You’re going to have a hard time convincing yourself that the woman in these photos isn’t Britney Spears. In fact, it isn’t a woman at all! It’s actually a man named Derrick Barry, who’s making a living out of impersonating the world-famous celebrity.

It all started a few years ago, when Derrick dressed up as Britney for Halloween. The resemblance was so striking that his friends and family were stupefied. They later told him that he should consider a career as her professional lookalike. And that’s exactly what he did..

The 31-year-old says that he finds it “amazing” to pay tribute to someone he’s idolized since the beginning of her career. “I think even if I wasn’t impersonating her I would still be such a huge fan,” he told Las Vegas Weekly. “I really have the most amazing job in the world. To be a fan of hers and then get to impersonate her around the world is such an honor.”

But he’s quick to insist that it’s just a job – when the costume comes off, he’s happy to be himself again. “I enjoy waking up as myself and then this is my uniform. There’s a lot of misconception with drag, people think you’re more comfortable being girl and that’s why you are doing it,” he explained. “For me, it’s just like being in theatre, wearing a wig and makeup and bringing a character to life.”

“There’s an element on stage where I have to impersonate her fully with her mannerisms, her characteristics, the costumes, the dancing and singing, so I see things through the eyes of her but I never feel like I am Britney. I am just portraying her at her best, in her prime.”

Derrick, a drama school graduate, revealed that it takes him an hour-and-a-half to do his ‘Britney’ makeup. “Everything gets tucked away and it’s made to look perfect, it’s like a magician, there’s smoke and mirrors happening there.” He hasn’t had any cosmetic surgery, thanks to his ‘really good genes’ that gave him features very similar to those of the blond pop star.

“I got pretty lucky with the features; my eyes and mouth are very similar to hers,” he told Las Vegas Weekly. “So I think just putting on enough makeup I can resemble her. But I think the part for me that’s the hardest to hide is my jawline, just because it’s really dominant. And it’s the one thing that we really can’t shade with makeup – as soon as there’s a flash, it’s going to pick it up.”

Even so, Derrick is pretty believable as Britney. In fact, there have been times when he has been mistaken for the pop star herself. This one time, a grandmother came over to him and asked if he would speak to her granddaughter over the phone. “I felt so bad because this grandmother really thought I was Brittney, so I did,” he said. “It’s so bad, but I couldn’t let her down.”

He added that portraying Britney isn’t too difficult, because she hasn’t altered her image too much over the years. “She’s a beautiful blonde bombshell, as long as I have blond hair and bras and pants, that’s sometimes all I need for Britney,” he said. “I’m lucky she had had the same look through the years unlike someone like Lady Gaga.”

But dancing has got to be the toughest part of the act for him, “because she has been training since she was like two or maybe three years old.” Derrick spends hours watching Britney’s videos and keeps practicing the moves until he feels confident enough to perform them on stage. He also revealed that has tried his best to portray her in the most positive light, even when she was going through a rough patch a few years back.

Derrick has performed in front of Britney herself, on The Tonight Show. “She said, ‘Oh My God’ and had her hand over her mouth,” he recalled. “That’s when I knew I had to take this to the next level and I ended up performing in Vegas in my own show.” Since then, Derrick has made over half a million dollars doing his acts in ‘Divas Las Vegas’!

When asked what he enjoys most about his job, he said: “I get to be the sexiest woman alive on stage. There’s no one, in my eyes, that’s more beautiful than Britney Spears. I feel like I don’t even work for a living because I love what I do.”

Photos: Derrick Barry/Facebook