People you know who have achieved some moderate amount of fame

My high school classmate Jeff founded Razorfish; another is a DJ on a local ROCK station in Minneapolis. Don, a friend of my late uncle's who was nice to me when I was little, is the CBS anchor in Minneapolis (he was a reporter then). My HS classmate's little brother Josh was one of the original MST3K writers when he was like 12 or something. My college classmates Juliana, Yancey and Melora are very successful actresses - Juliana has an Emmy or two. Amanda and Noah are writers of big posh historical biographies and sensitive novels respectively; I went to college with them too. Margaret and Kurt played in indie bands on Too Pure and 4AD; Richard is a DJ but is nicknamed after his ancestor's most famous book. Ivy premiered a documentary she directed about her grandparents, E&J Rosenberg, earlier this year.

Your turn.

The same applies to Steph Swainston, who I suspect is about to become rather big in the SF/Fantasy world. Her first novel's just been published to high acclaim from M John Harrison and China Mieville amongst others. Again, not bosom buddies, but we had close friends in common.

Everyone I used to work on the student newspaper with also appears to have gone into journalism somehow, except me.

Kari, my pal in high school and my brother's old girlfriend, became a b-movie queen. (she was even in Anaconda with J-Lo!)

Betsey, another high school pal, became a world famous artist. She first became famous for her paintings of kurt cobain and jarvis cocker.

And Liz, one of my best friends from high school, is now a doom-rock legend who has recently joined the most excellent Electric Wizard. (not too many women guitarists in the stoner metal field.)

All three of them are really cool. And they all liked each other too.

My HS classmate's little brother Josh was one of the original MST3K writers when he was like 12 or something.

Josh W., then -- he did start out very young but not THAT young, he was around 17 or so when the show got off the ground and also acted on camera for the first two years.

In my case, counting only people I knew first as friends rather than folks through 'work' as Suzy puts it, hm hm hm. Well there's Brian aka donut bitch, who has gotten on radio via Lance Lockarm o' course. Friend Eric from UCLA days is a regular night DJ on KCRW in LA. Quite a few writers from the UCI Writing Program, unsurprisingly, notably Aimee B., Alice S. and Glen David G., casual acquaintances all but extremely good folk.

Ned, Josh was always funny, even as a zygote.

New York friends/acquaintances include a popular non-fiction writer, a couple people in bands, and a lot of magazine writers.

Chicago acquaintances: the inventor of the National Poetry Slam and the daughter of the current Vice President of the United States of America. (We didn't get out much.

In short, he's a a free speech scholar and advocate who's testified before Congress and debated Pat Buchanan on TV.

That's funny; I can't actually imagine people calling him "Richard."

I share Nicole's sentiment re: my past.

(I like that Ashlee Simpson song btw)

was this founding member ever in journey?

Harry Knowles was a chum of mine on early days of the internet.

And more, but they're not as interesting.

I worked with N1ck Braceg1rdle at art college for a while - he later signed to cheesy house label Xtravagansa and made a heap of cash as Chicane making shitey records with Bryan Adams.

Occasionally used to hang out with A1ex1s Pedr1di5h in our sixth form years, when i used to drool over his Sarah Records collection..

In college I was in the same class as best-selling novelist N1ck (now N1cholas) Sparks (The Notebook, Message in a Bottle), who was on the track team with one of my best friends in my dorm.

i have an uncle who's always in the irish (and lately some international) news for dodgy business dealings.

my cousin once beat the shit out of two members of 5ive in a pub in dublin.

and i was madly in love with a girl who was in the rose of tralee

none of this is really very good, is it? i guess i just didn't go to the right parties.....

