Cosplay, or "costume play", is a part of Japanese anime culture that has spread worldwide. It is a fun way for anime fans all over the world to express their love for their certain favorite anime character. Cosplay has since then evolved for not just anime alone, but also for video games, comic books and even movies and TV series'. It is a fact that this trend started in Japan, but its popularity has completely spread and it indeed became a worldwide phenomenon. People do cosplay as a hobby, it is fun, exciting and is a great opportunity to meet new friends that you have something in common with.

Some cosplayers did manage to stand out amongst others and gained quite a fanbase from their passion. Some of them became a household name in the world of cosplay that they gained the privilege to be invited in international cosplay conventions, they had a chance to even act as a judge for competitions and people would pay just to see them face to face via meet and greet. Are you curious who those cosplayers are? Then you're in for a treat. We've listed popular cosplayers that you can follow on Instagram in no particular order.

Jessica Nigri

Her Instagram: Jessica Nigri

Jessica is a famous American cosplayer, model, voice actress and YouTuber. Her career in the cosplay world took off since she started doing it in 2009, aside from cosplay, she also started modelling by the year 2012. If you've been familiar with the international cosplay scene around the time she had began, you would remember her as the "sexy Pikachu" of 2009 that absolutely went viral. Jessica's career took off when she was hired as spokesmodel by different gaming companies, including Warner Bros. Games. She also became a interview correspondent for many events.

Leon Chiro

His Instagram: Leon Chiro

Leon is a well know male cosplayer who hailed from Italy. He does cosplay as a profession, in fact, he has worked with a lot of gaming companies over the years like Square-Enix, Ubisoft, Capcom, and Riot games. Countless gaming and anime events and conventions had invited him to guest in over 30 countries as far as his career goes, and that's quite an achievement. Leon has been known to have great passion for his craft, he had handmade most of his costumes, specially armor parts. I know you agree that he does nail his characters with the help of his incredible physique which he works really hard to maintain. 

Alodia Gosiengfiao

Her Instagram: Alodia Gosiengfiao

Alodia first gained fame on 2003 when she cosplayed Rikku from Final Fantasy X-2 alongside her equally famous sister, Ashley Gosiengfiao in the Philippines. She has definitely made a name for herself and has achieved a lot by doing her passion. Now, she is quite a celebrity not just in the cosplay and gaming world, but in the entertainment industry as well. She also landed multiple endorsements, making her a known commercial model as well as a TV host. These days, you can see her streaming games online aside from all her other activities and gigs. She's one of the cosplayers who has been around for so long but her fame never really died down, in fact, she continues to gain more followers overtime.

Aza Miyuko

Her Instagram: Aza Miyuko

Kang Yun Jin, also know as Aza Miyuko, is a South Korean cosplayer. She started in the cosplay scene as part of the all female cosplay group called Spiral cats which was formed in 2009, but she later left the group in 2013. She's a fashion design student and she first had an idea about cosplay during Korea Comic World. Since she's into fashion design, she's also known to sew her own costumes. Miyuko has made cosplay her full time career, she's became popular not just in Korea, but worldwide, she's been invited to a lot international cosplay events and has gained quite a big following throughout her cosplay career. 

Linda Le / VampyBitMe

Her Instagram: VampyBitMe

Linda Le is of Vietnamese descent but is living in Los Angeles. She is a model, cosplayer and an internet celebrity. She is more known in the cosplay world as Vampy or Vampy Bit Me. She is mostly known for her on-point portrayals of Psylocke of X-men and Morrigan Aensland from the arcade game Darkstalkers. She has been invited to over 200 American conventions in the span of 2008 and 2013. 

Okageo

His Instagram: Okageo

This famous male cosplayer is known to create his costumes under $100, and has learned to do that with practice and creativity. Despite him being practical, he still manages to pull off amazing portrayals of many different characters. He has been invited to be a judge and guest of honor in many cosplay competitions in different countries. Companies like Crunchyroll and Elsword had also hired him to portray many characters as part of promotions for new anime series' and newly launched video games. 

Tomia

Her Instagram: Tomia

Kim Jung Hoon who is also known as Tomia in the cosplay world, hails from South Korea. Just like Aza Miyuko, Tomia is also a former member of the South Korean all group cosplay group Spiral cats but eventually departed it as well. She is known for her incredibly cute looks and bubbly charm. She has portrayed quite a number of cute female characters such as Ahri from League of Legends, Krul Tepes from Owari no Seraph and Sakura Kinimoto from Cardcaptor Sakura.

Reika

Her Instagram: Reika

Believe it or not, this cosplayer is actually born female, yes, you read that right. Her amazing makeup skills had managed to make her really popular by doing on-point male cosplays. A few of her popular cosplays would be Levi from Attack On Titan, Shoto Todoroki from Boku no Hero Academia and Genos from One punch man. She has done an impressive amount of male cosplays and continues to do so until now, though she occasionally does female character cosplays as well, like Junko Enoshima from Danganronpa. Her skills had definitely gained her a lot of followers, all looking forward for what she has in store next. 

Liui Aquino

His Instagram: Liui Aquino

Liui Aquino is a known cosplayer in the Philippines. He first gained international popularity after his portrayal of Hiccup from the animated movie How to train your dragon. He has been invited into international cosplay conventions to guest and to judge competitions. His interest in cosplay sparked on the year 2010 and has been into it ever since. Flying to many different countries and meeting a lot cosplay enthusiast has sure helped him in his craft because making his own costumes has been a practice for Liui over the course of his cosplay career as well.

Yayahan

Her Instagram: Yayahan

Yayahan is a cosplayer from the United States that is of Chinese descent. When she first started cosplaying, she had no knowledge on how to sew her own costumes, but being the creative person that she is, she managed to accomplish the art of costume making, making it one of the her full time careers which is quite impressive because she is completely self taught. At present, she had managed to creative over 400 costumes, an truly outstanding record. She has been invited to more than 100 conventions as a guest and judge as well over the course of her cosplay career. 

Hana and Baozi

Their Instagram: Hana and Baozi

This famous male cosplay duo is from China and are known to portray both male and female characters, though the female part is mostly left for Hana to play. Both of them have something bring to their cosplays, Hana is in charge of makeup (which are amazing and on-point) and Baozi is an expert when it comes to prop making. Their popularity had managed to invite them to many international conventions as guests.

Ely

Her Instagram: Ely

Ely is a female cosplayer hailing from Taiwan and has quite a lot of fans and followers on her social media accounts, her Instagram alone has 771k followers. She shot to fame after her portrayal of Asuka from Evangelion and Sakuya from Touhou. One factor of her popularity is her very detailed and intricate costumes and it is evident in her cosplays, like Sakuya from Touhou.

Adonis

His Instagram: Adonis Cosplay

Adonis' cosplay was made known when he portrayed Kakashi from Naruto, it is one of the best Kakashi cosplays there is and people are totally loving it. He continued to do other cosplays as well which delivered great results, aside from cosplay, he makes sure that his body is always in check by constantly working out, it is after all one of the contributing factors as to why he portrays great looking characters.