Culture

Welsh chaplain embraces new ‘Mandy Burnham’ nickname after going viral

29 Jul 2026 3 minute read

Amelia Jones

A Swansea chaplain has gone viral after social media users said she looks remarkably like Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Emma Roberts found herself at the centre of an unexpected TikTok trend this week after users began pointing out a resemblance between her and the Labour politician, with some even suggesting she adopt the name ‘Mandy Burnham’.

Roberts is a Quaker chaplain who has spent the past two years building her Quakerology channel, where she shares content about “liberal theology, spiritual practice and realism”.

However, her usual social media content has recently been overshadowed by the growing number of viewers commenting on her likeness to the Prime Minister.

The comparisons have become so frequent that Roberts has decided to embrace her unexpected new online identity, joking that she is now ‘Mandy Burnham’.

Speaking to Channel 5 News, she explained that she had been working to grow her online presence before the comparisons suddenly brought a wave of new attention to her content.

She said: “I’ve been trying to get this podcast up and going. I’ve got like 700 viewers on YouTube, that’s my main channel. And nothing, you know, nothing grows that quickly does it? But suddenly, God has made a Prime Minister look like me.”

The resemblance has even been acknowledged by Roberts’ own family, with the chaplain revealing that she recently spoke to her mother and sister about the growing number of comments.

She said: “Well I’ve just been on the phone to my mother and my sister, and I said to them, look everybody’s saying that I’m Mandy Burnham because I look so much like him. I’m just leaning into it

“…So there you go, even my own mother, she said to me after twenty minutes: ‘I’ve been looking at you on this Zoom call for 20 minutes, thinking the exact same thing.'”

Roberts has since leaned further into the joke, sharing a follow-up video on social media in which she said she hoped her newfound resemblance to the Prime Minister might eventually lead to a meeting between the pair.

She added: “My main aim, I think, is get Andy to have an interview, recorded conversation on my Youtube channel Quakerology, where I talk about people’s faith journeys. I am interested in his Catholic upbringing. I’m interested in what his mother thinks about all this.

“Maybe I should interview his mother. That’s the thing to do.”

You can subscribe to her YouTube channel here, or follow her on TikTok here.

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