I was penpals with Beck Thomas of the Mavis's when we were in high school.
I went to college with, and still see and say hi to now and then, Ad4m R1chard who does standup and has been on things like Rove quite often (I googleproof this one coz Adam's evil and would probably google himself).
Ex-Wallabies Australian rugby test captain, David Campese, is friends with my dad, and popped up to our house one day for a bit of a hand as his car battery had died (he's from the same town I'm from).
I hung out with the guys who were in Sidewinder, back in Canberra (when the band was still complete unknowns). They were a bit "hello, we're English so that automatically makes us cooler than you". But, eh.
Suzy Balogh who won the gold medal for Australia in some shooting event, went to my school, in my brother's year. Her sister Stef was in my year. She is a writer for the Australian now.

Im sure theres some others...

My dad used to work for Chris Martin's dad.

My brother used to know Thom Yorke when Thom was at Exeter University and my brother was in a local band called The Love Children. One of his mates was in The Real World London back in 1995, and had his tongue bitten off and stuff. He's now an internet millionaire or something. My other brother used to know Mega City Four. I think that's about it.

the bloke i shared a flat with in college went to national youth theatre with matt lucas (grasping at straws a bit now...)

My hubby, Scott Seward, has achieved some fame as a rock-crit. His brother, Dan Bunny, has slight fame for his music.

Co1in D3xter - author of the Inspector Morse series lives round the corner from my house.

hmmmm, my list's a bit shit really..

a friend of mine was elvis dingle in Emmerdale not long ago.

and an additional bonus tale although not an answer to the question - i held the exit doors open for the bouncers of a night club while they were throwing out lan Brown.

Jocelyn, is your Paris Review friend called J4m3s and is he often in London?

The Rasmus, which has been making some waves on European record charts, played one of their first gigs in my high school's party back in '95 or '96.

When I was 18 I used to knock around with the son of Liverpool manager R*y Evans, who was a lovely chap. He made the Sun for getting done for possesion of about a spliffs worth of cannabis poor lad. I also knew a lad who trialed with Lazio and a guy who went on to captain Leek Town, actually I think he still does. Oh and another lad played for Burscough in their phenomenal FA Trophy win at Villa Park, he nearly scored from a corner.

FHM meatrack Davinia Taylor was in my primary school, although she had a different name then.

I've known 2 Weakest Link contenders, one won, the other was a complete freak who stalked my friends.

My old mate Dave is in Seachange - look at that new Matador compilation and have a look who he's alongside, so jealous.

And of course the crazy artist Shirokuma is one of my best friends.

Johnny Temple! Awesome!

I have so many second-degree famous connections, and so few of my own. Serves me right for being a rabid obscurantist.

Hey and I am forgetting, I know a reasonably famous monrel ;) Or am I not allowed to talk about that?

is he kind of tall, have a huge cock, and is into group sex? i think i met him at a club once.

Jeff is quite thin - dancer's body etc - and 5'10' tops, with dark brown hair. Being female, there would be zero opportunity for me to arrange cock-viewing so can't address that.

anyhow, this girl i lived next to in an NYU dorm is now the lead on some WB television show. and a boy i was friends with since 2nd grade spoke at the million man march. and this guy i knew from paris moved to new york and now writes the social pages for this gay magazine.

can you confirm the possible lie I spread that her name is actually al1c1a s1lv3rst13n? because someone told me this but I don't remember who so now I don't know if they were reliable or a crack smoker.

Do you mean Kr1st1n B311? If so, she's a pretty good actress and her show is really good.

People I knew or was friends with at school are variously massive-selling/non-charting Christian singer-songwriters, members of major-label-signed faux-French-house bands, producing tracks for P. D1ddy and Darren Emer5on, and the drummer for The V1ne5 (who used to draw Van Halen logos all over his books during exams!)

[The same school produced that Meat Carrot fella from the Labor Party and M1dn1ght O1l, but well before my time. Must be something in the water though. There are at least four non-famous but gigging bands in Sydney with alumni I know, too.]

