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[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1603921753023815900 under discussion]] in the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1603921753023815900 Trope Repair Shop]].]]]]]]

A Big Name Fan (BNF) is someone who, while not ''officially'' associated with the company that produces a given work -- say, for the purposes of this article, ''Franchise/StarWars'' -- is still widely known in the ''Star Wars'' fan community, and possibly by the producers of ''Star Wars'' themselves.

Maybe the BNF created a fan website that has become ''the'' source for information on ''Star Wars''. Maybe they created a ''Star Wars'' {{Fanfic}} or other amateur {{Derivative Work|s}} that is so well-done ''everyone'' in the fandom has seen it. Maybe they just got posted on [=YouTube=] waving a lightsaber around like a spastic monkey.[[note]]Most [=BNFs=] are known for more positive things.[[/note]] Regardless, everyone in the fandom now knows their name... or at least their Internet handle.

This can get a little weird for some [=BNFs=], who often still think of themselves as "just another fan." Some will let it go to their heads ([[SmallNameBigEgo even before they've truly hit the big time]]), some will freak out, some will just take it in stride.

It's arguable where the line is between Big Name Fan and just plain fan is, of course. However, when they're invited to speak at a ''Franchise/StarWars'' convention, or [[PromotedFanboy hired by Lucasfilm]] to continue what they were already doing for free, any doubt that they've become a Big Name Fan goes out the window.

The recognition is great, but remember that CelebrityIsOverrated: [=BNFs=] are easy targets, and are often singled out for torment by jealous fans. This may extend to their friends. Thankfully, the anonymity factor helps their life from getting ''too'' crazy: the vast majority of [=BNFs=] today did whatever they became famous for on the Internet while older ones did so through fanzines and mail, so their faces (and/or real names) are often unknown to most, making them indeed just another fan in the real world (even if they're gods on the Net).

Not to be confused with [[Creator/SamuelLJackson B]]''[[Creator/SamuelLJackson M]]''[[Creator/SamuelLJackson F]], nor a Big Name / Important Person who turns out to be a Fan - otherwise known as JustForFun/OneOfUs. Compare/contrast with PromotedFanboy.
----

!! Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
* Creator/JamesCameron became a very well-known fan of ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'' after Creator/GuillermoDelToro introduced him to the manga. He's so much of a fan that he spent the past ''seventeen'' years to try and make a [[Film/AlitaBattleAngel movie adaptation]].
* Captain Osaka on Website/DeviantArt to the ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' fandom. Gained a massive reputation for producing the ''Webcomic/DoubleK'' comic, which is the ''Gurren Lagann'' cast thrown into a BuddyCopShow.
* Sakky, Sakura, or Sailor Astera is probably one of the more well-known fan character creators in the ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' fandom.
** Usagi Kou is more well-known. [[SmallNameBigEgo Though not necessarily for good reasons.]]
** Ian Miller is known as the idol of purists everywhere for doing ''in-depth research'' about [[SpellMyNameWithAnS what the canon terminology is supposed to be]]. Oh, and having a thing for collecting fanart of Hotaru in a bikini.
* WebVideo/{{Gigguk}} is one popular anime reviewer.
* Brad [=DeMoss=], one of the pioneers of the FanVid concept. His biggest claim to fame is his "Evangelion Episode One" video (''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' clips to the ''Franchise/StarWars Episode One'' trailer sound), which got notice and approval from both Lucasfilm and Gainax. He regularly co-hosts the [[CosPlay Masquerade]] event at [=Anime=]Expo.
* Mark Simmons, maintainer of the now-defunct ''Gundam Project'' website, ended up getting hired to assist with the English-language adaptation of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam.''
** He even got a minor character in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Gundam SEED]]'' named after him.
*** And protagonist of ''G-Saviour'' is '''''Mark''' Curran'' who has a sidekick call '''Simmons.'''
** Of similar note is his occasional work partner, Keith Rhee. Rhee originally started the Gundam Project site and later maintained Bandai's own Gundam Official site for a number of years.
* The crew of [[FanSub Dattebayo]], though technically operating illegally, have been in good relations with Creator/VizMedia for quite some time -- so much so, that, when Viz began releasing their own subs shortly after Japanese broadcast, rather than ruin that relationship, they chose to stop subbing ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'' rather than force Viz to send them a C&D letter.
* Alan Harnum is considered ''the'' writer of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' fanfiction. His unfinished opus is almost considered required reading in ''Utena'' fandom. On top of fanfiction he also contributed to the fandom in many notable ways. He was the one who used to host the Utena Fanfiction Repository.
** Giovanna and Yasha of [[http://ohtori.nu Empty Movement]] have a forum that was popular with fans before the rise of microblogging platforms.
* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' has several due to the wide-ranged aspects of the franchise:
** Creator/LittleKuriboh is one of the few Big Name Fans who has made a big name for himself ''outside'' [[Franchise/YuGiOh the fandom in question.]]
*** In fandom he's pretty much a hero and a saint.
*** And [=4Kids=] has been known to express their enjoyment as well.
*** Creator/ChristopherSabat is good friends with him and his team, although he recently stated that he hopes they use their great talent for original work someday.
** Slifertheskydragon is considered by most fans to be the best and most prolific artist in the Franchise/YuGiOh fandom. She also hosts fan activities, fan panels and is on first name basis with most of the Japanese and English production staff.
*** In March 2011, a card signed by Slifertheskydragon sold on ebay for 750 dollars in a charity auction.
** [[https://ygorganization.com/ YGOrganization]] are widely regarded as ''the'' unofficial news site for the franchise, covering almost every aspect of news from the anime to the card game to updates for the video games. [[TheWikiRule Yugipedia]] even specifically uses their translations/localizations for names when official English names are unknown.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', according to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_%28anime%29#Inspirations_and_influence The Other Wiki]], has several authoritative fan commentators, such as Creator/TaliesinJaffe (from the End of Eva DVD commentary, who Creator/FUNimation now turns to as their "Eva Expert" for Rebuild of Evangelion) and Sean [=McCoy=] (from the ADV Platinum DVD commentary, who now regularly runs Eva panels at [[http://publications.fanime.com/public/FanimeCon_Program_Guides/FanimeCon_2009_Program_Guide.pdfFanime Con.]])
* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/38119/Satashi Satashi]] in the ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' fandom, on FF.net, Animesuki, and [[http://nanofate.us/users/satashi the Nanofate.us]] fora.
* ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'' has [[http://www.kirafix.com/ Kira Takenouchi]] know for her Taming Riki fan fiction and other original yaoi works.
* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' has Chris [=Mc=]Feely, who operated the ''Digimon Encyclopedia'' back in the early 2000s.
