Mark Udovitch honoured for his celebrity impersonations

MARK UDOVITCH — whose hilarious pictures of him as various celebrities and film characters raised money to fight cancer — has been honoured at a gala ceremony in the USA.

Mark Udovitch emulates Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. His work last year emulating celebrities and characters have led to international recognition.

LAST year Mark Udovitch became an online sensation with his impersonations of celebrities, social achievers and movie characters, all done with the aid of his, then, long hair.

The Botany resident and Liverpool Hospital radiation therapist spent months meticulously recreating celebrity photos with his long locks, ahead of his head shave last year.

Kim Kardashian was one celebrity who got the Mark Udovitch treatment.

Everyone from Kim Kardashian to Johnny Depp to Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones and Janet Jackson back in the 1990s were in his arsenal of celebrity impersonations, 61 of them in total. (You can see of them here.)

But his efforts had a serious purpose. To raise funds for the 85,000 patients who visit Liverpool Cancer Therapy Centre each year which he did as part of 2016’s Dry July.

Mr Udovitch as ABC’s Gardening Australia host Kosta Georgiadis.

Mr Udovitch decided to raise funds after a conversation with a cancer patient who was distressed about losing her hair after chemotherapy.

“I had a patient who had breast cancer. She lost her hair after chemotherapy,” he said last year. “She was distressed about the loss of hair ... more than surgery. It was harder for her than the mastectomy. It was such a profound thing to say.”

Mark Udovitch as himself before his haircut last year.

Dry July has begun.

Getting ready for each photo shoot took hours of planning and preparation. But it was worth with his pictures going viral.

“Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the positive response we would get on social media, the cancer therapy community and from actual celebrities themselves including Ashton Kutcher, Kris Jenner and Hulk Hogan,” Mr Udovitch said.

In recognition of his hard work earlier this year he travelled to the USA as an honoured guest at the 100 Everyday Amazing Gala in the USA.

Mark Udovitch at the 100 Everyday Amazing Gala held in Boston earlier this year.

The Gala and its associated activities were created by the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in 2008. Each year it honours 100 individuals and groups whose commitment to the fight against cancer is an inspiration. Since it started it’s raised over $11 million US.

As well as Mr Udovitch this year it recognised researchers, carers, nurses and physicians.

“It was an incredible honour to go to the gala and to be acknowledged---on the world’s stage alongside caregivers, researchers, philanthropists, advocates and volunteers from around the globe,” he said.

Post haircut and checking out some of his work.

“Despite travelling from Liverpool to the other side of the world, I felt like the most popular person in the room.”

Right now Mr Udovitch is busy fundraising for this year’s Dry July. But with his once full head of hair yet to return in his entirety his doing so in a more conventional style.

Princess Leia.

Snoop Dogg.