Brisbane man Shaun Birley has been mistaken as Ryan Reynolds by fans. Picture: Instagram

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The Brisbane resident gets lots of product promotion requests.

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“I wish I could say that he could potentially be my half brother but no,” he laughs. “The funny thing is I just don’t see it and it comes up every day from people.”

The airport video of fans asking him for selfies created exposure, catching the eye of people who work directly with Mr Reynolds, one of whom offered Mr Birley a job in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.

“Unfortunately, we had a clashing of schedules and I missed out on a body double ad with Ryan Reynolds in Abu Dhabi three months ago. He is the new ambassador for Abu Dhabi. The producers said they’ll keep me in mind for future work which is cool.”

His film star looks have seen him amass over 118,000 followers on Instagram alone for his men’s fashion advice posts over the past few years, creating collaborative work with major brands that’s helped him save to buy property.

Mr Birley enjoying the sunshine at Noosa.

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Mr Birley has 118,000 followers on his Instagram account which focuses on men’s style, fashion and travel. Picture: Instagram

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Brisbane, he said, was “epic”. “I love this city. I think it was one of the most underrated cities in the world to be honest. Look at it now, going nuts with the Olympics coming too. It’s so cool and the people make it such a welcoming place to live.”

Born in South Africa, Mr Birley moved to Brisbane about nine years ago with his parents, buying a three bedroom townhouse in North Lakes for $489,000 off Stockland in 2016.

That property has now sold for $700,000 through Place Ascot agents Drew Davies and Olivia Charlton, fetching $15,000 more than it was listed for.

Mr Birley has also bought into Graya’s Bulimba luxury apartment project, Canvas, buying a three bedroom, two bathroom 131sq m apartment for $1.34m in 2022 off the plan.

“Those guys do an amazing job,” he said. “That’s gone up quite a bit. I paid $1.34m and it’s been revalued at $1.7m. That was completed late last year. It’s an investment.”

He has sold his three bedroom townhouse in North Lakes for $700,000.

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He bought a three-bedroom apartment in this Bulimba project for $1.34m.

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Mr Birley – who juggles producing content for brands and educating men on fashion, style and travel – has a day job that he can do from anywhere, operating tech shipping firm InXpress, which compares shipping options for businesses.

“We compare DHL, FedEx, UPS, TNT and other courier companies against each other, and then you can choose based on weight, volume, size, urgency and how far away the destination is. It’s busy. It’s a cool software we implement into warehouses so they don’t have to create multiple accounts with courier companies.”

That flexibility allows him to travel extensively, including to play polo in Argentina which he is currently doing.

Mr Birley’s day job is with a tech firm that compares shipping options for business.

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Mr Birley in a campaign for Uniqlo.

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“I’ll play a month worth of games in Argentina and then come back here to play the Australian polo season,” he said. “I’ll probably be joining a team called Larapinta. They’re based about 30 minutes outside of Brisbane.”

Asked about the idea of Argentinian locals thinking they’re seeing the Hollywood star playing polo, Mr Birley laughed, saying “I don’t think Ryan Reynolds knows he plays polo too”.

For fans who hope to catch the glimpse of the Hollywood star, the closest they may get this year though is the closing keynote address at the annual AREC conference on the Gold Coast which Mr Reynolds is due to give – though it will be via satellite.