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?

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.