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0196909/

Oh and one of my best friends wrote this film:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377749/

HOOS: funny story
there's this girl i know
over the weekend i got a popup that included a pornographic photo of her and two friends
and i thought "what the hell....i've SEEN this picture"
and i got onto facebook and found the original
someone had photoshopped a wang and some splooge onto an otherwise innocuous photo of these girls
and then put it into a porn ad
that freaks me out man
CRUTIS: omg
did you tell her
HOOS: i'm almost embarassed to roll up on her like "so uh i found this fake photoshopped porn photo of you while i was....surfing the internet....the other night"
CRUTIS: lol tru
HOOS: so yeah i feel like i should say something but i dunno what to say
Sent at 12:31 PM on Wednesday
CRUTIS: "hey, have you ever wondered what your face looks like covered in splooge?"
HOOS: now you can see the results with two of your best friends!
Sent at 12:33 PM on Wednesday
CRUTIS: not sketchy-sounding at all
HOOS: haha

Seriously though this makes me feel all :-/ for this girl's privacy.

Isn't suzy admirably restrained in this thread!

My friend Raj is a Kansas state rep. Highschool friend Lindsay was roommates with Leona Nass! My aunt dated a superfamous Indy car driver but now I can't remember his name. Same aunt owned a nightclub in Houston where Bruce Willis would hang out pre-fame. Okay, I know no famous people.

My college classmates Juliana, Yancey and Melora are very successful actresses

― suzy (suzy), Sunday, September 26, 2004 5:37 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Four years later, I now know of exactly one successful actress named Melora

I went to school with Johnny Borrell, but I don't know him any more. I think my most famous actual aquaintance (ie Facebook friend) is the Dubstep producer Scuba.

One of my college pals was on Countdown! He came up with the word "Poofter"! It was awesome!

xxp So Suzy went to college with Jan Levinson-Gould?

I guess my answer to this thread is now Sarah Haskins

It would have to be Layla Jade.

This guy was in my primary school class

My little brother is one of the voices for this Australian children's show

I am also marginally related to this short-serving prime minister of Canada.

i went to college with the topmost gentleman: http://haal9000.com/dvd2008/images/minutemen.jpg

topmost indeed

- a modestly successful child actor
- local log cabin republican
- writer/actor on popular sitcom
- chicago rock and rollers
- trespassed on k3illor's property a few times

Suzy was the second person I CTRL+F'ed on this thread. She was indeed restrained.

("Pleasan" was the first name I looked for. Didn't find anything, thank goodness.)

A good friend from high school wrote this:

http://media.us.macmillan.com/jackets/Tilted/9780374310264.jpg

This guy, who used to perform at a variety show I hosted, had a cameo on SNL a few weeks ago:

http://www.comedycentral.com/images/openmicfight/contenders/kumail_nanjiani_m4.jpg

People I'm Facebook friends with who have their own Wikipedia entries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Frost
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Raggett

Do you actually know Edith Frost, because if so OMG LOVE HER

Ha, I don't know Edith at all, really, but we once exchanged e-mails about how we both love Lida Husik.

Yeah, a friend of mine dated her for a while.

Ugh I know members of a film production group who got a film played at Cannes and a fashion spread in the NYT magazine.

did you know she lives by you?

her music is pretty good. /polite

(to polyp)

I used to work with Will Sheff.

Oh, and Hollis Queens although she was already "famous" then so I don't know if that counts.

I once traded posts with Momus on a Belle and Sebastian-related message board.

i once played scrabulous with a famous wake-boarder

i've met some bloggers

rogue financier charlie keating lived in my neighborhood during the 60s and 70s, i went to school w/his kids. they lived in the biggest house in our otherwise modest subdivision. he was the self-appointed big cheese in our local church and anti-porn moral crusader in cincinnati. my parents to their everlasting credit always said he was a phony. we all LOL-ed long distance years later when he became a convicted felon. waking up one morning in the 80s and seeing "big charlie" in handcuffs on the front page of the new york times was gratifying, i hate to admit.

