use wp_get_theme() to get theme author name

As of wordpress 3.4 we’re supposed to use wp_get_theme to return theme data.

$theme = wp_get_theme();

//var_dump($theme);

echo $theme->Author;

despite the var_dump indicating the correct string, $theme->Author always returns a hyperlink with the author’s name, but linked to the author’s site. how can i get just the theme’s author name?

Do not use just the header string, call display() instead and set the second parameter to FALSE to suppress markup.

// FALSE for no markup
$theme->display( 'Author', FALSE );

What you see in your var_dump() are private properties. If you print $theme->Author the magic __get() method is called and this calls display() without the second parameter for $markup.