Enfield make-up artist Maria makes global headlines with her many faces

Sitting at her kitchen table in Enfield, the mum-of-two uses just a simple palette of black and white make-up and no prosthetics to turn herself into the Queen, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie or even a gruesome pumpkin creature.

Her talents have made her famous around the world, this week the Today show travelled from America to film with her, and Maria recently transformed herself into Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning.

“It all kind of kicked off in June,“ says the 40-year-old, “Now I have had lots of requests, been on television shows and Tottenham Hotspur want to do some filming with me.“ She adds: “It’s all been really surprising as I didn’t realise I was doing something nobody else was.

Originally from Ireland, Maria has always has a passion for drawing, but turned down a place at Limerick Art College in favour of a moving to London where she settled in Enfield, met her husband and together they opened a café. But in her early 30s she enrolled herself at make-up school in Camden.

From there she has gone on to work as a freelance make-up artist on the BBC drama The Cut, Channel 4’s Horrible Histories, the film The Boat That Rocked and musicals Evita, Rock of Ages and Viva Forever, but discovered her talent for turning her face into others by chance when she was asked to do face painting at her children’s schools.

“I just love illusion,“ says Maria, who favours turning into male celebrities. “As I’m a white Irish woman I thought it would be hilarious to make myself into a man and when you look at a lot of female pictures they are so airbrushed and photoshopped.

“Heaven for me is Clint Eastwood – the more lines and wrinkles the better.“

To see if you guessed corrrectly visit Maria’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account @mersartmakeup

See more of her spooky creations below

What Maria really looks like