** Similar to [=Mc=]Feely, Grace Anderson, known commonly as "Megchan", was not only the official translator for the first four seasons of ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', but also ran a now-defunct fan site called ''Megchan's Digimon Sekai'' where she provided overseas fans access to Japanese material and translated updates as the shows were coming out in Japan.
* With Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/{{Toonami}} block revived in 2012, a few fans have become so excited and vocal that Williams Street noticed them and have used their work on several occasions. Amateur rapper Richie Branson wrote several raps on Toonami's return and on shows they aired, the first of which the staff used to kick off the first broadcast on TV in May! Many songs used in the TV bumps are by fans of the block.
* In the ''Anime/{{Free}}'' fandom there's [[http://www.textsfromgayswimmers.tumblr.com textsfromgayswimmers]] and the duo of Octopimp and [=SparkyTheAndroid=], the creators of the successful AbridgedSeries ''WebVideo/FiftyPercentOff.''
** In fact, the latter's work became so well known that their parody's been referenced by a fan in ''Japan'' during Nagisa's birthday, and even by Greg Aryes, the dub voice of Nagisa!
* Creator/HiroshiMatsuyama of Creator/CyberConnect2 is video game developer example of this. The main reason he even makes Naruto and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure licensed games is because of his love for each series. Many fans of both consider his games based on them to be the best of them all. Creator/MasashiKishimoto even stated in a review that ''[[VideoGame/NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStorm3 Storm 3]]'' ''told his own story better then he could''!
* ''Manga/{{Nisekoi}}'' has Y-san from Chiba Prefecture, Marika's biggest supporter. His feats include putting Marika on top of the popularity polls, sending gifts to the author for her and actually placing on the popularity polls. [[spoiler: The epilogue even has Marika just about to encounter a "man from Chiba", strongly implied to be him.]]
* Among the fans of ''Manga/BirdyTheMighty'' [[https://youtu.be/OpiBaKiYcdE is]] director Creator/ZackSnyder, who cited it as an influence for a sequence in ''Film/ManOfSteel'', [[https://youtu.be/qZjbNhLODKU which is generally believed to be]] [[spoiler: the fight between Birdy and Nataru at the end of ''Decode''[='=]s second season inspiring the Superman/Zod fight at the end of ''Man of Steel''.]]
* Despite his overall disgust with the modern Light Novel industry, Tappei Nagatsuki, the creator of ''LightNovel/ReZero'', is a massive fan of ''LightNovel/MushokuTensei'', to the point of creating both a congratulation letter to the author of the latter, and a special crossover oneshot collaboration between both novels as well, as a celebration of the announcement of the anime adaption of Mushoku Tensei.
* Some Western celebrities that ''Manga/OnePiece'' can count as fans include Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Music/AvrilLavigne, Steven Adams (of the Oklahoma City Thunder), Creator/MasiOka, and Zara Larrson. Even Creator/JohnBoyega is a longtime fan of ''One Piece''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comedy]]
* [[UsefulNotes/HugoChavez Hugo Chávez]], former President of Venezuela was such a big fan of Creator/GeorgeCarlin that he actually followed a suggestion in his scathing routine about golfers and expropriated several golf courses to turn into housing developments.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]

* An early example can be found in ''Franchise/TheFlash'' books where Paul Gambi, tailor to the various Rogues of Central and Keystone City, is named after Paul Gambiccini who at the time was '''14'''. Gambiccini hasn't ever rested on his laurels as since then he's gone on to be a noted author and academic.
* ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' fan Kuljit Mithra, creator of the website [[http://www.manwithoutfear.com/daredevil.shtml Manwithoutfear.com.]] The site is considered the best archive of information on the comic book character, to the extent that writers of the Daredevil title routinely consult it for research, and Creator/BrianMichaelBendis thanked Mithra in the afterword of his last issue as a writer for Daredevil. Mithra & Manwithoutfear.com, along with Philipp Lenssen & Coverbrowser.com are given special thanks for providing the cover gallery at the end of Daredevil's 500th issue.
* Creator/DCComics historian John "Mikishawm" Wells is a Big Name Fan, having written the text pieces for collections such as ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Absolute Edition'', and even getting mentioned in Kurt Busiek's ''ComicBook/PowerCompany'', where Wells & Schaum is a research organization providing information on metahumans.
* In ''Comicbook/SpiderGirl'', a temporary love interest for the main character, Chris Jarkoer, was named after a fan, Jarkover.
* Dave Campbell, who writes the blog [[http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/ Dave's Long Box,]] ("I'm going to review my comic book collection and you're going to like it!") got to write handbook bios for the Official Handbook of the ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' Universe.
* George Olshevsky, a mathematician and amateur palentologist, comic book collector since childhood, created the Marvel Comics Index in 1976, then made the Official Marvel Index for Marvel and also other similar publications for DC.
* Jeff Christiansen, a boarded Veterinarian, created in 2001 the website [[http://www.marvunapp.com/ Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe]], in 2004 he was hired for a version of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, originally published in the 1980s and 1990s.
* Jess Nevins, whose various comic annotations not only lead him to [[UniverseCompendium literally writing the manual]] for each volume of ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' but also [[ShownTheirWork backup work]] in Ed Brubraker's ''ComicBook/{{Incognito}}.''
* Peter Sanderson, a comic book historian whose research work has been used by both DC and Marvel since the '80s. He's an academic in the field of comics and has written a long-running column.
%% (ZCE: Doesn't actually explain how he is a Big Name Fan. I'll guess he isn't and this is a shoehorn, but someone who knows better can expand or remove.) * Creator/SimonPegg overlaps this with PromotedFanboy. Several ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' issues appeared in ''Series/{{Spaced}}'' and Pegg would co-author a ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' strip in the comic as well as voice [[ComicBook/StrontiumDog Johnny Alpha]] in several Big Finish audio dramas.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* After an entry of ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' referred to Jane Goodall as a tramp, Gary Larson received a letter that threatened a lawsuit. After some complicated legal issues, it finally turned out that Goodall herself loved the cartoon and was completely unaware of any of what had happened, which quickly cleared everything up. In fact, the Jane Goodall Institute now has a licensing deal, and T-shirts featuring the "Jane Goodall Tramp" cartoon became one of the hottest sellers.
* Derrick Bang has held this role in the ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' fandom since the early '90s. After amassing a complete collection of strips by going through microfilms of old newspapers, he wrote a lengthy FAQ for the ''Peanuts'' newsgroup, then expanded that into a [[http://www.fivecentsplease.org website]] and a book (''50 Years of Happiness''), both with the cooperation of Charles M. Schulz himself. Since then he's written several other ''Peanuts''-related books and does freelance work for the Schulz organization.
