Kelly Ripa Transforms into Ariana Grande as Glinda — See the Wicked Side-by-Side and Uncanny Resemblance!

Kelly Ripa is taking fans behind the scenes of her “popular” transformation into Wicked’s Glinda.

 

The Live! with Kelly and Mark host, 54, shared a glimpse into her makeup team working their magic to make her look like Ariana Grande’s character in the 2024 hit film in a new Instagram video on Feb. 26. 

The video kicked off with a time lapse of Ripa sitting in a chair as makeup and hairstylists did their work, putting on the Glinda makeup and styling her blonde hair just like the character’s. A clip then showed the television imitating Grande’s smile in the film and taking selfies in her look.

The video then showed several photos of Ripa in several of Glinda’s outfits throughout the movie, including the sort pink dress she wore during “Defying Gravity” and the prep school uniform she wore during the “What Is This Feeling” segment — complete with books and a pink shoulder bag. 

She ended the video with a few snaps of her posing in Glinda’s iconic pink bubble gown that she begins the movie with — with a tiara and wand to match. The last shot showed Ripa being edited into Glinda’s bubble with the words “Ariana Grande Is Glinda” at the top.

“Follow me beyond Oz into the land of make believe,” she captioned the video. She added, “Let’s hear it for the actual wizards ????????,” while tagging her makeup artist and hairstylist Kristofer Buckle and  Ryan Trygstad.

Ripa and her husband, Mark Consuelos, previously shared a look into their pre-taped opening of Live with Kelly and Mark's annual After the Oscars Show with the duo acting out scenes as Glinda and Fiyero (played by Jonathan Bailey), respectively. 

The television hosts could be seen lip syncing to various songs as they were edited into various scenes of Wicked, including Bailey’s “Dancing Through Life” number and Grande’s “Popular.” In the segment Ripa even jokingly referred to her character as "Kel-inda.”

Ripa — who had an uncanny resemblance to Grande in the makeup and hair — even decided to play a prank on her husband, saying she decided to FaceTime him dressed as Glinda. She had her assistant make the call and tell him that she wanted him to say hello over FaceTime.

"It was very funny because I could see he was secretly annoyed and doing that fake nice thing at first. He was like, 'Oh my gosh, hiiiii!.' And then once I spoke, his face totally changed and he was like, 'Wait a minute...' " she recalled.

“... She completely fooled me because when I grabbed the phone, I truly thought that was Grande," he said, before jokingly adding, "It was freaky!"

He's not the only one Ripa tricked. "I FaceTimed my daughter and her best friend while I was in costume and fooled both of them, too," she said of Lola Consuelos. "It was great."

Live with Kelly and Mark's After the Oscars Show special airs Monday, March 3, in syndication (check local listings).