It’s Tim-Houthi Chalamet! Wavy-haired Yemeni TikToker sparks admiring comparisons with Wonka star after filming himself on cargo ship seized by Iran-backed rebels – ‘My timbers are shivered’

A young Yemeni man has been dubbed Tim-Houthi Chalamet due to his striking resemblance to the Wonka star after filming himself on a cargo ship seized by Houthi rebels last year.

The wavy TikToker posted a video of himself approaching the massive Galaxy Leader ship captured by the Iran-backed group in November, prompting admiring comparisons to his Hollywood lookalike.

A second clip then showed him posing on the deck of the tanker, his phone in one hand and a red, white and black Yemeni flag in the other, as a social media user wrote that their “timber” was “shuddered.”

The Galaxy Leader was hijacked in the Red Sea on November 19 by at least ten armed Houthis, who used a helicopter to board the ship.

Since then, it has been moored in the waters off the coast of Yemen and converted into a tourist attraction at the port of Ras Issa, about eight kilometers from the village of As-Salif.

A number of Yemeni social media influencers have since climbed aboard, sharing videos of themselves on the cargo ship’s deck.

Photos show them walking around the deck waving both Yemeni and Palestinian flags, peeled off by armed men believed to be Houthis.

The clips have been widely shared online after being posted on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube by the influencers who enjoyed the capture of the ships while expressing their support for the Palestinians and the people of Gaza.

The latest video to catch the attention of internet users was posted in recent days by a man named Rashid Al Haddad, according to his social media profiles.

In the first clip, Rashid is seen approaching the Galaxy Leader on a smaller boat, filming his face as the Israeli-affiliated ship looms in the background.

A second man is seen on the bow of the small boat, navigating him to the ship.

In another clip, he is then seen on the deck of the Galaxy Leader, waving the flag of Yemen, while a third clip shows him below deck, walking through a large empty space that likely once housed some of the ship’s cargo ship contained.

A photo of Rashid then showed him back on shore, with the ship in the distance.

Online users were quick to notice his resemblance to Hollywood superstar Timothée Chalamet – who has played leading roles in films such as Wonka, Dune, Little Women and the French Dispatch, with one netizen even calling him ‘Tim-Houthi Chalamet’.

“Why is Timothy Chalamet working with the Houthis?” another made fun of X.

Others commented on how attractive they found Rashid, with one writing: “That man should be a model.” Another simply wrote: ‘Shudder me.’

In a similar theme, someone else on

Despite comments assuming Rashid was a pirate or a Houthi rebel, MailOnline was unable to confirm this one way or the other.

His limited social media activity did not indicate he was a Houthi member, but according to his TikTok account, an earlier version of his account was recently banned on the platform.

MailOnline has contacted Rashid for comment.

The Galaxy Leader was traveling between Turkey and India when it was seized on November 19, one of a number of ships attacked by the Houthis.

The Yemeni rebel group, which controls part of the country’s west, says its attacks on ships in the Red Sea are in support of the Palestinians, amid Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza, sparked by the October 7 Hamas terror attack on the Jewish stands.

The attacks have disrupted the vital shipping route where ships travel up and down the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal.

Several companies have rerouted ships around the southern tip of Africa to avoid the region’s dangers, adding several days to each journey.

The main east-west route accounts for about 12 percent of global shipping traffic.

On Monday, the Houthi movement vowed to expand its targets in the Red Sea region to include American ships, following American and British attacks on its locations in Yemen last week.

British and American ships had become “legitimate targets” due to the attacks the two countries launched on Yemen last week, Nasruldeen Amer, a spokesperson for the Houthis, told Al Jazeera.

“The ship doesn’t necessarily have to be headed to Israel for it to be targeted; it is enough that it is American,” Amer said.

“The United States is about to lose its maritime security.”

The group previously said it would only target Israeli ships or ships bound for Israel.