A method, computer readable medium and apparatus for verifying an identity of an individual based upon facial expressions as exhibited in a query video of the individual are disclosed. The method includes receiving a reference video for each one of a plurality of different individuals, wherein a plurality of facial gesture encoders is extracted from at least one frame of the reference video describing one or more facial expressions of each one of the plurality of different individuals, receiving the query video, calculating a similarity score for the reference video for the each one of the plurality of different individuals based on an analysis that compares the plurality of facial gesture encoders of the at least one frame of the reference video for the each one of the plurality of different individuals to a plurality of facial gesture encoders extracted from at least one frame of the query video.