I did a poster for Edith Frost

If she lives by me, I'm going to go stand outside her house until she signs my CD.

oh yeah walter mondale lived down the street when i was growing up

i know quite a few published poets, who've been on radio 4, resonance, won awards, been in national papers.

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web07-08w/newswire-fitz-roy-traverse-wilkinson-drummond

college buds with one, met the other a few times

i liveblogged with wrinklepaws at daddy's in williamsbourg

i was in a "band" with gbx

lol

reunion tour 09?

I went to high school with these guys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Scalzi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Marshall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Arias

One of my teachers there was the co-discoverer of this guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinonychus

went to elementary school with NFL players Deshea Townsend and Dwayne Rudd.

i was also tight with Mitch McConnell's campaign manager when we were 7.

I am friends with vampire romance writer Maryjanice Davidson (and her writer husband, Anthony Alongi).

Also, NED.

my sister's husband edited last days of disco, bully and other films
my husband's brother is on a long steady climb to bunny fame
i now am chumsy with w1lly mas0n - he volunteers at our radio station

oh, but musicians don't count?

bunny fame
?

http://www.thebunnybrains.com/

o i have funneled beer with a somewhat infamous san francisco supervisor

Aside from the usual crop of indie rock miscreants and neer-do-wells:

- my uncle was an astronaut

- the personality behind Found Magazine is a friend o' mine

- another friend's dad is Stephen Schwartz

- my childhood best friend was a contestant in the 2007 season of The Next Food Network Star on the Food Channel

One of my best friends, and my daughter's godfather is Dubstep auteur and Skull Disco founder, Shackleton.

He's the sweetest friend in the world.

Ex-flatmate was buddies w/ the chick from the elephant.co.uk commercials

Two members of C4m3ra Ob5cur4 were guests at my wedding.

gf is good friends with a few twee pop stars
a casual friend was co-star of an hbo show
a buddy of mine is pals with edan

Your turn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mother's needlework teacher's cousin made Sean Connery's chest wig for the movie "Dr. No"

this thread prompted me to look up a few people from high school who i'd expect to be moderately well known, and several of them seem to be doing well, which rather pleases me. a model, a soprano and a film score composer are probably doing the best.

some vague daughter of a friend of a friend of the family was a presenter on CBBC and the Disney Channel for a while. The best I can do for someone I properly knew is a schoolmate I knew from age 4 who's in prison for a particularly vicious murder. Which is nice. O no, I knew someone who sang on some Roger Waters classical album, and is presumably doing some stuff of reasonable note in that field still.

Ooh, do murderers count? This dude was my tutor when I was doing my post-grad (the murderer, not the victim)

Andrew Forsman, drummer, and Tim Ward, former bassist, of the band Fall of Troy were classmates of mine

The guitarist went to my HS, too, but I never knew him

ailsa wins.

yeah, my murderer only repeatedly dropped a paving stone on someone's head. :( (good that murder seems to be one of Scotland's premier routes to celebrity, though.)

i am friends with this woman's son

and i've come to know this, er, woman through my boyfriend

if anyone i went to HS with has achieved even moderate fame, i didn't know them personally

nick power, keyboard player from the coral was in my german class.

One of my best friends from highschool became a moderately succesful model, I saw her in Vogue in wedding outfits once. She never got to known-name status tho.

My bf was online mates with 65dos before they were really famous, but thats stretching things a bit. I think he also knows Ed DMX Krew, vaguely.

A college pal of mine delivers hard-hitting stories like this
http://www.wfsb.com/news/17824627/detail.html
(he says nupital instead of nuptial in this report)
(i love this guy - len!)
and the town has the same name as my last name!

(click the video to see my college pal len)

friend of a friend is brad and angelina's nanny

my mom's cousin is la m0nt3 y0ung, him and his wife used to stay at our house when i was younger

wow that's really cool!!!!!!!!!!!

did he stay for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time?

I was a speech coach for Nancy Cartwright back in the day before she became famous as the voice of Bart Simpson. And a Scientologist. Or Mormon. I forget which.

