It’s a trend that’s taken over the world: hundreds of celebrity doppelgängers swarming public spaces everywhere from San Francisco to New York to Dublin and beyond, each hoping they’ll be recognized and rewarded for their uncanny resemblance to an A-lister.
The concept originated about a month ago when YouTube creatorAnthony Po— who posts online under the nameAnthPo— plastered 100 flyers around New York City inviting anyone resembling Chalemet to gather in Washington Square Park. Even before the Manhattan event took place on Oct. 27, the flyer went viral on social media.
Thousands showed up to pay tribute to the actor. Po, 23, and his team of producers even earned a fine of $500 for hosting an event without a permit. The group actually had to relocate to another location to finish the competition — but not beforetheLittle Womenstar himself crashed the party, much to the delight of everyone in attendance and those keeping up online.
Since Po’s contest made international headlines, others have taken inspiration to host their own versions with different celebrity focuses but similar formats. Entrants line up to be judged on their appearance, and thus far, most winners have been selected based on the volume of cheers from the crowd. After the closest lookalike is crowned, they walk away with a coveted prize: usually about $50 and, in some cases, a plastic trophy.
Vaske tells PEOPLE that she left a comment onThe Bearstar’s Instagram in hopes of paying a proper homage to the actor, 33, but White never responded to her query.
“I had just asked him what cigarettes he smokes,” Vaske explains. “Being nonsmokers, we really struggled with what type of cigarettes to get, so I tried to go direct to the source.”
“I went out in the city with some of my friends for the first time since I won the competition on Saturday, and everybody at the bars and at the restaurant was waving to me and asking me to take pictures,” says Shabad, who is dad to three sons, ages 5, 3 and 9 months.
The celebrity treatment is new for Shabad, who works as a mental health therapist. He didn’t even have any social media presence before the crowd at Humboldt Park cheered loudest for him. Now that so many eyes are on him, the Chicago resident is leaning in to the “surreal” experience. He’s since launched an Instagram account and done several interviews with national news outlets.
“I want to take the opportunity to talk about mental health, that’s what I’m passionate about, that’s what I dedicate my life to, that’s my career,” he tells PEOPLE. “So right now, I’m trying to figure out how I can really use this opportunity to speak more to the masses about mental health and maybe put out some content or things like that.”
Ben Shabad at the Jeremy Allen White lookalike contest in Chicago on Nov. 17, 2024.Britton Struthers |@a_brit_in_scotland
Britton Struthers |@a_brit_in_scotland
Shabad adds, “If the wave passes, it passes, and that’s fine. This was an amazing experience. But if I could hold on to it and just use it to help people, that would be ideal.”
Miles Mitchellspent his $50 prize money on transportation back to his home in New Jersey, but he’s taking full advantage of the long-term benefits of being named Chalamet’s twin. Mitchell, 21, acknowledges that he’s probably not the world’s biggest fan of the actor, having only seen one of his films — “literally just[Dune: Part Two], not evenDune One,” he admits — but their resemblance might just be Mitchell’s golden ticket to fame.
In fact, this isn’t even the first time he’s gone viral for looking like Chalamet. Last year, he got a “Timothée Chalamet-inspired haircut” while living abroad in London. His hairdresser, TikTokerTobias Bell, posted footage of the makeover, and the video garnered over 1.2 million views.
Since winning, Mitchell’s heard from several brands about possibly working together, including “Shake Shack, Google and skin care brands like L’Oreal, GNC, NYX Cosmetics,” he says, adding, “I did modeling for Avenue Man Hair Products.”
Like Shabad, Mitchell isn’t simply fixated on the monetary value of coming out on top of these contests. He tells PEOPLE that he actually made some new pals while competing. Mitchell is now part of a group chat of lookalikes, which they titled “Brothers Chalamet.” After the competition, Po asked to be added to the group chat so he could deliver some exciting news: the whole bunch of lookalikes was invited to a Jets game.
Zander Dueve, 22, was only in New York for a quick vacation to see his long-distance girlfriend when he came in second place at the Timothée Chalamet doppelgänger event. The special invitation to watch some pro football added an extra day to Dueve’s already unexpectedly special weekend.
“I was actually supposed to get on a flight to go home … I got off the bus at the airport in LaGuardia and I was about to head back to Atlanta, and then I got a text: ‘Hey, we got a special invite to the Jets game. We’re going to have pregame field access,'” the runner-up recalls to PEOPLE. “I was just like, ‘I’m not missing that.'”
Unlike Mitchell and Po, Dueve says he actually didsee the real Chalamet when he crashed the contest — or at least kind of.
“I saw the very top of his head through the Washington Square Arch. I just saw his hat and his eyebrows because you can’t miss those,” the Atlanta-based lookalike explains, noting, “He looked the least like himself out of everyone.”
Though Glen Powell didn’t attend his lookalike competition in Austin, Texas on Nov. 24, he did send a representative who can speak to his appearance all too well: his mom, Cyndy Powell. She acted as a judge at the event, which offered the winner a $5 prize, a cowboy hat and free queso from Torchy’s for a year.
But Glen still managed to make a cameo at the event,beaming in to share some exciting news with the winner, a physician’s assistant named Maxwell Braunstein. According toVariety, Glen called to reveal that the winner’s “parents or any family member of their choice” could make an appearance in his next movie.
“In all seriousness, I have assembled you here today for an important mission. I want to pull off a heist, and we don’t need masks because we all have the same face. It’s the perfect crime! They can’t get all of us because we are one: a criminal Glenterprise," theTwistersstar began in his video message.
