Kayleigh Trappe’s unique talent has helped her make waves on TikTok.
The Monaghan native is best known for impersonating Irish celebrities on social media, and has begun branching out into creating her own skits.
The content creator was nominated for Newcomer of the Year at The Gossies 2023, after she impressively amassed an Instagram following of 145k, as well as an additional 86k on TikTok.
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We spoke to Kayleigh for our latest Up and Coming feature, who spoke about how she discovered she had a talent for lip syncing, and revealed who her favourite Irish star to impersonate is…
The Monaghan native also discussed her aspirations for the future and slammed ‘small town syndrome’.
Find out more about Kayleigh in our exclusive chat below:
Q. Before you got into content creating, what were you doing?
I was and still currently am a primary school teacher. Before, when I was doing the Leaving Cert, I was always torn between doing acting or going down the primary school teaching route.
I was reared in a household that was like ‘get your realistic job first, or a job that will keep you secure, and then pursue your dream.’ As much as I love teaching, I really do, I took that route.
I got made permanent in my primary teaching job last year and I just thought the timing of it was really appropriate with what I was doing. I thought ‘this is the right time now to go and try something else’.
At the minute I’m balancing the two, but next year I think I’ll have a little bit more time for the social media and see where that can go.
Q. How did you discover you had a talent for lip syncing?
It was honestly just a bit of a coincidence, or a bit of luck even.
Lip syncing on TikTok really took off when Covid-19 hit and I just did a random video for the craic and I’d see some people, maybe their mouths were out of time, and I thought ‘I can do this’.
I was doing a bit of everything at the beginning and then I actually started to try impersonating the people because I remember doing Louis Walsh and Roy Keane, and people were saying ‘you actually have Roy’s look’, or ‘you actually have Louis’ mouth’.
It started off quite general and then I got quite specific with the mannerisms and yeah, I suppose good feedback from the public and the people I was impersonating was a sign that I wasn’t too bad at it.
Q. Do you remember the first time one of your videos blew up on social media?
There was a couple – but I remember the biggest one was the first Joanne McNally and Vogue Williams one that I did. It was the one about Dubarry.
Before that, a few footballers I had done got onto me and everything which was great, but I think I recall – say I made that video on a Tuesday and I had 13 or 14,000 followers, by the next day I had 70,000.
Joanne put it up on her page, and I’m pretty sure Vogue shared it and they both wrote to me and were supportive of it and enjoyed it.
That was definitely the biggest. I remember lying in my bed, and my phone was just like ‘ding, ding ding, ding…’ and I just knew that Joanne had done something. I knew she had put it up or shared it.
The power of sharing in this industry is crazy, I never would’ve thought of that before.
That was the first one. Then Louis Walsh mentioned me in an article after that which was also a great boost. It’s always nice to get good feedback!
@kayleightrappe “Dubarrys” …My Therapist Ghosted me Podcast 🙌🏻 #fyp #foryou #comedу @voguewilliams @joannemcnallycomedy ♬ original sound – Vogue Williams
Q. Do you ever find you get imposter syndrome when something like that happens?
Absolutely. Especially when I was at The Gossies actually.
I’d be quite a social person, I wouldn’t have any fear but at that I walked in and I was just like ‘what is little old me doing here?’
As the night went on, I felt that I should be so lucky to meet these people and talk to these people, and why does they want to talk to me? But I remember Muireann O’Connell spoke to me and said ‘you’ve earned being here Kayleigh. You deserve to be here as much as everybody else’.
You know what? We all work away in different days. What I do is very strange, but I do work hard and it is working out for me. So I do need to give myself more credit for that and not to have imposter syndrome, and own it.
That will come with time.
Q. You absolutely did deserve to be there, you were nominated for Newcomer of the Year! What did that mean to you?
It was crazy! I was sitting with my family on the Sunday evening and I remember the notification came through and I didn’t even say anything and my mother was like ‘what’s wrong’, and I was so speechless.
I really couldn’t believe it. It was huge, a really big deal, and the support I got from people was crazy.
I didn’t think – you know, you have these followers but sometimes you just feel like it’s a number, but when the messages come through and they’re all in support of you.
Even the night of The Gossies, people I look up to like Rachel Gorry were coming up to me being like ‘we’re rooting for you Kayleigh’, it’s just really humbling and nice to see that people are behind you and think you’re deserving of an award.
It also shows me that I must be doing something right, and when you’re between deciding whether to do it as a career or stick with what you’re doing, things like that really give you the boost and the confidence to go forward with it.
Q. The field you’re in is so creative, do you ever find that you fall into a rut? If so, how do you get yourself out of it?
What I’ve always done is any time I think of an idea, I jot it down in my notebook. I have four different notebooks for different things. So, if I ever was stuck for an idea I’d go back to that notebook and I would do one of those ones.
Sometimes you’re lucky that something might happen – like Joe Biden coming to Ireland, there’s an opportunity there, I’ll go find a clip.
Generally I find I get the most inspiration when I’m either running the road or driving the car, so sometimes I’d pull in and jot down my ideas.
Or if you know Valentine’s Day, or Father’s Day, or Mother’s Day is coming up, you’ll always have it in the back of your mind to be looking out for a video.
It definitely happens though that you’d hit a time when you really can’t think and sometimes I think it’s better to let it sit, and not force an idea.
A friend of mine would always say ‘if you can’t think, don’t force it. Let it sit for the day and you’ll come up with a very good video the following day’. So, I don’ put too much pressure on myself to get content out every single day.