* A Don Martin strip in an issue of ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' showed Wayne Gretzky in a dentist's chair with his dentist informing him a tooth had to be removed. The next frame shows the dentist preparing to slap shot a puck at Mr. Gretzky's mouth. Wayne Gretzky wrote ''Mad'', telling them that he was a long-time fan and actually requesting a poster-sized print of the strip to give to his dentist (whom he assured them used somewhat more modern techniques). It's one of the few Letters to the Editor that the ''Mad'' editorial staff didn't thoroughly mock when reprinted.
* ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' author Creator/HarperLee was flattered by her (and her novel's) mentions in ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty.'' Creator Berke Breathed maintained a written correspondence with her for a while, and made a strip in her honor when she died.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Franchise/StarWars:''
** ''[[http://www.ryanvsdorkman.com/ Ryan vs. Dorkman]]'' is a well-known fan video that uses skillful choreography and special effects to create a live-action lightsaber duel. After overwhelming fan response, Ryan and "Dorkman" proceeded to film a rematch, this time with a score composed (for free!) by film composers Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster. The fact that the lightsaber fights is better than the ones in the movies... they deserve it. Even better? They were helping with the movie fights, and this is the stuff that they were not allowed to do!
** Speaking of ''Star Wars'', [=SuperShadow=], infamous for being the one guy you should [[WordOfDante never ever believe]] about upcoming developments. The irony being that he was right about the female Exile, so idiots edit Wookieepedia to say the Jedi Exile is male. Yeah.
** Albin Johnson, founder of the 501st Legion, eventually had his organization worked into ''Star Wars'' canon: Darth Vader's personal platoon is named the 501st.
** Ernie Fosselus acted and directed one of the best parody films of ''Star Wars'' ever made, the 22-minute long ''Hardware Wars''. George Lucas liked it so much he had 20th Century Fox pay Fosselus to allow them to include the short on the DVD of ''Star Wars.''
* Bill "Jettman" Ramey, founder of the "Batman on Film" website and forum, is pretty well known to a good number of people in the online Batman and Superhero fandom.
* Creator/FrankMiller is a [[https://www.cbr.com/frank-miller-praises-wonder-woman-movie/ huge fan of]] ''Film/WonderWoman2017'', going so far as to call it the crown jewel of superhero movies.
* Scott Derrickson liked ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' so much that it's his favorite superhero movie and favorably compared it to ''Film/BladeRunner''.
* Sal Piro became a BNF for ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow,'' using AudienceParticipation to make the movie a cult classic.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Several examples in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fandom:
** [[Creator/CassandraClare Cassandra (Cassie) Claire]], known for popularizing (if not in fact creating) [[DracoInLeatherPants a certain characterization of Draco Malfoy]], and for plagiarizing most of her well known fic in that fandom. Parlayed her pre-existing fan-base into a publishing deal for [[Literature/TheMortalInstruments her original fiction.]]
*** She also has the privilege of being a BNF of two fandoms -- while she is mostly known for her ''Harry Potter'' fiction, she is infamous in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fandom for ''Fanfic/TheVerySecretDiaries.''
** Melissa Anelli, webmistress of [[http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org The Leaky Cauldron.]] Like Emerson, she was invited to interview Creator/JKRowling, managed to get an interview with Rowling on [=PotterCast=], got a foreward written by Rowling in her ''Harry: A History'' book and is often called on by the media to talk about the series. She is also a senior creative consultant on Pottermore, a project officially endorsed by Rowling.
** Steve Vander Ark of [[http://www.hp-lexicon.org/ The Harry Potter Lexicon.]] The Lexicon was one of the websites J. K. Rowling favored in the ''Harry Potter'' fandom, until they decided to publish a book based on the website that was almost entirely her own words...
** John Noe of [=Potter=]Cast / The Leaky Cauldron is also a bit of a BNF, since he had the character of John Dawlish named after him.
** [[http://acciobrain.ligermagic.com/ Makani]] is one of the most famous ''Harry Potter'' fanartists. Her art is used in The Leaky Cauldron as a kind of "official" image for HP characters, and her take on the Malfoy family is source of much fanon.
*** Makani soon became a BNF in the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' fandom for her [[http://makani.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d1pbaup artist's rendition]] of The Administrator, that [[AscendedFanon later became]] [[http://www.teamfortress.com/war/administrator/05.htm canon]]. [[PromotedFanboy And then Valve hired her.]]
** Creator/NeilCicierega is especially well known for his ''WebVideo/PotterPuppetPals'' series.
** Emerson Spartz, creator of [[http://mugglenet.com/ Mugglenet,]] deffinitely qualifies for this, as he has interviewed J. K. Rowling and he was one of the writers involved in two HP-based books, both of which were best-sellers.
** At least among the Marauders Era fanbase, FanFic/TheShoeboxProject is often accepted as the definitive fanfiction for the four friends. The writers, Website/LiveJournal users ladyjaida and dorkorific are respected and revered among the fandom.
*** ladyjaida, real name Jaida Jones, moved on to cowrite the book ''Literature/{{Havemercy}}''. And now she has her own fandom. Ninety percent of Havemercy fangirls started as Shoebox fangirls, and they're an insanely loyal bunch.
** Harry and the Potters, anyone? Draco and the Malfoys? Whoever heard of making rockbands off books, really...
** Also, the musical theatre group Creator/TeamStarKid who made the AffectionateParody ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical''. The guy who played Harry Potter (Darren Criss) is actually a mainstream actor now, what with his role on ''Series/{{Glee}}'', and Ron Weasley recently made an appearance as a background dancer.
** John Granger aka the Hogwarts Professor could count. He's written several books on the series and currently hosts Mugglenet Acadamia which dissects different aspects of the series. He also previously hosted the Pottercast recurring segment, Potter Pundits which does the same thing.
* Stephen Briggs has worked with Creator/TerryPratchett on ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' [[SpinOff maps and other supplemental materials]], narrates several audiobooks, and has written all of the stage adaptations of the books ''and'' played the role of [[VetinariJobSecurity Lord Vetinari]] in all of them. (That counts as fan activity because its strictly am-dram.) ''And'' he's part of the conventions.
** Although not as big a part as current convention organiser John Hicks, who was previously the Head of Productions, and has also been responsible for Discworld amateur dramatics, but is now better known as the black-robed and skull-ringed Dr Hix of Unseen University's Department of Post-Mortem Communications.
