History Main / VirtualCelebrity

* On October 8th, 2020, Creator/{{Sanrio}} and [[Creator/{{Sega}} Sega Toys]] teamed up to create new Sanrio characters called ''Music/{{Beatcats}}'', a 5-piece Virtual Idol Unit starring adorable cats that perform J-Pop created by The Beatcats group.

** [[Creator/MegumiNakajima Gumi]] also joined in the live performance fun, as demonstrated at the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Lf8o_CXOU Digital Content Expo]] using [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality Augmented Reality]]. She would later make regular appearances with fellow Internet Co. rep Gakupo as well as the Crypton squad in [[Website/NicoNicoDouga Nico Nico Cho Party]] concerts.

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Not to be confused with SyntheticVoiceActor. Compare ReusedCharacterDesign. Contrast [[VirtualYouTuber VTubers]], who are basically the opposite - real people performing through [[DigitalAvatar digital avatars]].

* Sharon Apple in ''Anime/MacrossPlus'', who is known to be computer-generated, though she still has a secret: [[spoiler: much of her personality and emotions are drawn from programmer Myung. An attempt to increase her ability to emulate emotions using an experimental military AI chip goes badly.]]
* In ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior'', there's a virtual Idol Singer, Aki-chan. And every nearby male Navi crushes on her, from Gutsman to [=MegaMan=] himself. [[ClingyJealousGirl Roll isn't pleased]].
* Eve Tokimatsuri of ''Anime/{{Megazone 23}},'' though it's well-hidden until well into Part 1. [[spoiler: She's a subroutine of the Bahamut supercomputer that controls the GenerationShip the cast lives on. She chose 1980s Japan as "the best time to live in" and is also responsible for evaluating humanity's readiness to return to Earth at the end of Part 2.]]
* ''Anime/{{Mnemosyne}}'' has an example of this in episode four. The basis of the virtual celebrity is [[spoiler:her memories and thoughts, sucked from the Mad Scientist's daughter, killing her.]]

* ''Anime/AndroidAnnouncerMaico2010'': An android radio announcer.
* Nekomimi A and Nekomimi B, twin [[{{Catgirl}} catgirl]] robots, are apparently the idols of the ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'' world, making cafeteria apperances, hosting virtual gladiator matches, and even starring in their own in-series manga.
* Internet psychic Talisman and virtual anarchist Spooky Boogie from ''Anime/PsychoPass''.
* YUNA from ''Anime/SwordArtOnlineTheMovieOrdinalScale'' is the image character for the augmented-reality game Ordinal Scale, regaling players with songs and temporarily boosting their skills during event battles. It is later revealed that [[spoiler:YUNA is based on her creator Shigemura's daughter who died in the Sword Art Online incident in his quest to fully recreate her as a top-down Artificial Intelligence using the memories of past SAO players]].

[[folder:Comic Book]]
* In ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'': [[spoiler: THE PRESIDENT]] is one of this. There's an {{Anvilicious}} reason why.

* Phony actress Simone in the movie ''Film/{{S1m0ne}}'' is a particularly strong example in that there isn't even an AI involved - 'her' controller speaks for 'her' and programmes 'her' movements directly, making Simone spiritually more akin to a ventriloquists dummy.
%%* Variation in ''The Associate''.
* The Creator/DisneyChannel original movie ''Film/PixelPerfect'' revolves around this, with main character Roscoe using holographic technology to create Loretta Modern, intended to be a multi-talented and seemingly "perfect" vocalist for his best friend's band, the Zettabytes.

* Possibly the UrExample is Adam Selene in ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress''. LaResistance is secretly being organised by Mike, a MasterComputer who has gained ArtificialIntelligence. He creates their ostensible leader 'Adam Selene' who has first a voice (including background noise) to communicate with the Resistance cells by phone, then after the revolution occurs a video image that works in real time. However this bluff won't last forever as those in the know are running out of excuses why no-one can meet Adam face-to-face, so when Earth finally launches an attack they use a body damaged beyond recognition to fake his 'death'.
* Rei Toei and the other idorus in William Gibson's ''Literature/{{Idoru}}''
* There's a book by Creator/NormanSpinrad, ''Little Heroes'', based upon several of those.
* James Tiptree, Jr's short story ''The Girl Who Was Plugged In'' posits a dystopian future where corporations control everything; advertising is forbidden, so corporations have to use celebrity product placements. Delphi was grown from a modified embryo to be a physically perfect human being, but without a functioning brain. She's the perfect celebrity influencer, but needs an outside person (who is "plugged in") to run her.[[note]]These "Remote" people are needed because regular celebrities are capable of independent thought; since many of them are in creative professions, they might be inspired to buy or make something that is off-brand and off-message, ruining a potential market for whatever they were supposed to be selling.[[/note]]