I’d rather quality over quantity is what I always say. I’d rather get a good video out rather than three videos that aren’t any good because I was trying to force it.
Q. Who is your favourite Irish star to impersonate, because they’re all such big characters?
I did a Q&A yesterday or the day before, and I did say Louis Walsh, but I’d say Vogue Williams would be a close second – I just love her. It sounds so silly, but the two of them have such distinctive mouths.
I’m doing a couple of sketches for Doireann Garrihy’s The Laughs of Your Life live tour, and I did Amy Huberman before and I really liked doing her.
Do you know who I love doing as well – Donncha O’Callaghan. I need to do more of him. Donncha got onto me and was like ‘my own kids cannot understand the line between me as a real person and you doing an impression of me’, which is always a good compliment.
I’d say Louis Walsh definitely takes the win for that one.
@kayleightrappe Louis Walsh is my new favourite 😂 @doireanngarrihy #fyp #foryou #comedy #irish ♬ original sound – Doireann Garrihy
Q. You made a video with Ryan Tubridy recently, and a lot of people in the comments section were calling for you to step in as host of The Late Late Show. Is TV something you want to pursue in the future?
Absolutely, yeah. A lot of people would say they can see me in a presenting role.
I would never shy away from that, I’m such an open book. I’d say any opportunity – although I’d be cautious in what I take on, and I always have to remember what I’m doing as well, I would absolutely have open arms to any TV, radio or presenting gigs at all.
I’m quite a social, loud person. I always said in school that I perform best when I’m either up presenting or in interviews. So, it’s definitely an area that I’d love to get into in the future.
Q. A lot of content creators move to the UK or America to further their careers. Is that something you’d consider, or are you happy where you are?
Look it, I wouldn’t say no. I would definitely not close the door on it, but a lot of what I do is Irish-based.
If I go by my analytics and my stats, my main following is Irish people and most of the people I impersonate are Irish.
But again, I would never say never. Whatever comes my way, what’s for you won’t pass you, so we’ll see how it goes. For now, I’m happy where I am.
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Q. You touched on your confidence – does that come naturally to you, or do you have to build yourself up to put yourself out there online?
To be honest, I lost a lot of weight a few years ago and I’m told quite often that I’m a completely different person now than I was back then.
I’d say that was also a reason why I was so late trying something like [content creating] and putting myself out there, because I was so scared.
My confidence has grown massively in the past few years, from a physical aspect which has helped my confidence with what I’m doing now. So, it’s kind of like a domino effect.
I’m confident in my trade, I’m confident in my acting, I’m confident in my TikTok, that it helps. I feel like I’m in a good place now with my head and my confidence, so it’s just a good time for me to be doing something like this.
My first ever non-lip syncing clip there last week – it was an Easter clip where I was impersonating an Irish mammy – I think on TikTok I hit my first million with it, and I was like ‘there you go, the irony there’.
I wouldn’t have been confident using my own voice on my sketches and the one I did do did so well. It’s definitely given me a boost to try out something, and if it works out it does give you the boost.
I feel like lip syncing probably isn’t enough now to be doing for me, I need to be open to doing more. So, that’s why I’m going to be doing a few more of my own sketches.
Q. On that note, there is a lot of negativity online. Have you ever come across this? If so, how do you deal with this?
I do such a broad range of everything, one day I could be doing a football clip, the next day I could be doing Joanne and Vogue.
I find that some of the football fans who love the football stuff would be quite harsh on the other stuff because they don’t add up.
But I very, very rarely answer back, because my brother and my father both said to me, they’d be quite protective, when it all kicked off years ago, ‘just don’t respond Kayleigh, even if you’re tempted, just don’t respond.’
So, generally I just ignore it, and that works for me because they’ll not get a bite out of you, so what’s the point?
Generally, if I get negativity, a lot of it is just people who don’t get the point of what lip syncing is and whatever else – and that’s totally fair. I think everyone has the right to their own opinions.
It’s just about not taking it too personally. It’s just been water off a duck’s back for me, personally, so far. I’m strong enough in myself to not worry too much about, and to know that it’s just keyboard warrior stuff.
@kayleightrappe There’s something to be said for a good Mass🙏🏻 #easter #fyp #irishmammy ♬ original sound – Kayleigh Trappe
Q. Do you have any advice for people who want to start a career in social media but don’t necessarily have the confidence to do so?
I would just say – I’m from a small town in Monaghan, and sometimes I call it ‘small town syndrome’ where you’re afraid of what people might think and you don’t want people to be talking about you, but if you genuinely want to put something up online that you think is different for people to see then just go for it, and don’t worry about what other people say.
I would definitely say that talking to other people in the industry, or sending a quick message is always a good way to get a bit of help.
I did a lot of stuff on my own at the beginning, but when I actually started talking to people who do what I do – it’s nice to have a network, and I have a network of friends now in the industry which is always great.
I would say reach out, and don’t be afraid of what people are going to say because that’s just the world we live in and when I started doing it, I was so conscious of what people were thinking and now I just don’t care at all.
It’s not because my following has grown, it’s because I’ve grown in confidence. Especially if you think you’ve got something different, don’t copy other people and originality pays off.
Q. Where do you see yourself in five years?
In five years time… my big dream would be to be on TV or to be on stage, or on radio as a job, and to be settled and comfortable.
I’ll always love to be doing my lip syncing, I’d never give that up. I’d love to be in a job like that where you can tie it all together, and would stem from the lip syncs originally.
That’d be a big dream, to do that professionally.