** In fact, Discworld has many Big Name Fans, since it's a relatively small fandom (the books are runaway bestsellers, but many of the fans aren't the sort of people who do "fannish" things; they just like the books). And since the merch is mostly on the cottage-industry, I've-got-a-good-idea-how-does-Pterry-feel? level, the difference between being a Big Name Fan and being part of The Discworld Industry is downright fractal.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'':
** Blizzardclaw (or "Blizz"), owner of Warrior's Wish, one of the most famous fansites of the series. She has been personally invited to two events by the author/editor of the series by name, once via the series' official e-mail newsletter. Vicky also [[{{Tuckerization}} wrote her as a character]] named Blizzardstar, leader of [=ShadowClan=] (Blizz' favorite Clan), in ''Code of the Clans''.
** Su Susann, a fan on Vicky's Facebook page who often answered questions for other fans, was given access as one of the page admins, and who Vicky has given permission to post things on her behalf (such as revealing names of otherwise unnamed characters). Unfortunately has a bit of a BrokenBase due to creating some {{Original Character}}s and resulting arguments as to whether they were canon (WordOfGod confirmed that they weren't and that it was just intended to be for fun), to the point that her hatedom even had reported her Facebook account enough for it to be temporarily banned.
** The Poole family, aka [=FarDrivingClan=]. They made a point of seeing Vicky on every one of her US tours, even if it meant driving across several states to see her, and were therefore featured in her tour diaries often, and over time she became good friends with them. She named the ''Omen of the Stars'' main character Ivypool after the then-infant of the family, Ivy, and her announcement about a studio acquiring movie rights was a video that included Ivy.
* In the words of [=Nuttymadam3575=]: [[Literature/{{Twilight}} UHHMAAAAAZING BOOOOOOOOOOOOK!]]
* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fandom, [[http://www.michael-martinez.com/ Michael Martinez]] is one of the most prolific scholars and trivia buffs, with several books and countless articles under his belt. (He is also, incidentally, the owner of a large ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' website as well.)
** Also Creator/StephenColbert who was invited to the filming of the Hobbit and beat the cast and crew in a Tolkien trivia contest.
* Michael Macauley, webmaster of Shurtugal.com, the #1 Inheritance Cycle fansite. The site get's heavy input form the series' author Christopher Paolini with monthy Q&A sesions from him. Palolini even put some of his imput in Macauley's book The Inheritance Almanac.
* For some years, M.J. Simpson was the leading expert and go-to guy on ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' and Creator/DouglasAdams generally, but hated [[Film/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy the movie]] so much that he became disillusioned and refused to do it anymore.
* For ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Elio and Linda, the owners of Westeros.org are this for the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' fandom, and actually help GRRM with keeping details straight.
** Adam Feldman, author of the blog, "The Meereneese Knot" was celebrated for more or less single-handedly reversing the ContestedSequel nature of ''A Feast for Crows'' and ''A Dance With Dragons'' especially the TrappedByMountainLions nature and DiabolusExMachina resolution of some of its plots by highlighting how both books feature a great deal of internal drama, coalesce with the larger themes of the series (namely whether a good person can be a good ruler) and the frustrating nature of the books is very much an IntendedAudienceReaction. George RR Martin himself praised Feldman's work.
** Adam Whitehead, aka Werthead, long-time forum moderator on Westeros.org and author of the ''Wertzone'' blog, who has contributed academic articles on ASOIAF to several publications over the years, and done extensive work on fan-made atlases and maps. Later expanded his coverage to other series with crossover appeal, and particularly knowledgeable about ''The Wheel of Time''.
** Roman Papsuev, aka "Amok," drew amateur portraits of characters from the series that became so popular that Martin personally provided corrections to the details of some characters and later [[PromotedFanBoy commissioned him]] to draw character portraits for ''The World of Ice and Fire''.
* Russian science-fiction has Semetsky, a frequent con-goer. A RunningGag among the Russian authors is inserting Semetsky as a RedShirt in their books.
* Literature/MinaDeMalfois is a fictional example whose position occasionally sets her in the middle of the fandom controversy she comments on.
* Jennifer, the owner of the Creator/VCAndrews fansite ''[[http://www.completevca.com/ The Complete V.C. Andrews,]]'' the biggest resource for any info on Andrews, her books, and the books written by her ghostwriter (including US and international book covers, timelines and family trees, and little known trivia facts).
* [[ComicStrip/BloomCounty Berkeley]] [[WesternAnimation/MarsNeedsMoms Breathed]] is a big fan of ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'', and has named characters after Milo.
* ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'':
** Creator/TerryBrooks, Creator/CharlaineHarris, Creator/PatrickRothfuss, [[Literature/{{Robopocalypse}} Daniel H. Wilson]], Creator/JohnScalzi, Creator/JamesSwallow and [[Literature/TheWardstoneChronicles Joseph Delaney]] have all given the book their recommendation.
** [[https://youtu.be/AzzzQPsehwU As revealed in this video,]] Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and the late Creator/RobinWilliams are also fans of the book.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/AndiMack'' has Sadie Anne Rue, who organized a popular project that involved sending 1,000 paper cranes to Disney Channel Headquarters to save the show. While the show wasn't renewed, the cranes were loved by the cast and crew.
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' had a plethora of celebrity fans, including Creator/GuillermoDelToro, Creator/MarkHamill, Creator/SethMeyers, Creator/PattonOswalt, Creator/LinManuelMiranda, Creator/SeanAstin, and a whole bunch of others. When the show's cancellation by Fox was announced, their public support of the show was instrumental in it being picked up by NBC. Miranda and Astin became guest stars on the show after its renewal, while Oswalt had already guest-starred a few times prior to that.
* For ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' the character Jamie in the season 4 episode Monster Movie was named for a sick fan.
** [[http://tracy-loo-who.livejournal.com/ Tracy]] went from a fan who writes Dean/Castiel fic and likes Misha Collins, to meeting Misha and having a milkshake with him, having her friends asked where she was when she wasn't at a convention and running the charity The Random Act which Misha's minions created.
** Madison from the same fandom also somewhat fits this; she had tea with Creator/MishaCollins and has arguably one of the best known [[http://jeric-kripke.tumblr.com/ blogs]] in the fandom.
* Melissa Good is a critically acclaimed FanFic writer in the ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' fandom. So critically acclaimed, in fact, that the producers of the show [[RunningTheAsylum asked her to write several episodes]] for the sixth season of the show.
