History Main / PlayingTheirOwnTwin

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' uses this with TheReveal early in the series that Charming was actually a twin separated at birth - with the other brother being raised as a prince. After his death, the twin is used to impersonate him. Creator/JoshDallas plays both brothers, though they're never on screen together and James (the deceased one) only appears in a couple of flashbacks. They finally share the screen in Season 5.

* In ''Wonder Man'' Creator/DannyKaye plays Edwin Dingle and his twin Buzzy Bellew.[[note]]Buzzy, a comedian, used a stage name before his death.[[/note]]

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** It also has an exaggerated and quite literal example with the Richter quintuplets (all Creator/AndyRichter): Andy, the show off; Chareth, the flirt; Donny, the sensitive one; Rocky, Andy's stunt double; and Emmett, who asked that his face not be shown on camera (even though it looks like his brothers'). This is also an ActorAllusion to Richter's role as the father on the short-lived ''Series/{{Quintuplets}}''.

* ''Series/{{Bewitched}}''. Creator/ElizabethMontgomery played both Samantha and her mischevious twin cousin Serena, however, because the characters were so different that many fans were unaware that Elizabeth played both parts; to keep the charade going, she adopted a pseudonym when credited for Serena as Pandora Spocks.

* In one episode on the Israeli sitcom ''[=Shemesh=]'', the eponymous main character dates a woman, played by singer and actress Michal Tzafir (who has three siblings but no twin sister) who claims her identical twin sister is a [[StickyFingers kleptomaniac]] to explain why some shop owners angrily kick her out of their shops. At first he's delighted at the prospect of a TwinThreesomeFantasy coming true, but later she invites her sister to meet him at the restaurant he owns, and when she does they keep stepping out to call the other and just barely missing each other repeatedly (both are wearing the same outfit, except one of them has a scarf). He thinks it's a ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory meant to cover for her kleptomania and breaks it off, citing trust issues. The next day, both twins come to his restaurant, and when he tries to go back on his decision, his ex refuses, [[IronicEcho citing trust issues]].

** Subverted InUniverse for the former as Freddie believes Melanie is Sam in disguise.

** Joxer is one of identical triplets, all played by Creator/TedRaimi. Each of the other two (Jett and Jace) appears separately in a different episode.

* ''Series/TheBarrier'': In the story's present day, Julia is the only suvivor of a pair of identical twins. Her sister Sara is shown as an adult in several flashbacks, in which she's played by Julia's actress. The more common version of the trope is used in a photo depicting both sisters.

* In ''{{Film/Avatar}}'', there's a plot point of a scientist dying before his expedition to Pandora and his twin brother being chosen to go in his place (as the titular avatar's configuration is a good enough match for a twin brother). Both are played by Sam Worthington.

** It also has an exaggerated and quite literal example with the Richter quintuplets (all Andy Richter): Andy, the show off; Chareth, the flirt; Donny, the sensitive one; Rocky, Andy's stunt double; and Emmett, who asked that his face not be shown on camera (even though it looks like his brothers'). This is also an ActorAllusion to Richter's role as the father on the short-lived ''Series/{{Quintuplets}}''.
* ''Series/GhostWhisperer'' had an episode where the ghost of one twin haunted her sister. Both were played by Jessica Collins.

* The ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' episode "[[Recap/ColumboS02E08 Double Shock]]" featured Martin Landau portraying identical twins who use their looks to murder their rich uncle and cover their tracks.
* Phoebe on ''{{Series/Friends}}'' and her twin sister Ursula are both played by Lisa Kudrow. It should be noted that Ursula was originally the ditzy waitress from ''Series/MadAboutYou''. In order to 'explain' why Lisa Kudrow was on two shows, they had a two-part crossover revealing that Ursula was Phoebe's sister.

* In ''Series/TheFollowing'', Sam Underwood plays both Mark and Luke Gray, a pair of SerialKiller twins.

* In the ''{{Series/Supergirl| 2015}}'' series, [[spoiler:Alura Zor-El and her EvilTwin Astra]] are played by the same actress.
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' uses this with TheReveal early in the series that Charming was actually a twin separated at birth - with the other brother being raised as a prince. After his death, the twin is used to impersonate him. Josh Dallas plays both brothers, though they're never on screen together and James (the deceased one) only appears in a couple of flashbacks. They finally share the screen in Season 5.

** Joxer is one of identical triplets, all played by Ted Raimi. Each of the other two (Jett and Jace) appears separately in a different episode.

* In ''{{Series/Baskets}}'', Zach Galifianakis plays twins Chip and Dale Baskets. In contrast, their twin brothers by adoption Cody and Logan are played by actual twins Garry and Jason Clemmons respectively.

* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'': Tatyana Ali of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' plays a girl whose twin sister (also played by Ali) died trying to get rid of a demon spirit known as the eponymous Quicksilver in the episode "The Tale of the Quicksilver".

* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' reveals in Season 3 that all the Spellmans have an EvilTwin. Naturally, when Sabrina and Zelda's twins appear, Creator/MelissaJoanHart and Beth Broderick double up to play them (named Katrina and Jessebelta respectively).

* In ''{{Series/Popular}}'' a number of twins show up, and many are played by the same person, such as Emory Dick's younger sisters (who are the {{Alpha Bitch}}es at their school) played by [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003779/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t16 Alessandra Torresani]].

* On ''Series/{{iCarly}}'', Creator/JennetteMcCurdy plays both Sam and her nicer girly twin, Melanie, in the episode "[=iTwins=]." She reprises both roles in the ''Series/SamAndCat'' episode "[=#Twinfection=]."

* Done in both versions of ''The Parent Trap'' (the [[Film/TheParentTrap1961 1961 original]] starring Creator/HayleyMills and the [[Film/TheParentTrap1998 1998 remake]] starring Creator/LindsayLohan). The lead plays both separated at birth twins, as they were split as part of their parents' divorce proceedings and kept secret from each other. They swap places to get to know their other parent after meeting at camp before planning to get them back together.

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* Creator/ChrisRock plays two identical twins in ''Film/BadCompany''.

* The season six finale of ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' reveals that [[spoiler: Alison's mother Jessica (murdered several episodes back) has a twin sister in [=CeCe=]'s mother Mary. Andrea Parker plays both roles]].

* In ''Film/ThereWillBeBlood'', Paul Dano plays both Eli Sunday, the two-faced young preacher who squares off against Daniel Plainview, and Paul Sunday, Eli's brother who leads Plainview to the oil on his family's land in exchange for a finder's fee. Dano was originally cast in the much smaller part of Paul, but when the actor who played Eli suddenly left the production, he took the starring role of Eli on short notice. This is played for a gag when Daniel does a DoubleTake on meeting Eli for the first time after having already dealt with Paul.

* The film ''My Brother's Keeper'' features Aaron Ashmore playing twin brothers. The irony? He has a twin who is also an actor (Shawn Ashmore) but was used for stunt work.

* ''Film/TwinDragons'': starring Creator/JackieChan as John and Creator=JackieChan as Boomer. Identical twins separated at birth before reuniting 26 years later.

* ''Series/MaryHartmanMaryHartman'': Martin Mull plays Garth Gimble, who dies after being impaled on a Christmas tree, and his twin brother Barth, host of ''Series/FernwoodTonight''.

** During Julianne Moore's run as Frannie Hughes, she discovers a twin sister[[spoiler:/cousin]] (Sabrina, also played by Moore) while attending Oxford.

* In the 1988 Creator/RichardPryor comedy ''Film/{{Moving}}'', Randy Quaid plays Frank Crawford, a crazy, Vietnam veteran neighbor and his twin brother Cornell, who's the same way.

Reasons for casting this way include when on {{long runner}}s the twin reveal is a plot device thought up for an already developed character later on, and the actor hasn't got a twin. Other times, the production really wanted to hire a certain actor because of their marketability or skill massively outweighing pairs of twins that auditioned. Necessarily they are AlwaysIdenticalTwins. The role in the story may take the form of the BackupTwin.

* In the Creator/ChristopherNolan film ''Film/ThePrestige'', [[spoiler:Christian Bale portrays a magician]] and his identical twin brother, who is heavily disguised and passed off as an assistant whenever they appear together. The two brothers swap roles of [[spoiler:magician]] and assistant, and when one of them loses a finger to injury, they work together to amputate the same finger from the previously-uninjured twin to maintain their role-swapping options.

* In ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'', both Winklevoss twins were played by Armie Hammer. The production team used an innovative VFX technique in which Hammer acted alongside a body double, Josh Pence, while his scenes were filmed, and Hammer's face was later digitally grafted onto Pence's face during post-production.

* In ''Film/NowYouSeeMe2'', Creator/WoodyHarrelson reprises his role from the first film, but also plays the character's twin brother, who was never mentioned in the first movie. In addition, [[spoiler:[[EvilTwin the twin is secretly working for Arthur Tressler]], the BigBad.]]

* Film/MammaMiaHereWeGoAgain reveals that Bill has an identical (albeit [[FatAndSkinny a bit wider]]) twin brother, also played by Creator/StellanSkarsgard. They pull a TwinSwitch at an award ceremony so that Bill can make it to the hotel’s grand opening.