Knock-off Nessa rides high on Gavin and Stacey hype

A carer has said her life has been turned upside after embracing a striking resemblance to one of the UK's best-loved TV characters.

Kaz Barrett, from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, said her hairdresser believes Gavin and Stacey co-creator Ruth Jones must have based the character of Nessa on her.

After beginning work as a professional impersonator in 2019, she said demand has exploded in recent months as Gavin and Stacey mania sweeps the nation ahead of the show's final episode.

Her bookings include Barry Island coach tours and pub crawls, student club nights and even one upcoming funeral.

"It’s been immense, my life has been completely turned upside down," said Kaz.

The show, created by stars Jones and James Corden, is currently filming scenes in Barry ahead of a final Christmas special, to be aired on Christmas Day.

Kaz first became Nessa in 2019, when the real Ruth Jones visited Barry to turn on the Christmas lights.

Such was the interest in seeing the star, Kaz described the event as "a disaster, an absolute logistic nightmare".

"It's only a small square, and over 5,000 people turned up," she said, joking: "They're not even allowed to invite her back up again."

But the massive popularity of the evening was the spur for Kaz's unlikely new role.

"I was running a little local charity cafe on the high street... so I dressed up as Nessa as a joke and ran up and down the street," she said.

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"The video went viral, everybody loved it, and I thought ‘oh, hang on a minute, there's something, here'."

Knock Off Nessa was born, and she since amassed tens of thousands of followers on social media.

Kaz, 47, who still works as a carer, said after the viral video, she was approached by a lookalikes agency.

For her first ever Nessa job, she landed a role as a Nessa stand-in for a BBC iPlayer promotional video.

"It was a campaign they did called Like Nowhere Else... it was really odd," she said.

"They had one where [EastEnders character] Ian Beale was like the sun from the Teletubbies.

"I was in one, as a voiceover and body double for Ruth... they never aired it."