Hollywood created a digital double when they needed a younger Harrison Ford for the latest Indiana Jones movie. Video game studio Kojima Productions scanned Norman Reedus’s face and movements to make a virtual version of him for Death Stranding. Lil Miquela, a virtual influencer, earns $10,000 per Instagram post and has worked with brands like Prada, Samsung, and Calvin Klein, even though she is not a real person. The technology to make digital versions of people is already here and used daily. The real challenge comes after the creation.
Who actually owns the rights to a digital double? How can it be licensed? What if it is used without permission? How do agencies handle deals for assets that can exist in many places at once? These are business and legal challenges, and until recently, no one was solving them at scale.
Nour Hassoun worked for years with digital humans in the entertainment industry. He kept seeing the same problem: the technology was impressive, but the logistics were messy. Each digital asset had its own licensing agreement, ownership rules, and complications. To use someone’s voice, 3D model, and AI likeness, you had to make three separate deals with three different groups. Productions often became legal headaches before they even began.
That frustration inspired Impersonas, a platform that lets public figures create, manage, and license their digital doubles in one place. Hassoun calls the product an “impersona,” a digital identity package that includes a person’s 3D model, voice clone, AI likeness, and any other assets linked to their image. Talent sets the rules, approves each use, and gets paid through one licensing agreement. Brands can access licensed digital talent with a single click, without the hassle of complex contracts.
The platform has two main steps. Talent signs up for free, creates their impersona, sets minimum licensing fees and permissions, and uploads their digital assets. Once their impersona is live, it appears in a catalog where brands can request a license with one click. Talent can review offers, send counteroffers, approve uses, and track how their assets are being used. There are no software fees or intermediaries. Impersonas only takes a cut when a deal is made.
There are already more uses for digital doubles than most people realize. In film, they serve two purposes: as virtual stunt performers, allowing actors to stay safe while filming dangerous sequences, and for reshoots, where digital doubles can replace actors without rebuilding sets, rescheduling talent, or repeating the entire production process. In gaming, characters based on real people are now common, from Death Stranding to Fortnite. In Albania, an elected official is an AI-generated woman named Diela. Lil Miquela has almost three million Instagram followers and a music career. As the technology gets cheaper and easier to use, creative applications keep growing. Artists can license their image for merchandise, athletes can join campaigns without being there in person, and musicians can perform in several cities at once through their digital selves.
Impersonas stands out because it does not try to compete on technology. Many well-funded companies are building better avatars, voice clones, and AI models. Hassoun is not focused on that competition. Impersonas is designed to work with those companies. The platform can integrate with ElevenLabs for voice, Sora for AI video, and Epic Games for 3D avatars. The value lies in making assets easy to license, track, and monetize. In entertainment, strong infrastructure means knowing how deals are made, how agencies work, and how image rights are handled.
Impersonas won first place at the AUB iPark innovation awards late last year. Hassoun says iPark helped turn a production problem into a business that could grow. He did not set out to become a founder; he just kept wondering why no one had solved this issue. iPark gave him the structure, network, and motivation to build it himself. A few months later, advisors and investors joined through that same network, some from California and some from the region. According to Hassoun, the ecosystem is bigger than most people think.
Working from Beirut gives the project a unique energy. Nour Hassoun enjoys the West Coast, but nothing compares to building in the Beirut Digital District. Driving to iPark each morning, seeing people focused on their own projects, and feeling that everyone has something to prove creates a special atmosphere. That environment shaped Impersonas’ thinking about resilience. The vision endured tough times, both personal and national. There were many moments when quitting would have been easier. Winning the award felt like proof that staying the course was the right choice.
Looking forward, Nour aims to prove the model through real partnerships in sports, music, fashion, film, and creator media. He is raising a pre-seed round to grow operations in North America and the Middle East. Pilot projects are still under wraps, but early demos will be shown at the Qatar Web Summit in February and at Toronto and New York Tech Week in May and June. The goal for 2026 is to experiment, finding out where digital doubles add real value, where creative uses surprise people, and where licensing can happen faster than ever before.
The long-term vision is easy to explain but tough to achieve. Social platforms already tag AI-generated content so users know what they are seeing. Impersonas wants to add a new label: “Licensed by Impersonas.” This tag would show that the digital content was made with the person’s consent, involvement, and payment. It would become a symbol of trust in an industry where authenticity is hard to confirm. Digital doubles are here to stay, and the technology will only improve. The real question is whether talent will control how their likeness is used, or if studios and platforms will decide for them. Impersonas believes that talent, agencies, and brands all want the same thing: a simple, legal, one-click way to make deals without the usual chaos.
What started as a production problem in Los Angeles has become a platform built in Beirut. Impersonas aims to ensure that when digital doubles are used, the real people remain in control, get paid, and stay involved creatively. Focusing on infrastructure instead of flashy technology may not sound exciting, but it could be the most important part of the avatar industry.
