Viral Celebrity Lookalike Contests Spawn Stars in Their Own Right — but How Long Can They Ride on Resemblance? (Exclusive)

Timothée Chalamet and Glen Powell have both bolstered the concept by participating in their fans' tribute events

• Celebrity lookalike contests have popped up all over the world since content creator Anthony Po hosted a viral Timothée Chalamet event in N.Y.C. on Oct. 27.

• The original competition made headlines when the actor himself showed up, but continued to make news as others were inspired to pay similar homages to celebrities like Jeremy Allen White, Dev Patel and Glen Powell.

• Winners and organizers spoke to PEOPLE about their experience participating in the widespread sensation that's come from searching for celebrity doppelgängers.

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.

Civilians flock to these spots to watch the competition unfold. Modeling scouts come to find the next face for their campaigns. Reporters stand by hoping to catch a photo or a quote from the winner. Singles step out to see if they can snag the cell number of someone who could pass for their favorite star.

Many contestants prepare by dressing up in their lookalike's iconic costumes and clothes. Timothée Chalamet's doubles chose between casual streetwear, Willy Wonka costumes and futuristic fashion inspired by his role in Dune. Some Paul Mescal lookalikes braved the chilly Dublin November air in short shorts to mimic one of the actor's signature styles.

The concept originated about a month ago when YouTube creator Anthony Po — who posts online under the name AnthPo — 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 before the Little Women star 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.

Related: Timothée Chalamet Crashes the Timothée Chalamet Lookalike Contest Before Police Disperse Crowd and Detain 1 Person

Unless you're Zayn Malik dupe Shiv Patel, who won the opportunity to get a free tattoo from artist Hel Hart after the competition in Brooklyn on Nov. 17. That same day, Ben Shabad left Chicago's Jeremy Allen White contest with $50 — he spent it on pizza that night — and a pack of cigarettes, the latter being an on-theme additional prize promised by the two event organizers, roommates Kelsey Cassaro, 29, and Taylor Vaske, 31.

Vaske tells PEOPLE that she left a comment on The Bear star'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."

Prizes aren't all the winners take away. After snapping photos with new fans and journalists on site, top doppelgängers are awarded a new platform of notoriety. Shabad, 37, says he's started to get recognized on the street, though not by fans mistaking him for the real White, as they used to before the contest.

"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."

Related: Jeremy Allen White Lookalike Contest in Chicago Serves Up a Winner

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 Mitchell spent 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 even Dune 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, TikToker Tobias Bell, posted footage of the makeover, and the video garnered over 1.2 million views.

Aided by his thrifted Wonka outfit and the candy he tossed into the crowd at Washington Square Park, Mitchell has once again achieved fame in the shadow of Chalamet. This time, however, it's already opening doors for the Seton Hall University student to become a social media star.

Related: Glen Powell Gifts Winner of His Lookalike Contest a Cameo in His Next Movie as a ‘Personal Prize’

"I was fortunate to meet so many YouTubers and content creators from this event, and I kind of really got inspired by a lot of them because they were telling me about their stories and how they became content creators and how cool of an industry it all is," he explains, noting that contest organizer Po has given him advice on how to navigate the space.

Since winning, Mitchell's heard from several brands about possibly working together, including "Shake Shack, Google and skin care brands like L'Oreal, DNC, 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 did see the real Chalamet when he crashed the contest — or at least kind of.

Related: Jeremy Allen White Lookalike Contest Poster Goes Viral After Wild Success of Timothée Chalamet Event

"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 Po didn't get to shake hands with the Call Me by Your Name star, the YouTuber did hear from Chalamet's team after the wild day wrapped. The actor even offered to pay the $500 fine issued by the NYPD that day, says Po.

Since that day, other celebrities have further bolstered the concept by similarly reaching out to organizers and winners. After the Dublin contest in his honor, Paul Mescal FaceTimed his no. 1 twin, Jack Wall O'Reilly, to congratulate him and gush about their resemblance.

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 to Variety, 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," the Twisters star began in his video message.

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“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."

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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."

Though with any competition judged by looks, participants run the risk of getting caught up in negative comments, whether they come during the event or after, amid discourse on social media. Mitchell says he saw plenty of comments rejecting his resemblance to Chalamet, which he didn't take too much to heart.

Shiv Patel says he "laughed it off" when he saw some pushback on his own win at the Malik lookalike contest, which was hosted by Brooklyn resident Jazmine Arnold and her cousin, Savannah Neely. But Patel's runner-up, Selin Ceren, didn't process criticism with the same ease.

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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."

Ceren, 23, says that she hyped up the crowd when it was her turn to be judged by onlookers. Knowing that whoever earned the most cheers would win, she decided to take the opportunity to explain one reason why she came to the Brooklyn event in the first place.

"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."

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"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 recent Rachel Sennott contest 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.

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He actually stumbled into a Miles Teller lookalike contest during a recent trip to Philadelphia and claims he was recognized by several attendees.

"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 person experiencing 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 on Vogue and I got put on The Drew Barrymore Show. I kind of went viral all over the world, but it's nothing though."