- pretend to be someone you are not

- sometimes with fraudulent intentions
"She posed as the Czar''s daughter"

- represent another person with comic intentions

- assume or act the character of
"She impersonates Madonna"
"The actor portrays an elderly, lonely man"

1. To invest with personality; to endow with the form of a living being.

2. To ascribe the qualities of a person to; to personify.

3. To assume, or to represent, the person or character of; to personate; as, he impersonated Macbeth.

"Benedict impersonated his age." -- Milman.