** Producer David Eick, during commentary on his later show ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', while not mentioning names specifically, reflected back on the Xena years, and explained that at the time in the mid-1990s, "fan reaction from the Internet" was a very new thing. The show's staff got very excited about going online and reading the real-time reactions of fans. The problem was, because this was so new and shiny to them, they had no real concept of how to contextualize or frame what they were reading: internet fans are the most obsessive, and you kind of need to read through a lot of it, or "professional reviews" to get even a basic feel of what the "reaction" was. But because "the Internet" was so new at the time, they'd basically just go online and read through major fanfiction hubs without much of a sense of "cognitive dissonance" like "maybe these are just obsessed niche fans". As Eick explained, in the later seasons this resulted in them pandering on a massive scale, doing all sorts of things the online fans they encountered suggested... And it actually turned a lot of the casual viewers away. It's open to interpretation how "good" these episodes were, but they really weren't as "accessible."
* Bjo Trimble and her husband John are [=BNFs=] for the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise, having driven the letter-writing campaign that spared the original series from cancellation before its third season. It's believed that the producers of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' named the Bajorans in her honor.
** She also authored the original ''Franchise/StarTrek [[UniverseConcordance Concordance]]'' that was the definitive reference work for many years.
** Paula Smith, author of the parody fanfic ''A Trekkie's Tale'' and inventor of the term MarySue.
* The crew of the fan produced web series ''WebVideo/StarTrekNewVoyages'', who not only have props from the original show in their own set but have had appearances from multiple former cast members of the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original series]], with Creator/WalterKoenig and Creator/GeorgeTakei playing major roles in two of their episodes (playing aged versions of their own characters.)
** More recently joining the ranks is voice actor Creator/VicMignogna, who guest-starred and -directed in ''New Voyages'' and [[TheKnightsWhoSaySquee squee'd]] about it during his guest appearances at anime cons. And now he's doing his own series, ''WebVideo/StarTrekContinues.''
** The Kirk/Spock fandom itself has a few:
*** Killashandra (aka Killa or Killabeez) -- wrote some of the most beautiful fic ever written on the pairing, as well as ''the'' ship manifesto for the same. Her story "Surrender" is considered the finest exploration of D/s and dubcon in the fandom, and "Turning Point" was the first K/S fanfic ever posted online.
*** Diane Marchant -- wrote the very first K/S fanfic, "A Fragment Out of Time". (Note that this was not only the very first K/S fic but the very first ''SlashFic'', published in 1974.)
*** Leslie Fish -- wrote the second ever K/S fanfic, "Shelter", which likely inspired the "Kirk and Spock in a cave" cliche. She's also quite well known for her {{Filk Song}}s.
*** Brittany Diamond -- aka [[http://suicidallyreckless.tumblr.com "suicidallyreckless"]] on Website/{{Tumblr}} and nicknamed "Captain". Rose to prominence during the 2009 post-[[Film/StarTrek2009 movie]] boom, and has created ''WebVideo/TheShipsCloset'', a vidcast analyzing Kirk/Spock, as well as the ''Analyzation/Commentary'', which does the same thing only in writing. She's a bit bemused by her status, amusingly enough.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Ian Levine is also well known amongst fandom. As well as his efforts to locate missing stories, he also briefly worked on the show as an unofficial fan continuity advisor.
** Jean-Marc Lofficier, author of {{Universe Concordance}}s ''The Doctor Who Programme Guide'', ''The Terrestrial Index'' and ''The Universal Databank.''
** Before he became a PromotedFanboy as the official voice of the Daleks and Cybermen, Creator/NicholasBriggs was well known for writing and starring in some fanvids and audios during the cancellation. To the extent that his portrayal of the Doctor appeared in the ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strip as a [[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Doctor_%28Party_Animals%29 possible future self.]]
** The most famous fan of ''Series/DoctorWho'' is Queen Elizabeth II. Fans don't get much more big-name than that.
** Lawrence Miles is a ''Doctor Who'' Big Name fan who wrote some very popular spin-off novels in the 90s, including a number that acted as {{Wham Episode}}s for the first half of the Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures. He failed to get a writing job on the revived series, but still has a devoted following online despite his extremely negative views on much of the 21st-century show.
** Creator/PeterCapaldi is arguably the biggest BNF the franchise has seen. In the early 1970s he attempted to take over the main Doctor Who fan club - a fact noted in a number of books - and at one point received a package of scripts from then-producer Barry Letts. He later wrote articles for a number of fanzines, as well as getting letters related to Doctor Who published in the ''Magazine/RadioTimes''. All this decades before he was cast as the Twelfth Doctor in 2013.
** Current showrunner Creator/ChrisChibnall was a well-known fan of the show, even appearing on national TV in the 1980s to discuss it.
* A few ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' [=BNF=]s have had shout-outs as well:
** Derik Smith: MonsterOfTheWeek named Kired.
** Joe Rovang: MonsterOfTheWeek named Rofang.
** Jason Takach: MonsterOfTheWeek named Takach.
** Jesse Lee Herndon (better known as [=SirSTACK=]) -- Herndon Laboratories.
** Chris Funaro: Funaro Maximum Security Prison.
** And don't forget Amit Bhaumik. He was the webmaster of an extensive, detailed and now defunct Power Rangers information database called the "Online Archives". He was one mind behind the (in)famous Scorpion Rain hoax. He became story editor of ''[[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Wild Force]]'' and worked on that season's two crossover eps. He also worked as a "consultant" on [[Series/PowerRangersSamurai Power Rangers (Super) Samurai]], and co-wrote two of the series clip shows. Unfortunately, Chris Funaro revealed that the two had had a bitter falling out (Amit understandably loves Samurai, Chris does not)
** Creator/LewisLovhaug probably counts, especially considering he got invited as a guest to [=Power=]Morphicon.
** For the show's 20th Anniversary Saban created the [[http://powerrangers.com/20-year/twenty-year-power-force.html Super Fan Power Force]] and invited fans to apply to help participate in the promotion of the 20th anniversary. Since slots were extremely limited to 20, you pretty much had to be a Big Name Fan to get in, with the application asking for what sites the applicants were involved with and other credentials, so many fans need not have applied. Amongst those picked were Linkara, Fury Diamond, Darkblaze, Lavender Ranger, Linear Ranger, and Power Morphicon to name a few.
** WebVideo/AndreTheBlackNerd was always a fan, but started gaining more attention around the Neo-Saban era. By 2015 he was big enough that he was hosting the panel for ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'' at Comic-Con.
* In a bit of a reversal, Creator/WilWheaton is now arguably in this category: he's most popular for his blogging and being "just a geek" as he puts it, and he regularly associates with Gabe and Tycho, his fellow Big Name Fans from ''Webcomic/PennyArcade''. Whether you consider this a promotion, demotion, or something in between probably depends on how harshly you dislike [[CreatorsPet his previous claim to "fame" as Wesley Crusher.]]