* Series/MaxHeadroom, who went on to become this in real life (except that it was a character played by Creator/MattFrewer in a foam suit in real life), with his own talk show (for which the character was actually created: the pilot didn't turn into its own fiction series for a few years until after a jump across the pond).
* Franchise/TheMuppets are basically treated like real life celebrities everywhere they appear.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Virtuoso", the Emergency Medical Hologram finds himself a celebrity among the [[PlanetOfHats Qomar: smug, isolationist aliens who've never heard music before]]. This newfound fame goes to his head and he seriously considers leaving Voyager, only to find his Qomar girlfriend has created a 'better' version of himself.

* ''Series/MutantX'' had a virtual reporter, Proxy Blue, who reported on mutant-related strange occurrences.

* The band {{Music/Gorillaz}} is presented as four distinct cartoon musicians in performances and music videos, despite really just being [[IAmTheBand Damon Albarn and guest players]].
* Music/{{Prozzak}} are this on their albums and in their videos. However, live shows would simply have the show musicians who played them performing the songs in-character without any animation.
* Possibly hinted at in Music/PeterSchilling's "(Let's Play) U.S.A."
-->"Soon the robots we create will be starring on the Great White Way."
* Music/ThePlasticEGulls are also a cartoon four-piece band performed by one guy, albeit [[StarvingArtist still looking for that big break]]...
* On October 8th, 2020 Creator/{{Sanrio}} and [[Creator/{{Sega}} Sega Toys]] teamed up to create new Sanrio characters called ''Music/{{Beatcats}}''. A 5-piece Virtual Idol Unit starring adorable cats that perform J-Pop created by The Beatcats group.
* Main/{{Kpop}} girl group æspa have this as part of their concept, with virtual "æ" versions of the members preforming alongside them in music videos and appearing in interviews.

* One of the singers whose music you can purchase for BGM in ''VideoGame/PhantomCrash'' is actually just an A.I. Said A.I. (Mona Lisa) was created by and is used by the (first) game's FinalBoss. [[AIIsACrapShoot Go figure.]]

* NG Resonance from the game ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'' is a human pop star, but the AI controlled holographic copies of her fulfill this trope. [[spoiler:It eventually transpires that the AI is actually a WTO controlled espionage system, and that the friendly and affable simulation is significantly different to the spoiled and inconsiderate original it was based on.]] You have the option to make the trope one hundred percent after you meet NG Resonance in person, you can shoot her (not a spoiler, since you can shoot anybody you come in contact with). Strangely, her AI alter ego doesn't seem to care.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'', it turns out that [[spoiler: Eliza Cassan]] is one of these, specifically engineered to [[spoiler: alter human opinions through manipulation of communications and mass media]].
* Courtney Gears from ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'' would be a perfect example, seeing as she's a robotic pop singer. She is not technically made to be a singer, but she fits.
* In the ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' series, all the music in the games is stated to be performed by different bands in-universe, but this trope kicks in with the [[{{Defictionalization}} real-life Japanese concerts]] featuring [[MotionCapture mocaped]] holographic projections of each game's respective {{Idol Singer}}s, who perform both their own songs and some covers of the game's other bands. Funnily enough, despite all these characters having assigned voice actresses, since the games utilize SpeakingSimlish, they need to have all their dialogue between songs subtitled anyway.
* ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt'' has Lumen, who is promoted by [[MegaCorp Sumeragi]] as a virtual IdolSinger. In reality, she's a hologram subconsciously projected by Joule, and her songs manifest Joule's powers.
* ''Videogame/AgentsOfMayhem'' has AISHA, a K-Pop idol group consisting of five sentient [=AI=] (all of whom look identical save for [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience different colored clothing]]) who are romantically involved with cyborg supervillain Steeltoe. [[spoiler:After you defeat Steeltoe, one of the AISHA units becomes a villain]].

