Is This Impersonator the Ultimate Jason Momoa Look-alike?

From Oprah Magazine

• In a recent interview for Esquire, Jason Momoa called his wife Lisa Bonet "goddess" and "the boss," so there's no wonder we'd like to clone him.

• In our search for the ultimate Momoa twin, we came across Orlando cosplayer Jesse Ali, also known as @blackbeard.dad on Instagram.

Here at OprahMag.com, we've been on a mission to find the ultimate Jason Momoa look-alike. And it hasn't been an easy road.

First there was Jack Matthews from Big Brother 21—who he ended up being a...polarizing figure, to say the least. Then we came across Heidi Klum's husband, Tokio Hotel rocker Tom Kaulitz. But Kaulitz already has an actual twin, so that cancelled him out. And then there's Momoa's son, Nakoa-Wolf, with wife Lisa Bonet. The adorable 10-year-old is his father's literal mini-me...but they're obviously related, so can he even really count?

Just when all hope seemed lost, we came across 29-year-old Jesse Ali, also known as @blackbeard.dad on Instagram. Ali, who's from Orlando, is a Jason Momoa cosplayer. And since we fancy ourselves as Momoa look-alike experts, we're going to go ahead and state on the record that the resemblance is pretty striking.

Ali began cosplaying as the A-lister in 2017 after seeing the actor depict Aquaman in Justice League. When he found himself heading to a local comic convention with friends, who knew exactly who to dress up as.

"I bought this ridiculous Halloween wig, and I did the whole shirtless thing with this little toy trident from Walmart," Ali says. "It was supposed to be a gag, we were just having fun. We took a couple pictures and posted it on Instagram. Then a cosplay account shared me on their page, and after that a switch kind of flipped."

Ever since, Ali—a retail store manager—has slowly but surely become the ultimate Momoa double, upgrading to higher quality wigs and a professional prop trident. He even scored a body suit that gives the illusion of having Aquaman's epic set of tattoos. (Which, for the record, are indeed different than Momoa's actual tatts.) Oh, and Ali has upped his workout time, too.

"He's a bigger dude. I'm generally a smaller guy, so I've just been eating a lot of calories, and getting back into the gym. I've been a fitness freak for years, but I kind of changed up my diet and my regimen to try to get the body of Jason Momoa. Even without the cosplaying, it's almost like a mental therapy for me at this point," he says.

So aside from having an impressive Instagram feed, why do all this? While he has full-time job, Ali says that's he's always found comic convention culture "fascinating" and attended events even before dressing up as Momoa. And he's definitely not alone. Spurred by a massive fanbase who can't get enough of pop culture's superheroes and anime characters (hence Marvel's mega success) San Diego's famous annual Comic Con had an estimated 135,000 attendees this year, while New York's 2018 convention sold 250,000 tickets. And in Ali's native Orlando, over 100,000 fans were estimated to have attended the city's annual MegaCon in 2019.

The numbers prove that, yes, there's definitely a rabid audience—beyond just us Momoa lovers—who love to see people dressed up as their favorite superhero. Ali says he attends conventions as Momoa as a both a spectator and participant with his own booth, selling photo prints and taking pictures with fans.

"I've done a lot of cons, but I'm looking to do more local charity events around here, too. Even if I can visit a hospital or a birthday party that would be awesome," he said.

His pastime is even family-approved, as Ali shares that he has the green light from his daughter.

"She's super supportive and always dressing up as princesses and super heroes," he says. "She's gonna be a little cosplayer when she's older. We'll be doing a photo shoot in the park, and she'll be telling people, 'That's Aquaman! That's my daddy!'"

So there you have it, readers. We may have just crowned the ultimate Momoa doppelgänger—but we want to hear from you if you agree. So let us know in the comments below whether Ali could pass for Momoa's double. And in the mean time, we'll be taking a look at this side-by-side of Ali recreating the poster from the Momoa's new Apple+ show See—you know, for research purposes.

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