With Kristoffer Polaha’s directorial debut now available for a limited time via AppleTV and Amazon Prime, many of the actor’s longtime Hallmark fans may be shocked to discover his little-known gift for performing impressions of well-known celebrities and characters.
Polaha’s vocal gymnastics are on full display in “Mimics,” a charmingly quirky and unexpectedly poignant indie feature film, which he directed and stars in. In the movie, first released in theaters in February 2026, the “A Biltmore Christmas” star plays Sam Reinhold, a struggling celebrity impersonator who, in exchange for fame and fortune, agrees to work as a ventriloquist with a creepy dummy named Fergus as his sidekick. Not just anyone could pull off that kind of role, but Polaha was literally made for it.
Kristoffer Polaha Got to Put His Lifelong Love of Impressions to Good Use in ‘Mimics’
Panoramic PicturesFilmed in Polaha’s hometown of Reno, Nevada, “Mimics” was written by a childhood friend, Mark Oakley, who knew Polaha could pull off playing a celebrity impersonator, so incorporated that into the plot.
“That’s the reason why he was like, ‘Let’s do this,’ because he remembered all the sound effects I used to make and all the impersonations I used to do,” Polaha told EntertainmentNow. “I’ve been doing impersonations — poorly, I think — my whole life.”
In “Mimics,” Polaha impressively mimics over 15 well-known voices in pop culture, including Jason Mamoa, Jimmy Stewart, Miss Piggy, Marlon Brandon, and Bill Cosby. Perhaps most impressive is that nearly all of Polaha’s impressions were recorded live on-set, quite a feat in an age when most movies require ADR — a post-filming process in which actors re-record their dialogue in a studio after filming.
“I’m extremely proud of the lack of any AI augmentation and that literally all of it was pretty much captured on camera,” Polaha told EntertainmentNow. “I didn’t do any ADR or work afterwards to make it better. Miss Piggy was real, Kermit was real, Mickey was real. The only one that I made better was (when) I did a quick impersonation of Bane in Batman. Everything else was (recorded) hot on camera, in the moment.”
Kristoffer Polaha Also Voices Fergus, Which Unfolded Unexpectedly During Filming
In addition to delivering celebrity and character impressions throughout “Mimics,” Polaha also provided the increasingly agitated voice of Fergus, his character’s ventriloquist dummy. That was not part of Polaha’s original plan; he figured they’d find the perfect voice after filming and dub it in later. But instead, the temporary voice Polaha used as a fill-in during filming wound up staying in the film as Fergus’ actual voice.
“So there’s this one scene with Fergus where I’m like, ‘Hi Sam,'” Polaha said, shifting into Fergus’ creepy cadence. “The cameras were behind me, and I put my hand on his little chin, and I’m like, ‘Nice to
meet you.’ It was just a temp voice. But everything on that day started working, it just clicked. So Fergus just was born on camera.”
He further explained, “What we would do is, I would move his mouth without any sound when it was a two (camera) shot, and then on Fergus close-up, I would then voice it off-camera while moving his mouth.”
“That was something that was truly discovered on camera and in the moment, which is, again, why I think I’m so proud of this film,” Polaha said, noting how creatively fulfilling it was to go with the flow during the 15-day shoot with co-stars including Stephen Tobolowsky, familiar to Hallmark fans as nerdy Ned in the “Haul Out the Holly” franchise, ‘SNL’ alum Chris Parnell, Jesse Hutch, Kevin Lawson, and Mōriah.
Afer a successful Reno premiere and nationwide theatrical release, Polaha said he’s loving hearing from people who are now renting or buying the film via Apple TV or Amazon, which will carry the film for the next few weeks.
“One of the greatest things that I keep receiving online is how many times people are watching and what they’re getting out of it on each fresh watch,” Polaha said. “They’re like, ‘Okay, I saw it in the theater, but missed this, this, this, and this!’ I love hiding Easter eggs in movies and all my projects, and there’s a ton on ‘Mimics.'”
