Shad Ellis, a British man who has always been told that he resembles Will Smith, is taking full advantage of the comparison. Ellis has used his resemblance to Smith as an opportunity to work with the actor and open other doors for himself.
Shad Ellis takes advantage of his resemblance to Will Smith
Ellis was working at the London Underground in the 1990s when he saw the Men In Black posters hanging on the wall. As he saw the Smith’s photo on the posters, Ellis noticed his resemblance to the Hollywood star. Customers at the station also recognized how much the pair look alike.
“I had regular customers coming through the station saying, ‘oh my god, you look like Will Smith,’ ” Shad told the BBC. “They’d call me ‘Will’ jokingly and I thought nothing of it. OK, there’s a little similarity, that’s all it is.”
Ellis also learned from a friend that people can earn money as celebrity lookalikes, so he began recreating Smith’s magazine poses and quickly found an opportunity as a lookalike for the Oscar winner.
“Within a week, I had my first job, which was the front cover of an electrical magazine, as they were kind of re-enacting the Men in Black posters, except we were holding these electronic wind-up torches,” he told BBC.
“From there, I started meeting people, networking, then I’d have jobs, and I’d meet more people, and it just grew,” he added.
‘I do anything that you want Will Smith to do that you couldn’t afford to get Will Smith to do’
Ellis found yet another opportunity after some of his friends encouraged him to sing Smith’s hit song “Miami” during karaoke as they were enjoying a night out. With that performance, Ellis started getting calls from more venues who asked him to appear for similar shows.
“I do anything that you want Will Smith to do that you couldn’t afford to get Will Smith to do,” Ellis said. “So I do a lot of corporate events, end-of-year work parties, weddings, private birthday functions, bar mitzvahs.”
Sometimes, however, Ellis gets calls from companies who want him to show up to events pretending to be Smith. When those opportunities come up, Ellis turns them down. For instance, after Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, Ellis received countless calls from people who wanted him to show up as the actor.
“I turn down so much work because I’m quite protective of him and his brand, they have to kind of respect the boundaries and stuff,” he said.
Shad Ellis finally got a chance to work with Will Smith in 2022
In 2022, Ellis got the chance of a lifetime when he was offered a job as a body double for the National Geographic’s Pole To Pole series. In the series, Smith covers all seven continents in 100 days. Ellis traveled to several countries at that time and filled in for Smith in some scenes, especially for the aerial shots where the actor’s face isn’t clearly seen.
Smith eventually met his lookalike on the set, and the two exchanged a warm greeting. Ellis described Smith as “very humble and very appreciative.” When the two found some time to talk, Ellis expressed his gratitude toward Smith.
“I just want to say how thankful I am and how grateful I am to you just for being you, because you’ve enabled me — a person that you had no idea probably exists — to do some amazing things,” Ellis told Smith.