I hear she was a funny girl; very driven. ;-)

loooooooooooooooooooooool

nick power, keyboard player from the coral was in my german class.

― stone cold all time hall of fame classics (internet person), Thursday, October 30, 2008 1:34 AM (8 hours ago)

Strangely enough, I just came to this thread to post about the very same semi-famous person. I was a year or two above at Calday, but lived in Meols, so saw Nick Power et al about a bit.

I was also at school with Muse, and footballer Seth Johnson, who once nearly scored a goal for England. And also ruined Leeds United.

A high school friend of mine is a vocalist for a band that has had some big hits and gold records in here, but I don't think anyone knows them outside Finland.

My uncle was at the centre of a pretty big (in Ireland) political controversy a few years ago, as well as being a fairly well known (in Ireland) 'divisive' business figure.

If we're doing murderer connections, my best friend had a threesome with the killer in this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/6280767.stm

omg who? damn you and your secret identity!

xp, obv

he died in an unusual manner a few years back, (but it's not leem lawlor). i'm not sure how well known he'd be, but he definitely had a few broadsheet front page articles. could be quite boring, really, hard to know from my perspective.

I'm friends w/someone who was on a number one record. They're not really famous though.

I went to the funeral of one of McGuinness Flint.

I shared a flat with someone who was on a number one record, and also isn't really famous. I bet it is not the same person.

I also bet it is not.

Worst bet ever!

That guy who just got busted for leaving the top secret intelligence reports on al Qaida on the train -> my brother-in-law neutered his cat. Go me.

Jeremy Clarkson was in my class at school, as was the bloke who (together with his older sister) "discovered" Kate Moss at JFK airport. This bloke's younger sister remains the only girl I've ever snogged. She played Alice on The Vicar of Dibley.

A bloke from our village is one of this year's celeb contestants on Strictly Come Dancing. (Otherwise known as "Our Tom".)

The blogger known as Girl With A One Track Mind has been a mate since the anonymous days.

A old friend of mine, now somewhat estranged, wrote Bob The Builder's "Can We Fix It?".

I was in various school plays with two-thirds of Dolly Mixture.

WTF? u win.

This bloke's younger sister remains the only girl I've ever snogged. She played Alice on The Vicar of Dibley.

― mike t-diva, Thursday, 30 October 2008 11:57 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Lock thread.

Alice in the vicar of Dibley is the ditsy blonde one, right? Fucking hell, Mike.

In the late seventies I was an occasional member of Bothwell's top punk band Raw Deal who subsequently mutated into the Bluebells.

The most popular rock band at our school, however, went on to become Friends Again (and eventually mutated into the Bathers and Love and Money).

The girl who sat next to me in Latin class (and a lot of other classes) at school was one of the "judges" on the shortlived UK version of People's Court.

Another schoolmate with whom I regularly crossed swords in the Debating Society on Thursdays is now a successful stand-up comedienne and a regular on Fred Macauley's BBC Radio Scotland show.

Apparently Michael Gove was up at Lady Margaret Hall the same time as me but I don't remember him at all. Then again I was disinclined to hang out with the Federation of Conservative Students.

The ditsy blonde one, yes. What can I say?

- I once got into a sort of fight with the drummer from G3t C4pe W3ar C4pe F1y when as a teenager he got off with my then-girlfriend. We're cool now though.
- that's it.

I was at school with James Lavelle.

xpost: Friends Again were my sister's second favourite band, circa 1983 (after the Farmers Boys). She took me to see them at The Marquee. They were ace!

They were one year above me at school so I didn't get involved and I can't exactly remember what they were called when they were at school* but they were heavily influenced by Fischer-Z (of all people) at the time - a far cry from "Honey At The Core" etc.

*it is just possible they were called Vinyl Mirror

I'm related to this guy:
http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/horror/svengoolie/svendoll.jpg

(no i do not come from a family of action figures)

whoa how are you related to svengoolie?

