Covered in green body paint, fans gather for Shrek look-alike contest in Los Angeles
$500 cash and a bag of onions. That was the prize for the latest look-alike contest held over the weekend.
Men hoping they have the right jawlines, hair swoops or muscular builds have flocked major cities over the past few weeks, hoping they look the most like Timothée Chalamet, Paul Mescal or Jeremy Allen White. But a smaller look-alike contest, held in Los Angeles' Echo Park on Sunday, drew a different crowd − one full of green face paint, tunics and ogre ears, with participants hoping they looked the most like Shrek.
The Shrek look-alike contest was held by content creator Ka5sh, known for establishing Shrek Rave, a traveling rave inspired by the DreamWorks' franchise.
Instagram user topherzen357 took home first place and media consultant Carina "CJ" Jamees placed third. Dressed as Shrek, Jamees was joined by friends dressed as Donkey, Puss in Boots and Fairy Godmother.
"Major shout out to my friends who got a random text from me that said, ‘I’m dressing up as Shrek on Sunday. I need you to dress as (insert character) and meet me at the park,'" Jamees wrote in an Instagram post on Monday. "Lastly, (Ka5sh), thank you for creating spaces that are just pure joy and fun with zero judgement. We all need more of that in our lives."
When did look-alike contests get popular?
Look-alike contests gained traction in October, when hundreds of people gathered in New York City for a Timothée Chalamet contest. Unplanned, the actor made a surprise appearance at the gathering, where he was surrounded by men who looked similar to him.
Since, a Paul Mescal contest was held in Dublin, a Harry Styles contest was held in London and a Dev Patel competition was held in San Francisco.
Most recently, Glen Powell tapped into the look alike-bandwagon. Over the weekend, a contest was held in his hometown of Austin, Texas. Though he didn't attend in-person, he sent in a video.
In it, Powell shared that the winner could choose their parents or any family member to cameo in his next movie, a prize he deemed worth $6 billion. In each of Powell's movies, his parents make a cameo, which inspired the prize.
After several rounds of competition, Max Braunstein, who was dressed as Powell's character Lieutenant Jake "Hangman" Seresin from "Ton Gun: Maverick" took home the winning title and prizes. He also got to video chat with Powell. Powell's mom, Cyndy Powell, and aunt, Kathleen Fish, helped judge the competition.
Anthony Robledo, Saman Shafiq and Ana Gutierrez contributed to this reporting.
This story was updated to include new information.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at Paste BN. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at gcross@gannett.com.