** But don't forget! Wil Wheaton disliked Wesley, too.
** Not so much that Wil hated Wesley, more that he hated the way Wesley was written. He liked the later, edgier Wesley of "Final Mission" and "The First Duty."
* [[http://www.lippsisters.com/ The Lipp Sisters (Deborah and Roberta Lipp)]] are this for ''Series/MadMen'' -- they were even invited to sit in the VIP section (directly behind Creator/ElisabethMoss and January Jones) at the Season 4 Premiere in Times Square, pictures of which including them can be seen [[http://blogs.amctv.com/photo-galleries/mad-men-season-4-times-square-premiere-party/january-elisabeth.php here.]]
* For the ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' fandom, we have [[http://angrybeige.livejournal.com/ Angry]][[http://angrybeige.tumblr.com/ beige.]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/OtakuASSEMBLE Larry Williams,]] who decided to just make a Youtube video reviewing the first episode of ''Series/GameOfThrones'', not being familiar at all with ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. This soon expanded into reviews for every episode, with his emotional ranting about his love for the show and rabid defense of his favorite characters earning him a ton of new subscribers and eventually the attention of the people behind the show, who even sent him a poster signed by the producers and Sean Bean (though he apparently gave up on the show from Season 5 onward, as he produced no reviews after Season 4).
* Music/{{Cher}}, apparently, was a big fan of ''Series/TheXFiles''. The episode "Post Modern Prometheus" revolves around a monster who has a huge Cher obsession. The part of Cher was written for Cher herself, but she declined as she thought her appearance would be tacky.
* ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' has Marc Green and John Sly, founders of ''Price'' fan forum golden-road.net. The forum was once so popular that several staff members posted there, even former producer Roger Dobkowitz.
* Anyone who is a devoted fan of Franchise/TheMuppets will know the names Ryan Dosier of [[http://themuppetmindset.blogspot.com/ The Muppet Mindset]] and Joe Hennes and Ryan Roe of [[http://www.toughpigs.com/ ToughPigs]]. In fact, they are ''such'' big name fans, Disney even used blurbs from their reviews of Film/MuppetsMostWanted [[https://youtu.be/f16gSeryPrI&feature=youtu.be in one of their official promos.]]
* Kerry, who sometimes goes by Veritas, created [[https://youtu.be/SsBvqDwVqwc a Jeff/Annie fanvideo]] for "Series/{{Community}}" set to Sara Bareilles' "Gravity" in the early days of the show. It gained enough recognition to be directly referenced in "Paradigms of Human Memory." Dan Harmon paid out of pocket for the rights to the song and called her "the Van Halen of Community fans."
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' fans are ''hugely'' aware of fan artist [[http://lordmesa-art.tumblr.com/ Lord Mesa,]] who creates short, small, cute and silly ''Arrow'' fan art pieces. They're so well known to the fans that [[http://36.media.tumblr.com/cb79beb0ed7db6a654ecbc3ba3eb959d/tumblr_nj5udac0YS1qziqawo1_500.jpg the Arrow production team have a wall of their art at the offices.]]
* Music/DavidBowie was a huge fan of ''Series/TheAmericans''. One of the last business matters he settled before his death in early 2016 was to personally sign off on the license to let “Under Pressure” be used in a season 4 episode.
* Katie G, who runs the ''Series/HellsKitchen'' Facebook community "Hell's Kitchen Underground", has personally met with and interviewed several of the contestants on the show, and Creator/GordonRamsay himself himself has retweeted her Youtube videos. One of the contestants,Barret, even temporarily took over "Underground" after Katie's mom (who appeared in some of Katie's interviews with the contestants) unexpectedly passed away.
* Music/BarbraStreisand is usually very conservative about licensing her music. She was given a sneak peek of season 1 of ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'' during production to try to sway her. She fell in love with the show and considers it a loving enough recreation of the New York of her youth that she obliged. She also licensed another song to be used in season 2.
* ''Series/SchittsCreek'' has a number of famous fans who have expressed their love of the show. Music/KellyClarkson openly fangirls when the cast appears on her show. Music/PaulaAbdul and Creator/WillArnett both posted about their love of the show and appeared in a post-series documentary about the show. Music/KeithUrban tweeted creator Creator/DanielLevy about his love of the show, and later his wife Creator/NicoleKidman sought out the cast at an event so she could have pictures with them. Levy also wrote his own love of Music/MariahCarey into the show and was thrilled when she tweeted her support of it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* DJ Creator/JohnPeel's love of Music/TheFall, which spanned decades and ensured the band's place in cult music canon.
* [[http://www.theninhotline.net/meatpers/meatpers.html meathead]] is the most prominent "Music/NineInchNails" humour guy, and he makes rather poorly-animated (though really funny) Flash cartoons... one of which found its way onto the official NIN website.
* [[http://www.geowayne.com/psbhtml.htm Wayne Studer, Ph.D.]] has pretty much the most detailed Music/PetShopBoys fansite in existence. He's appeared in one of the documentaries about them, and his "On This Date..." feature has been incorporated into the front page of their official site.
* Music/TheBlackCrowes count quite a few rock stars as big name fans. Among them are Music/AliceCooper, who applauded them as "a band out of time," Music/PeterFrampton, who said they were the band to bring a dirty sound back to rock and roll, and [[Music/GunsNRoses Slash]], who considers them one of his favorite bands, and has nothing but compliments whenever he talks about them.
** [[Music/LedZeppelin Jimmy Page]] is such a big name fan that he did a whole tour performing with them, playing part Crowes material, part Zeppelin material, and a healthy dose of blues standards. A well-received live album came out of it.
* [[PunkRock OFF!]] has [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers Anthony Kiedis]] as a fan of their work. He once wore an OFF! hat during his music video for the Adventures of Raindance Maggie.
* Sasha Grey, while not building her name on being such (she is far better known as a star in... a certain genre of film...), is the foremost known fan of US [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible avant-garde]] band Scissor Shock. It doesn't help that she's also an established avant-gardist who, at one point, even guest-starred on a Music/Current93 album.
* Speaking of Current 93, Music/AndrewWK sat in on bass for one of their tours, to surprisingly little fanfare. He is also a devoted fan of American horror author Creator/ThomasLigotti.
* Chinen Yuri is, without a doubt, hands down, the biggest Music/{{Arashi}}/Ohno fan ever. It probably helps that he's in the same company as the group as they inspired him to become an idol himself.
* [[http://www.disturbedpedia.com/ Disturbedpedia]] has attained this status within Music/{{Disturbed}}'s fanbase for archiving nearly every single video about the band on [[https://www.youtube.com/user/disturbedpedia their YouTube channel,]] including some very rare material that can't be found anywhere else.