His mom was my grandma's cousin. I think that makes us 2nd counsins?

I could not be prouder of the connection, as you can well imagine.

Did you know H3ath3r K0z, who was a year behind us and purportedly his niece?

I knew of her, but didn't know her. There was another Koz in 365-U, Eric, right? I got in a "fight" with him after gym. The Koz fam as a whole is not that related to me, since the connection was through a female who married into the Koz's.

One of my college roommates briefly dated the girl from "The Secret Life of Shelby Woo". I also know the president of Dr. Bronner's 16-in-1 Soap and my wife used to babysit one of the guys on The Weather Channel. Oh, and my sister-in-law is a Baltimore newscaster who had a bit part in "Step It Up 2 The Streets".

i dated a girl who was c@sper van dien's nanny

for his kids, i mean, not for him

Can't think of anyone. I feel so inferior.

@Granny:

Yeah, Eric sounds familiar. Also lol at post-P.E. "fights." I got into one with Jeff Webber in 6th grade and was proud when, after Mr. Coverdill broke it up, the crowd determined it a draw.

Jeff Webber was a prick!

gf is good friends with a few twee pop stars

I went to school with all of Keane. OK, so I didn't *know* them as such, but... anyway.

This chap was also in my year at school - still mates with him and he's lovely.

This fella was in the year above me too.

Oh, and my landlord/landlady's son played the blue Smartie in that advert wheere all the other Smarties hide in the tube and pretend they're not there, before finally letting him in! SO impressed. (He was also in a Mike Leigh film, but fuck that, Smarties!)

I was in various school plays with two-thirds of Dolly Mixture.

Very jealous!

my friend George is in this Northern Soul film which is coming out some time next year (photo here - never trust a bloke with two first names)and will at some point in the near future be seen on UK screens in some BBC3 comedy or other.

the nanny who broke up ethan hawke and uma thurman is the older sister of a friend of mine from school

i went bowling with that dude who recited pi once.

And you had perfect form:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/22/29795491_aeead08db0.jpg

I met this guy from the internet and later he became a noted nine inch nails authority, he was even in a documentary

Sounds like a total loser to me.

I can't believe I forgot this one... My dad was college roommates with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.G._Armstrong

I never actually met him, but he would always send Xmas cards (and usually letters going on about Peckinpah)

Quite a few actually, bands mainly.
Oceansize
Amplifier
Elbow
Badly drawn boy (ish)

can't think of any tv people

I just realized that while I've mentioned it elsewhere on here I haven't said on this thread that Admiral James Stockdale lived across the street from us in Coronado. Only met him a few times but the families were on very good terms; in 1992 he was an honored guest at my dad's Navy retirement, and later that year, IIRC, the two of them walked down to the polling station together. He was quite friendly and I regret not getting to know him better.

Member of my childhood BMX gang had a small role on The Wire, and his dad was one of David Simon's sources for the book Homicide.

Good acquaintences contributed musical score to the show.

I'm hard pressed to think of others.

a bunch of guys I knew who worked in the downtown record & comic book stores when I was a teen in the 80s became monster magnet

I still know no one famous per se.

Let's see . . . two of my first cousins on my father's side are/were bigwigs in the comics industry, one as a writer/editor and one as an artist. The former was also editor-in-chief of the Weekly World News just before it closed up shop. The latter handled the daily "Spider-Man" strip for many years.

An HS classmates is a famous comedienne, with many network TV appearances to her name and a major touring schedule. Yet she still attended our shitty-ass high school's 20th reunion for our class last year.

A college classmate and radio station colleague was the silver medial winner in the U.S. Figure Skating championships in 1996. Another such person plays guitar and sings in The Jellybricks, a fairly popular power pop band that's been pretty successful for him.

My sister says she is cousin of Bert McCracken of the Used to impress people. Therefore I know a young lady who is famous for saying outrageous lies.