Teresa Barnwell, the Hillary Clinton Lookalike: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Teresa Barnwell, Teresa Barnwell Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton body double

Teresa Barnwell calls herself “America’s Top Hillary Clinton Impersonator Since 1993.” (Getty)

If Hillary Clinton really was using a body double on September 11, as some conspiracy theorists suggests, she would have to hire Teresa Barnwell to be her body double. Barnwell is a professional Hillary Clinton impersonator and has traveled around the world since 1993, taking advantage of her uncanny resemblance to the former First Lady and Secretary of State.

Here’s a look at Barnwell’s career.


1. Barnwell Insists That She Was Not Working as a Clinton Body Double on September 11

Twitter users have been spreading a theory that Clinton was using a body double on Sunday, September 11, comparing photos of the Secretary on that day with past photos. The hashtag #HillarysBodyDouble has been trending on Twitter for hours. Barnwell’s name began popping up on social media.

The 61-year-old Bromwell noticed the trend and told her followers on Twitter that she was in Los Angeles on September 11, not New York.

“I’m in Los Angeles today. Not in NYC,” she first wrote.

“OK people, calm down,” she added. “I was in LA today, all day. Was just messin’ with your crazy conspiracy minded little heads. Go to bed.”

In a March interview with ATTN.com, Barnwell did say that she thinks Clinton is “misunderstood.”

“I definitely think she’s misunderstood, and I’ve felt sympathy for her at times because sometimes I think things get blown out of proportion, like this email thing,” she explained. “But in some ways it doesn’t surprise me, because she’s always been under attack for everything. They’ve been trying to find something, the proverbial skeleton in her closet somewhere.”


2. She Worked in Advertising Before Quitting to Impersonate Clinton Full-Time

Barnwell has turned her resemblance into a full-time job and it’s been that way since 1993, when President Bill Clinton first took office. According to a Daily Mail profile from July 2016, Barnwell worked in advertising before the Clintons arrived in Washington. Once people started telling her about her resemblance to Clinton, she quit her job.

The Daily Mail notes that since Clinton began her presidential campaign last year, Barnwell’s bookings have jumped and she can earn over $10,000 a month.

“I can’t even get groceries without someone saying something or being shocked I’m buying something ordinary like bananas because they think I’m really her,” Barnwell told the Daily Mail. “Once a group of Japanese tourists at an event were so honored to meet me because they believed I was the real Hillary.”


3. During the ’90s, She Became a Regular Guest on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ & Guest-Starred on ‘The Nanny’

During the 1990s, if you couldn’t get Hillary Clinton, you hired Barnwell. The North Carolina native became so popular that she appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno over 30 times and made a cameo on the sitcom The Nanny.

Her IMDb page is filled with Clinton roles. She played Clinton on Sliders< Roseanne, Leaving L.A., Step By Step and Providence. In 2000, she appeared as “Mrs. President” in the Leslie Nielsen comedy 20001: A Space Travesty.

Barnwell is still called on to play Clinton for comedians. During the 2008 campaign, she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and appeared in a 2011 Rolling Stone photoshoot with Bill Maher and a Sarah Palin impersonator.


4. She Only Met Hillary Clinton Once, 20 Years Ago

Barnwell has only met Clinton once. In 1996, they met at a Los Angeles book signing, but that was it. Barnwell told the Daily Mail that she tries her best to avoid bumping into Clinton.

“Once it felt like she was following me, wherever I went Hillary would be heading to shortly after – it became quite tricky as I think she’d find it a little creepy seeing her doppelgänger in real life,” Barnwell explained. “The only time I met her was at a book signing, I had to take my opportunity then and asked her if anyone ever told her she looked like me – which she found amusing.”

Barnwell said that Clinton was “really lovely” and “even joked I could go to all the functions she didn’t want to attend.”


5. She Once Posed as Clinton With WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

In an interview with The Desert Sun, Barnwell recalled how she ended up in a photoshoot with Wikileaks founder Jilian Assange.

In 2011, she got a booking agency called her, asking if she’d like to do a photoshoot with famed photographer Alison Jackson in London. She agreed, only to learn during the conversation that the photoshoot would be with Assange.

“As we were working through the details, the agency said ‘Oh by the way this photoshoot is with Julian Assange.’ My heart stopped,” Barnwell told the Desert Sun. “I was hoping the FBI or somebody wouldn’t show up at my door.”

Barnwell flew to London and met Assange at the estate he was living in before he moved to the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012. The photo showed Barnwell as Clinton with Assange and a Middle Eastern man playing cards. It was used in a European magazine.