* Music/{{Space}} fandom had Pab UK and Eiteews, aka Paul and Donna, who ran [[http://www.spacetheband.com Spacetheband.]] There's also Billy Cook, who is responsible for making ''[[DevelopmentHell Love You More Than Football]]'', the 'lost' third album, available to fans.
* Music/FaithNoMore has Music/LadyGaga as a fan of theirs; they did a cover of her song "Poker Face", and Lady Gaga tweeted that she could die a happy woman because of that.
** Faith No More also has Music/{{Metallica}}, Music/{{Anthrax}}, Music/{{Korn}}, Music/LimpBizkit, Music/{{Helloween}}, Music/AliceInChains, Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/GunsNRoses, and many others as fans of theirs.
* [[https://twitter.com/#!/yoshiomibu Omi]] has gained fame in the Music/XJapan fandom for her fancomics based on Music/YoshikiHayashi's (and occasionally other fans') Website/{{Twitter}} postings.
* [[Music/BackstreetBoys Nick Carter]], and Creator/AmyPoehler for Music/BoneThugsNHarmony if you believe that.
* Music/BitterRuin has Creator/StephenFry and Music/TimMinchin for fans.
* Music/{{Devo}} can count Music/{{Korn}} as fans to the point that Korn considers itself Devo's SpiritualSuccessor. Devo in turn are fans of Music/{{Kraftwerk}}.
** Music/JohnLennon, Music/MickJagger, and Music/IggyPop have also expressed admiration for Devo.
* Apparently, the first Music/TheB52s album was what prompted John Lennon to get back to making music.
* Music/DuranDuran were huge fans of Music/RoxyMusic and Music/DavidBowie and are considered musical successors of both, particularly Roxy Music. On the flip side, Jonathan Davis of Music/{{Korn}}, Gwen Stefani, Music/JustinTimberlake, the Music/ScissorSisters, and Music/FranzFerdinand have all spoken the praises of Duran Duran, with Jonathan Davis almost collaborating with the band (but not being able to do so because of his schedule), Justin Timberlake presenting the band with their MTV Awards Lifetime aAchievement award, and the Scissor Sisters saying the band were the reason they got into music in the first place.
* Bolle Gregmar for Music/BlueOysterCult. As one of the band members once said, "Bolle is the Blue Oyster Cult - we're just the band."
* Music/DavidBowie had an affinity for the Music/VelvetUnderground, having even covered some of their songs in his BBC radio sessions. Eventually, he ended up working as a producer (with Mick Ronson) on ''Music/{{Transformer}}'', the second solo album of VU frontman Music/LouReed (who in turn admired Bowie's work as well). What's especially interesting about Bowie's interest in the Velvet Underground is that it started ''before their first album was even released'', stemming from him receiving a pre-release test acetate of it.
** Bowie was also a huge fan of Music/MottTheHoople, convincing them to stay together when they were about to break up. He wrote one of their biggest hits, "All the Young Dudes", just to keep them together; he also produced the album of the same name, and for one of the tracks had them cover "Sweet Jane", a Velvet Underground song. Without Bowie's involvement, Mott would have folded, their guitarist Mick Ralphs wouldn't have met Paul Rodgers and thus no Music/BadCompany, Mick Jones of Music/TheClash wouldn't be inspired by Mott's lead singer Ian Hunter... the musical landscape would be very different.
** In general, Bowie was a fan of a fair amount of other musicians, covering a surprisingly diverse range of genres and popularity. Some of the groups Bowie admired range from more popularly-known groups like Music/{{Radiohead}}, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/BrianEno (even before the two started collaborating), and Music/TheStooges (to the point of single-handedly launching Music/IggyPop's solo career), but also acts that were more obscure at the time, most notably Music/ThePixies. In the 2000s, he acted as a mentor figure to indie rock bands he admired like Music/ArcadeFire and Music/TVOnTheRadio, even appearing as a guest on their songs.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/tyleroakley Tyler Oakley,]] video-blogging extraordinaire with a [[HoYay huge crush]] on ''Music/OneDirection'', got to interview them in August 2013.
* Music/{{Journey}} has [[http://www.jonathancain.com Rhonda Dirr]], who had the first fansite for Jonathan Cain (Journey's current keyboardist) and who has become good friends and webmaster for Mr. Cain; Dan Stacy, who founded the Journey e-mail group in the '90s, and Cyndi Poon & Lora Beard, longtime fans of the band who were brought on-board with the band to run the band's fan club Journey Force throughout the '70s and '80s and now manage [[http://fanasylum.com/ FanAsylum,]] one of the premier fanclub companies in the US, who still handles Steve Perry's promotions.
* Music/{{Morrissey}}, even before the success of Music/TheSmiths, has always been a tireless supporter of Music/TheNewYorkDolls, often writing many enthusiastic letters to the editors of music publications praising the Dolls (and critiquing other acts the publications covered). Music/TheCramps, Music/MarcBolan, Music/{{Sparks}}, Petula Clark and Sandie Shaw were also early favorites of the singer.
* Music/{{Nirvana}} outed themselves as big name fans when a mashup band approached them. They went on record saying they only considered themselves to have arrived in the mainstream when Music/WeirdAlYankovic parodied "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as "Smells Like Nirvana". Music/KurtCobain in particular was also a huge fan of Music/{{REM}} and even struck up a friendship with lead singer Michael Stipe. Like David Bowie, Cobain also used his admiration of other, lesser-known musicians to help them gain greater public visibility.
* Music/AlessiaCara (of "Here" fame) can count among her fans none other than Music/TaylorSwift, [[https://youtu.be/EXtzbcjUoH4 who eventually interviewed her]] [[https://youtu.be/6Cp2K0efXdY for Yahoo Music.]]
* While multiple members of Music/TheBlackDahliaMurder are known for their championing of small-time and obscure acts and efforts to expose them to a wider audience, Trevor Strnad and Alan Cassidy take it even further. The former runs The Obituarist, a column on Metal Injection, where he does a rundown of recent and up-and-coming releases from a wide variety of underground acts, while the latter took it one step further and joined the UK technical death metal outfit Slugdge (which he was a longtime fan of) as a dedicated drummer after they asked him to do session drums on a future release.
* Hall of Fame basketball legend Bill Walton is a devoted fan of Music/TheGratefulDead, having attended over 800 of their concerts since 1967. He's been a fan since he was in high school, well before he was famous as an athlete. He also befriended the band, and accompanied them to Egypt for their famous concert at the Pyramids.[[note]]As pointed out in the video for "Touch of Grey" in ''Series/PopUpVideo'', the Celtics jacket Mickey Hart is wearing was a gift from Walton himself.[[/note]] He still attends Dead shows to this day, and profiles on him often mention his love for the band and their importance in his daily life or [[http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/sdut-bill-walton-chats-about-life-and-the-grateful-dead-2015jun27-htmlstory.html focus on it specifically.]]
