The gäng’s all here!
This year, a number of celebrity doppelgängers — from an Alabama cop who looks like The Rock to an Olympic athlete who is a dead ringer for Lady Gaga — have gone viral and made headlines for their startling resemblance to A-list stars.
While some ham it up by professionally impersonating the famous figures they look like for money, others don’t fully embrace that they’ve got a Tinseltown twin.
Read on for the stories of the most uncanny lookalikes. Can you tell which one is the civilian and which is the celebrity?
Brad Pitt
How great would your love life be if you resembled one of People magazine’s sexiest men alive? Nathan Meads, a single dad of two and a subcontractor who also works as a Brad Pitt impersonator, says it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. “I do get hit on by women a lot,” the 35-year-old Brit told Jam Press. “Some of them just can’t believe how much I look like him and some of them accuse me of ‘catfishing.’ People always try and live-video call me on my Instagram because they don’t think I’m real.”
For more than 15 years, people have commented on his resemblance to Pitt, 57, but Meads laughed it off until he found a way to make it work financially for him. Lookalike gigs can earn him up to $690 per appearance. One day, he hopes to meet the Oscar winner. “[Pitt] plays all of his roles brilliantly and seems like a real gentleman and a family man, so we have that in common, although we have very different bank balances,” Meads quipped.
So who’s who? Lookalike Nathan is on the left, Brad is on the right
Taylor Swift
A TikTok video of 29-year-old Ashley washing her clothes in a bathtub went viral not because of her unconventional method, but because she’s the spitting image of the 31-year-old singer. It’s since racked up north of 684,000 likes and nearly 10,000 comments calling out the resemblance. A week later, Ashley, who declined to share her full name for privacy reasons, posted a playful follow-up to her 544,000 followers, saying, “When millions of people think Taylor Swift does her laundry in her bathtub & don’t even think to read the screen name.”
Ashley, who lives in Utah, told The Post over e-mail that she’s been mistaken for Swift since age 14. She even counts herself as a Swift fan and says her look — bright blonde hair, bangs and often, a red lip — is in part inspired by Swift herself. “I am my own person, but to be compared to someone in such high regard is flattering,” she said. “I only get annoyed when an individual says something negative about Taylor.” She works as a travel crisis-trauma nurse, and the questions follow her when she’s on the clock. “I get asked for pictures by doctors and patients because they can’t believe the resemblance,” she said. “I politely decline, but it always brings them joy when I walk into the room and they say, ‘Am I being punked?!’”
So who’s who? Lookalike Ashley is on the left, Taylor on the right
Scarlett Johansson
There’s nothing lost in translation here: This Russian model and cosplayer looks just like ScarJo. Some of Ekaterina “Kate” Shumskaya’s 10.2 million TikTok followers even think she’s the actress herself. “In social networks, I am often thanked for the excellent acting in the film ‘Black Widow,’” the 25-year-old — who’s been told of the resemblance since age 12 — told Caters News. What’s more, a representative for Shumskaya told The Post that “Kate [often] gets stopped on the streets and asked for a photo.”
But, it’s not all adoring fans. She’s received hate mail from people who think she is the 37-year-old Johansson and has even gotten death threats. But, her looks have allowed Shumskaya, who hails from southern Russia, to move to Moscow to model, and she earns enough money to support herself and her parents. And, her resemblance to Johansson isn’t the only thing that’s made her a success. Her rep said: “Thanks to [her online popularity], Kate got more work, but for most of her photosets as a model, she represents just herself.”
So who’s who? Lookalike Kate on the left, Scarlett is on the right
Marilyn Monroe
Some like it hot, and some like it … bought? Scottish-born social media star Jasmine Chiswell, who boasts 13.3 million followers on TikTok, began impersonating Marilyn Monroe after moving into the iconic actress’s former Hollywood home in 2019. Chiswell, 27, and her husband, DJ and music producer Maverick McNeilly, purchased the spread for $2.73 million. Chiswell had long dabbled in vintage fashion, but she didn’t initially intend to be a Marilyn lookalike.
“It just kind of happened,” she said. “I was getting stopped in the street, with people telling me, ‘Oh my God, you look so much like Marilyn Monroe.’ ” Dyeing her hair blond and cutting it into a bob took the resemblance further, and now playing the part is her livelihood. Brands pay her up to $30,000 per post for placement and sponsorships. “This is my full-time job,” said Chiswell, who is soon to give birth to her first child. “It has really changed my life in the best way.”
So who’s who? Marilyn is on the left, lookalike Jasmine on the right
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Can you smell what the Rock is cooking? Eric Fields can. Not only is he known to bust out that signature line from Dwayne Johnson’s WWE days, but he’s also a dead-ringer for the 49-year-old star himself. It’s tough to distinguish Johnson from Fields, 37, and a Morgan County Sheriff’s Office patrol lieutenant in Alabama. He has a similarly muscular physique and a head just as bald.
“I’ve been called the Rock and Vin Diesel’s love child,” Fields told AL.com. “I go along with it. It’s humorous. It’s flattering. It could be worse people, I guess.” He’s built a fan base of nearly 27,000 followers on Instagram, where he occasionally shares photos of himself wearing aviator sunglasses, which make him especially resemble Johnson. Still, he told the publication, he’s himself in the end. “I really couldn’t be anybody but me. I’m just glad I could be part of someone’s happiness and laughter.”
So who’s who? Lookalike Eric on the left, The Rock is on the right
Cardi B
In August, a New York hairstylist named Claudelande posted a video of a client named Ashley showing off a new wig and some freshly styled — and Cardi B-inspired — hair. “My client is [Cardi’s] twin lol,” the stylist wrote in the caption, which elicited comments from followers. “Somebody daddy lying,” wrote one, while another said, “I had to come to the comments just to see if I wasn’t the only one who thought this was cardi for a min.” Screenshots even made their way to Twitter, where one observer remarked, “I’ve never seen someone look SO MUCH like someone else and not be related to them.” People have told Ashley she resembles the 29-year-old hip hop star since 2015, when Cardi B debuted on VH1’s “Love & Hip-Hop.”
But Ashley doesn’t think she looks like her at all. “Everywhere I go, [I hear] ‘She looks like Cardi B.’ ” she told Allure. “I literally try to look every time somebody says it, but I don’t see it.”
So who’s who? Cardi B is on the left, lookalike Ashley is on the right
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga sure has musical talent, but when did she become an Olympic athlete? During the Tokyo games last summer, a 26-year-old Jordanian taekwondo competitor, Julyana Al-Sadeq, became the subject of Twitter chatter because of the striking similarity she bares to Mother Monster – even when clad in her protective headgear.
Al-Sadeq — a 2018 Asian Games gold medalist — may have won in the doppelgänger contest, but she didn’t fare as well in this year’s Olympics. Brazil’s Milena Titoneli knocked her out of the 67kg (148 pound) category.