The joy of the celebrity look-alike contest

Celebrity look-alike competitions appear to be the sleeper hit of 2024.

Popping up in cities like New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London and Dublin, self-proclaimed look-alikes of some of Hollywood’s newest crop of leading men have gathered in organized settings to find out if they bear the most uncanny resemblance to, say, Timothée Chalamet or Gladiator II star Paul Mescal. Since late October, seven known look-alike competitions have been held. Men resembling Chalamet, Mescal, Harry Styles, Dev Patel, Zayn Malik, Jack Schlossberg and Jeremy Allen White have all faced off in hopes of winning the top honor.

The result is a unifying event that brings fans together for an afternoon of unbridled joy.

The trend kicked off when a YouTuber, Anthony Po, and a social media influencer, Tamir Omari, held a Timothée Chalamet look-alike competition in New York’s Washington Square Park on Oct. 27. Crowds of spectators, as well as doppelgangers dressed in Wonka and Dune costumes, were estimated to be in the thousands, NBC News reported, and four people were arrested at the event.

“It was the craziest environment I’ve been in,” Miles Mitchell, 21, who won the $50 grand prize, told Yahoo Entertainment. “It was the most unserious event ever. The thought of just saying out loud [that] people were getting arrested at the [Chalamet] look-alike contest is hilarious.”

The real Chalamet even made a guest appearance.

Cramer Ekholm, 18, was flown to New York from Wisconsin by the brand MCoBeauty to compete.

“I was not in the crowd when [Chalamet] arrived, but I did hear reactions,” he told Yahoo. “People got really loud, and the crowd started to gather tighter to surround him more.”

After seeing significant turnouts for look-alike contests for Chalamet, Mescal and Styles, three childhood friends wanted to organize a contest representative of their own community. Sitara Bellam, Tasnim Khandakar and Sahana Rangarajan planned their own Patel doppelganger contest in San Francisco’s Dolores Park on Nov. 10.

“Us picking [Patel] was the result of what felt authentic to the community around us, and the three of us being largely influenced by the South Asian community we grew up around in San Jose, Calif., and spent time with in college in the Bay Area,” Bellam told Yahoo.

Ahead of the competition, Sudev Namboodiri, 25, got a haircut that better matched Patel’s to increase his chances of winning.

Namboodiri “went to the salon and cut my shoulder-length hair [to a layered, medium length],” he told Yahoo. “I told them about the contest and they found it hilarious, so we looked up pictures of [Patel] and used that as inspo.”

Sudev Namboodiri at the Dev Patel look-alike contest in San Francisco. (Courtesy of Sudev Namboodiri)

Of the 22 participants, judges thought Jaipreet Hundal, 25, looked the most like the Monkey Man actor. He took home $50, flowers and a small monkey statue.

Hundal, who told Yahoo that his girlfriend thinks he looks like Patel, competed in hopes of meeting other people in the city.

“So many people showed up. It must’ve been at least 500 people, and everyone brought positive energy,” he said. “It was fun getting a dose of what it’s like to be a celebrity as well, after winning the competition. I made some new friends thanks to that.”

Bellam believes that these competitions give people a means to get involved in their community.

“I think people have really gravitated to the events because they’re low-stakes, silly, outdoor gatherings, and I genuinely think people have been yearning for places to gather and be in community with one another,” Bellam explained.

On Nov. 16, Jeremy Allen White doppelgangers gathered in Chicago’s Humboldt Park in the hopes of winning a look-alike contest for The Bear star organized by roommates Kelsey Cassaro and Taylor Vaske. Three days earlier, Cassaro created a flier for the contest that was initially intended as a joke. Copies were then printed and taped around the city.

“We expected maybe five people and some of our friends to come out,” Cassaro told Yahoo of the event. “Having hundreds of people show up was definitely chaotic, but everyone there was cooperative and just excited to make way for the Jeremys!”

Kelsey Cassaro and her roommate, Taylor Vaske, organized the Jeremy Allen White look-alike contest in Chicago. (Courtesy of Kelsey Cassaro)

Out of approximately 60 White look-alikes in dark-blue aprons, Ben Shabad, 37, a therapist, was awarded $50 and a pack of Marlboro Red cigarettes. The cigarettes were likely a nod to the smoking habit of White’s character, Carmy, which he kicked in Season 3.

White’s ties to the Windy City extend beyond The Bear, on which he plays Carmine “Carmy” Berzatto, a successful young fine-dining chef who returns home to run his late brother’s sandwich shop. He also starred as Philip “Lip” Gallagher on Showtime’s Shameless, another series filmed in Chicago, from 2011 to 2021. While White isn’t a native Chicagoan himself, Cassaro and Vaske wanted to celebrate his legacy in the city and draw attention to the fact that he “has a lot of look-alikes here.”

“I’ve had fun seeing the competitors from each city myself, and I think the entire concept is just silly enough to fuel some good laughs online during a stressful time,” Cassaro said. “I think my favorite part of the day was just how many people came up to thank us for all the joy it brought them that day.”

These competitions won’t just revolve around men for much longer, either. A Zendaya doppelganger contest is scheduled for Nov. 20 in the actress’s hometown of Oakland, Calif.

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