** In 2020, a new twitter account titled Seradotwav popped up, with no outward ties to League Of Legends being apparent from the start. The account features a quirky, [[RoseHairedSweetie pink haired]] aspiring singer and producer named Seraphine who claimed to be a real person and denied that the paintings making up her "selfies" were fake. After several weeks of hints being dropped that she was the next champion, and enough time passed which allowed for her to amass a rather large real life fanbase that played along, Seraphine being the next champion was finally confirmed when it was revealed that she would be collaborating with the virtual pop group, K/DA. Following this confirmation, a comic was released showing the interactions between the characters as they collabed on a new song for Worlds 2020.
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'' has Quna, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BptLFRr0NiU who holds scheduled in-game "live" concerts]] as well as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc2dSN9jFmA live action hologram concerts]], similar to Music/MikuHatsune.
** Sometimes guests will appear ingame instead such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUv0mQVWXCw virtual versions of real life singers]] and sometimes even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rvteWFLvvE characters from other games]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBVxsG4EFEI even Miku herself]].
* K.K. Slider from the ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' series became one when he made a surprise appearance in the ''Splatoon 2'' concerts.

* ''VideoGame/LinkLikeLoveLive'' features livestreaming as a unique aspect distinct from other ''Franchise/LoveLive'' series, although in practice it ends up being a weird halfway point between this and {{Virtual Youtuber}}s. The game allows players to watch livestreams of the characters, which are done in real time and feature the actresses performing as their characters, but in-universe they are just considered normal streamers and the actresses are supposed to be in-character for these segments. This is averted outside of the game, where supplementary content for the game features the actresses proper rather than them playing the characters.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Jem of ''WesternAnimation/JemAndTheHolograms'' fame. Indeed, Jem doesn't even exist as a person in the show, she's actually Jerrica [[WeWillNotUseStageMakeUpInTheFuture disguised beyond recognition by means of Synergy's holographic projections]]. The thing that draws the line between virtual star and stage alias? No one but Jerrica's closest friends knows she is Jem. The people in that universe perceive Jem and Jerrica as two different entities.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' features robots who work as entertainers, most notably Calculon, star of the all-robot soap opera ''All My Circuits''.

* Played with by the original VirtualYouTuber, [[WebAnimation/KizunaAi Kizuna Ai]]. While there is a real person behind the cute [[DigitalAvatar avatar]], the character's backstory since debuting in 2016 is that she is a ''literal'' virtual celebrity - a sentient artificial intelligence wanting to connect with humanity.

** Especially Music/HatsuneMiku, who even has her own [[http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hatsune-Miku/10150149727825637?v=wall Facebook]] page). Virtual celebrity to the max! Miku took the next step, aka CharacterCelebrityEndorsement, in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E15PE7iGT0U Toyota Corolla Commercial]] thanks to Toyota sponsoring her upcoming USA concert. She was recruited by Domino's Pizza to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW2D_Votd2Y do the same for them]], along with being featured in a pizza ordering app for [=iOS=] gadgets. She's even helped with Sapporo tourism with the annual "Snow Miku" festival, and serves as the mascot of Goodsmile Racing's stock team as "Racing Miku".

* LetsPlay/ComboPanda and LetsPlay/VTubers (no relation to [[VirtualYouTuber the VTuber movement]]) are children's UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash form of this. They are fictional animated characters portrayed as gamers, meaning they do not exist, yet run popular LetsPlay channels.

* The [[FaceOfTheBand face of]] the Genki Rockets is the fictional character Lumi, born in space in the year 2037, and also appearing in the games ''VideoGame/{{Lumines}} II'' and ''VideoGame/ChildOfEden''. She is depicted as a "holographic" projection in live performances, similar to Miku Hatsune. Her appearance is based on Rachel Rhodes, and her voice is apparently a combination of Rhodes, Nami Miyahara, and possibly others.

* In ''Series/RedDwarf'', "Groovy" Channel 27 has a holographic newsreader.

* The band Binky in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', who are revealed at the end of "Meet Binky" to just be holograms.