Debunked: A picture of ‘Ariana Grande’ has gone viral, but who the heck actually is it!?
Uncanny valley thriving in 2025
A photo is going viral on Twitter right now, of what appears to be Ariana Grande at a red carpet event. At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking it is Ariana Grande, especially because on the red carpet for the film premiere of The Companion is a likely place for her to be. But this is not Ariana Grande – this viral image is actually of a TikTok impersonator named Paige Niemann. Paige Niemann is a content creator with a complicated relationship with Ariana Grande, who has spoken out about how she feels about the eerily similar (but with something a bit… off) impersonation.
The viral tweets
The pic of Paige Niemann is currently inescapable on Twitter, and it’s becoming a meme FAST. Whilst it’s very clear it’s not actually Ariana Grande when it’s put next to an actual picture of her, the deceiving Paige can quickly fool those looking with a passing glance. It was the first red carpet premiere for Paige Niemann, who was pictured at the red carpet premiere for new horror film The Companion – starring Jack Quaid.
If the memes have thrown you off, rest assured it’s not Ariana.
Who is Paige Niemann?
@paigeniemann glinda cosplay 🫧🩷 #wicked #wickedmovie #glinda #cosplay ♬ original sound – emilio
The content creator has been impersonating Ariana Grande since she was 12. She went viral in 2019 after impersonating Ariana Grande, specifically doing Cat Valentine – Ariana’s part in Victorious and Sam and Cat.
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She set up an OnlyFans in 2022, which received backlash for being in bad taste and misleading.
@paigeniemann as someone who deals with social anxiety i think it went pretty well 😊 @Warner Bros Pictures #companionmovie #FindYourCompanion ♬ original sound – 🙂
Her TikTok is often banned.
What has Ariana Grande said about Paige Niemann?
Paige Niemann has previously said Ariana Grande has reached out to her with kind words. She said to Entertainment Weekly a few years back in 2019: “She reached out to me/ “I was shocked. She’s my idol so I was shaking a little bit…She said, ‘Let me know if you’re ever going to my Sweetener Tour, we can grab a hug’…She wanted to let me know that I am beautiful in my own way and I said ‘Thank you and thank you for being so kind to me.’ And she said, ‘I’m proud of you.'”
But since then, Ariana Grande has been less than thrilled about Paige Niemann – and this viral photo will have likely peeved her off. She called Paige’s content “degrading” in 2020.
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Featured image by Rob Latour/Shutterstock and Starbuck/AFF-USA/Shutterstock