Jaipreet Hundal after winning the Dev Patel lookalike contest in San Francisco on Nov. 17, 2024..Jaipreet Hundal
Jaipreet Hundal
“You may know that my parents make a cameo in every movie I make, but today the winner of the Glen Powell lookalike contest wins their parents, or any family member of their choice, a cameo in my next movie,” he said. “I am completely serious. This is a cash-value prize of $6 billion.”
Between the post-contest perks, the longer lead opportunities and celebrity validation, most see nothing wrong with the trend. To many, it’s simply a wholesome, inexpensive way to find community in an otherwise potentially isolating time.
Shiv Patel, who won Brooklyn’s Zayn Malik lookalike contest, tells PEOPLE he sees this as a chance to let loose and shake off some of the weight of the world.
“It’s very low cost and I think it kind of brought everybody together,” Patel, 29, says. “I feel like it’s also just [that] there’s so many things we have to take seriously in the world, and this is just one thing that’s kind of just goofy and fun.”
In the process of winning the Dev Patel lookalike contest on Nov. 10, San Francisco resident Jaipreet Hundal tells PEOPLE he made “a ton” of friends, including both “other Dev Patels” and “other people that were just there for fun.”
“It’s a great way to bring people together and have basically a really good, awesome time,” says the 25-year-old TikTok product manager. “I actually got dinner with a couple of the contestants this past week and they’re pretty cool people.”
Jaipreet Hundal after winning the Dev Patel lookalike contest in San Francisco on Nov. 17, 2024.Jaipreet Hundal
Jeremy Allen White contest co-organizer Vaske thinks the community appeal really drives the phenomenon.
“Just in terms of the accessibility to free events as well, I think that’s [getting] harder and harder,” she explains, adding of her own event, “It was just a nice day to be outside and have something to do.”
And according to Vaske, there are more social opportunities than forming a friend group of lookalikes: “There were a lot of phone numbers exchanged with the Jeremy lookalikes afterwards. So, that was also fun. I think ladies came out for a reason,” she notes.
Mitchell offered some commentary on the concept as well, looking at it from the lens of a fan.
“I think that it kind of humanizes celebrities,” he shares. “I feel like people really hyper-fantasize a lot of these actors and singers and stuff like that, but they’re really just people. And there could also be people that look like these [celebrities], but they just have normal lives that are not in some sort of spotlight.”
Selin Ceren after coming in second place at the Zayn Malik lookalike contest in N.Y.C. on Nov. 17, 2024.Selin Ceren
Selin Ceren
While she thinks it’s fine for people to claim she doesn’t resemble the former One Direction singer, Ceren — who was the only woman competing — says viewers took it too far and too seriously for something meant to be so lighthearted and fun.
“It’s like, damn, have a laugh. This is a joke. The prize is a tattoo from this artist that I actually met at a bar once,” she tells PEOPLE. “I’m like, the stakes are not that high. So all of these people in my mentions right now calling me ugly over this, it was just ridiculous.”
“I was like, ‘Oh, these look like contests are very male-dominated. We need lesbian representation in these contests,'” she recalls of her brief speech to the crowd.
Though her confidence and purpose earned Ceren second place, she’s not sure it was worth it in the long run. She says the hateful online discourse “really did honestly make me regret entering the competition for a number of reasons.”
“I feel like I live in somewhat of an echo chamber being in Brooklyn where all of my friends are lesbians. So they were really excited for me,” she continues. She describes the social media backlash as a “rude awakening” to hostility beyond her own community: “There’s no doubt in my mind that the amount of hateful responses I got are inextricably linked to my identity as a butch lesbian,” adds Ceren.
Looking forward, the social worker isn’t sure how the lookalike trend will pan out, especially for women. She points to N.Y.C.’s recentRachel Sennottcontest as evidence of her worries.
“People were being so mean for no reason,” she explains of the discourse surrounding the Sennott event on Nov. 24. “I think that it’s going downhill in a way because I think that people are a lot more critical of the looks of women.”
For better or for worse, the trend doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon, and as time passes, celebrities seem to take more and more interest in these tributes. But largely, the original hosts tell PEOPLE they’re not looking to throw another lookalike festival, so the torch will be passed on to the next fans keen to honor their favorite stars.
“We’re going to retire while we’re on top,” says Vaske. Her co-organizer and roommate Cassaro agrees, “Unless anything really inspires us in the future.”
Po is adamant that he won’t reprise his role in the iconic event that started it all. The 23-year-old tells PEOPLE he’ll be busy focusing on his other projects: “To keep milking something that’s in the hands of the public feels wrong,” he says, adding that he doesn’t really want to attend any more of these contests either.
“I don’t want to make it about me,” Po adds. “So we’re just going to keep moving on to new things.”
However the celebrities he’s spawned from this trend aren’t ready to move on. Mitchell is excited about the possibilities ahead of him, both as an up-and-coming content creator and just as a regular personexperiencing something rare and wonderful.
On social media, Mitchell often refers to his entire lookalike experience as “dad lore,” which he defines with a glimpse into his future.
“It’s something that when I have kids I want to just nonchalantly bring up to them,” he quips, explaining the concept to PEOPLE. “They’re just going to be like, ‘Oh dad, what’s that trophy?’ And [I’ll] be like, ‘Oh no, it’s nothing. When I was 20, I just showed up to this Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest, and then I just won. I got put onVogueand I got put onThe Drew Barrymore Show. I kind of went viral all over the world, but it’s nothing though.”
source: people.com
