People Are Using Celebrity Look-Alike Contests to Date

Mia Sherin didn’t attend the Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest for fun. She attended to find a husband. “At first I was thinking, oh, I am so smart that I’m going to go here and find a boyfriend, no one else would think of this,” she tells PS. “And then of course, I look on Reddit and everyone is like, ‘OK, time to go meet my husband.'” While the 24-year-old isn’t disillusioned by dating apps just yet, she still prefers to meet potential partners out in the wild — and what better way to score a hottie than by attending a look-alike contest for one?

The celebrity look-alike phenomenon all started with the Chalamet competition held in Washington Square Park in New York City on Oct. 27; it’s still the pièce de résistance of the trend, with Timmy himself showing up and surprising the crowd. But the trend has rapidly grown into a global cultural moment, with contests happening across the world for celebs such as Paul Mescal, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Drake, and even the “Challengers” cast. And, at each and every one, there were thirsting bystanders on the sidelines waiting to pounce.

“There was definitely a flirtatious element to it,” Sherin says. “There was a girl with a sign, she had something like ‘call me’ [written] to the Timothée Chalamet look-alikes and she literally created a bespoke email address for them to email her, which was so iconic.”

Becca Flores, 27, attended the Glen Powell look-alike contest in Austin with the hopes of possibly finding a southern cowboy of her own. “Once it was over, women were flooding the men,” she says. “Obviously if you go to these events, be ready, because there are several other individuals with the same idea as you.”

And some of them think smarter, not harder. “There were a lot of girls with business cards with their information on it and QR codes to their Instagram,” says Latoya Robinson, 24, who attended the Chalamet and Malik contests in New York. “They were asking the contestants for their numbers and their Instagrams.”

While it sounds like there was a competition in and of itself when it came to flirting with the look-alikes, the Dev Patel contest in San Francisco did the crowd a favor. “Right before the end of it, they had all of the single look-alikes kind of do a parade so we could all see which ones were single. It was really cute,” says Sarah Sheldon, 28. “It was a really cool way to meet people and I saw a lot of people talking.”

Ben Shabad, 37, who won the Jeremy Allen White look-alike contest in Chicago, says the amount of attention he received after being crowned the winner was overwhelming. “I stayed in the park for two and a half hours taking pictures with people,” he tells PS. “It’s the first time I felt like a celebrity. A lot of people were asking me if I was single or giving me their number.” But Shabad, a mental health therapist, says the real thirsting happened later in the DMs. “Every day I’m receiving messages,” he says. “I can’t even put a number to it. I would just say a lot.”

And while he didn’t set out to become a thirst object — he’s happily married — he does think that these contests are a breeding ground for love if you’re single (especially if you’re, you know, a straight cis man who resembles a hot famous person). “There’s this feeling that you’re all in it together, a feeling of solidarity,” Shabad adds, “and when you have that, that’s ripe for meeting romantic partners.”

Although Sherin’s first attempt at the Chalamet contest was unsuccessful, she attended an Allen White contest in New York with a plan and promise to herself to be bold. “I literally shouted at all the Jeremys, raise your hand if you’re single!” she says. “I was just trying to be a bit more out there and unafraid this time around, especially since the Timothée one showed me there’s really nothing to lose going to these.”

Of the ten contestants who showed up, however, most of them were in relationships or too young for Sherin to pursue. “There was one person who was single and I really shot my shot,” she says. “He ended up being very religious and looking for a godly Christian woman. I’m like, a very ungodly Jew, so it wasn’t a match.”

The success of these competitions has inspired others to put on their own versions in the hopes of meeting their type IRL. After attending a Black heartthrob look-alike contest in Brooklyn without any expectations of making a romantic connection, Kylah Williams saw an opportunity: as fans of the most recent season of “Love Island USA,” she and her friends set out to find Miguel Harichi and Kordell Beckham look-alikes for themselves. They made fliers for a “Love Island USA” contest and Williams posted a TikTok of the group putting them up around New York.

While the video currently sits at 314,800 views and garnered reposts from Harichi himself, Williams describes the contest as “a bust.” Williams didn’t find a date, but she does think that two contestants may have coupled up themselves after seeing them canoodle post-contest.

Finding love is hard. Ask anyone in the dating trenches and you’ll likely get similar answers about their trials and tribulations, and the death of the third place has made it feel impossible to seek out potential love matches anywhere but on the apps. So, naturally, community events like these have helped connect singles with similar interests. If you’re a musical theater fanatic, for example, attending a Boq look-alike contest may be the perfect way to meet someone who’s also “Wicked”-obsessed or looking for a duet partner.

As an actor and a fan of theater, Raul Calderon, 23, did just that. He traveled three hours each way to enter himself into the Boq look-alike contest held in Washington Square Park on Dec. 7, and while his objective wasn’t to find a thespian to take home, it ended up becoming an unintended perk after being crowned the winner. “The flirting didn’t really happen until I got home and my DMs were opened up,” he says. “That was when I started realizing what’s happening and I’m like, oh OK, I’m not against this.”

When asked if he was going to take any of his suitors up on their offers, he said he wasn’t so sure. First, he wants to figure out what he’s going to do with his newfound audience. His TikTok content surrounding the event has been gaining traction, and he already has some PR packages on the way. Calderon is also traveling to Arizona to perform in a show early next year, so finding a love connection has been put on hold. At least, for now.

Mia McClellan, 20, says she and her friends went to Dylan Minnette and “Challengers” look-alike contests because it aligned with their interests. She described the events as Twitter in real life. “It just [felt] like we all knew each other because we like these niche things,” she says. “I feel like right now, it’s really hard to meet someone who meets my standards, I guess. Sometimes being a fangirl or [someone who is] into their hobbies and passionate about them, it’s hard to find guys that will accept that or will enjoy you doing that.”

Of course, celebrity look-alike contests aren’t necessarily the end-all-be-all of making meaningful connections or hooking up with a carbon copy of your famous crush. Attending a variety of events and gatherings is just another way of putting yourself out there. And if you do end up vibing with someone, it’s more of a plus than the actual point. “It’s kind of like, if we go to a club, our purpose isn’t to find attractive men,” Williams says. “We’re hoping that could happen, but if it doesn’t we’re not disappointed.”

Williams isn’t giving up on delivering a successful competition to her community, though. She often puts on events of her own and is planning to throw a queer look-alike themed house party in Brooklyn. “I definitely think people will find love there because it’s at a bar,” she says. “I’m totally gonna talk to a Kehlani or SZA look-alike at the party. It’s an ice breaker, so I can just be like, ‘Oh my gosh, you totally look like her,’ and we can start talking.”

With winter underway, the contests have started to taper off and now, Sherin is on her Hinge grind. While she tried to find love at two celebrity look-alike contests, she’s content with being single. “I’m personally not looking for a relationship, moreso a hookup or a casual situation, so I’m not sure if my love story is going to start with a meet-cute,” she says. “It’s probably going to start with a drunken makeout or something. But that’s just me.”

Still, if someone were to put on another look-alike contest for one of her celeb crushes, she’d be game to try and find love again. “If anyone wants to host a Theo James look-alike contest,” she says, “I would love to attend.”

Elizabeth Gulino is a freelance writer who covers trends, wellness, and all things lifestyle. Previously, she was a senior staff writer at Refinery29. Her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan, PS, Bustle, Wirecutter, and more.