The Hate U Give (both in 2018). He gained recognition for his portrayal of troubled teenager Rafe Cameron in Outer Banks (2020–present), and as Eugene Allerton in Queer (2024).

Starkey is the son of Todd Starkey, a college basketball coach. His family moved around the Blue Ridge Mountains area, but he mostly grew up in Hickory, North Carolina.

As a child, he played baseball and basketball, and learned to play the guitar and the piano. He attended St. Stephens High School in Hickory. In his freshman year of high school, he became serious about acting after joining a drama class.

Starkey graduated from Western Carolina University in 2016, where he double majored in English and theater performance. After college, he moved to Atlanta to join two friends who were forming a production company, and started to audition for roles.