* Music/MichaelJackson was a fan of Music/{{Queen}}, and would frequently attend the band's concerts in Los Angeles. He suggested that the band should release "Another One Bites the Dust" as a single at a backstage meeting. He also cited their album ''Hot Space'' as an influence on ''Music/{{Thriller}}''.
* Jim Davidson is a huge fan of Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer and later became friends with Keith Emerson, who provided the theme song for his sitcom ''Up the Elephant and Round the Castle''. When Emerson died in 2017, Davidson organised a tribute concert. He also opened his 1982 live show ''Too Risky'' a secion of "Karn Evil 9".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* ''Podcast/MyBrotherMyBrotherAndMe'': Fans who frequently submit Yahoo Answers for Griffin to read on the show get shout-outs and credits from the boys. The most prolific of these get into BigNameFan territory, typically denoted by them getting their own little RunningGag PhraseCatcher. There's Rachel Rosing ([[PhraseCatcher "Game recognize game"]]), Zoe Kinsky ([[PhraseCatcher "Climbing that ladder!"]]), Jacob Locker ([[PhraseCatcher "Coming out of retirement!"]]), Ira Wray ([[CallAndResponseSong "Are you Ira Wray?" "Who wants to know?"]]), and the undisputed king of them all, Level [[MadLibsCatchPhrase 9000]] Yadrew Drewydd Drew Davenport.
** Drew Davenport's fame spilled over into the Creator/McElroyBrothers' other podcast, ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'', where he was the namesake for Davenport, the gnome butler [[spoiler:and intrepid interdimensional starship captain.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/{{ECW}} had a core group of superfans, known as "Club ECW", who seemed to appear in choice seats in the audience of their shows week after week. Some of them became known by {{Fan Nickname}}s due to their distinctive appearances ("Sign Guy" always had a witty sign, "Hat Guy" always wore a straw hat and Hawaiian shirt, "Faith No More Guy" bore a stunning resemblance to Jim Martin from Faith No More, etc.). Eventually, ECW staffers started reserving the best seats in the house for these fans. Five years after ECW shut down, their special status was still honored for the official ECW reunion show, ''ECW One Night Stand'', as well as the unofficial one, ''Hardcore Homecoming.''
* Perhaps the biggest Big Name Fan in ProfessionalWrestling, however, is Dave Meltzer, author and publisher of the ''Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter'', the original SmartMark newsletter. Others include Wade Keller (of the ''Pro Wrestling Torch'', another popular newsletter), Bob Ryder (who made the transition from BNF to wrestling insider when he took a job with Wrestling/{{WCW}}), Scott Keith, Christopher Robin Zimmerman, and Chris Hyatte. Unlike most other entertainment companies, wrestling promotions (with the exceptions of the aforementioned ECW and Wrestling/RingOfHonor) tend to ''hate'' those [=BNFs=] who write on the subject with a passion, since they have a distinct tendency to pull back the curtain on {{Kayfabe}} (the late promoter Wrestling/{{Herb Abrams|UWF}} went so far as to feature a wrestler named Davey "The Observer" Meltzer on his UWF tv program; needless to say, "Meltzer" suffered defeat and humiliation). RD Reynolds and Blade Braxton of Website/{{WrestleCrap}} also have a fairly large online following, although both have been involved in independent pro wrestling, and they also tend to take a comically self-deprecating view of their importance as [=BNFs=] (Blade's insistence that he had a brief affair with Amy "Wrestling/{{Lita}}" Dumas after meeting her once at a car show, for example).
** Finally, there are Creator/BillAndDoug (AKA [=RVDTito4Life=] of Website/YouTube fame, and rival of Kent Jones), who were hired by Wrestling/{{TNA}} to become the hosts of the online show, ''TNA Addicts.''
* Jae, the guy who ran what was the only English language Wrestling/DragonGate website, was enlisted by the promotion to help set up their first tour of the United States. In an interview, he told a short story about how CIMA, the promotion's top draw, called him at 2 a.m. one night.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sports]]
%%* John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood anyone...
* Shirley Manson of Garbage (and "The Sarah Connor Chronicles") is perhaps the most unlikely San Antonio Spurs fan you'll ever encounter. She said she became a Spurs fan when she caught a glimpse of Tim Duncan doing a free throw and became smitten with him.
* Virtually every NFL team has a signature fan who is frequently shown in advertisements. Some of them even featured in a dedicated exhibit at the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame (though, contrary to the opinion of some, never actually inducted). Examples include:
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_%22Pinto_Ron%22_Johnson "Pinto Ron"]] (Buffalo Bills)
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_Man_%28Denver_Broncos%29 "Barrel Man"]] (Denver Broncos)
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogettes The Hogettes]] (Washington Football Team)
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Football_League_mascots Darth Raider]] (Oakland Raiders)
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Ray "Crazy Ray"]] (Dallas Cowboys)
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireman_Ed "Fireman Ed"]] (New York Jets)
** [[http://brownshistory.50megs.com/stats/personalities/bigdawg.htm "Big Dawg"]] (Cleveland Browns)
* Music/DropkickMurphys are huge fans of the Boston Red Sox, and have participated in multiple parades for the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, and the New England Patriots.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* With the development of the Master List of Limitations, Jack Butler became this for the ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}''[=/=]''TabletopGame/HeroSystem'' community.
* It is generally agreed that Surbrook's Stuff, maintained by Michael Surbrook, is the go-to site for ''Champions''[=/=]''Hero System'' gamers needing character sheets for, well, just about anything.
* Brian R. James (known at one time as "Iakhovas" online) counts as one for the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' fandom, since the higher-ups at Wizards of the Coast were so impressed by his compilation of names, dates, and facts regarding the Realms into a 100-page PDF history tool that he was approached for permission and eventually tapped to have his work fleshed out, illustrated, and added to by numerous well-known writers including Eric Boyd, George Krashos, and Ed Greenwood himself to become the ''Grand History of the Realms.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' fan Christine Daaé is now largely known for having legally changed her name to that of the show's heroine, but in the 1990s ran an international fanzine and founded most of the early Phantom discussion forums on the internet, including [[http://www.phantomoftheopera.com/ Phantom of the Opera.com]] She has represented the fandom on radio, television, and in the press. Her public dislike of Andrew Lloyd Webber sometimes made her a controversial figure. She has refused to confirm or deny rumors of relationships with two ''The Phantom of the Opera'' actors.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* The Halloween Horror Nights fandom of Universal Studios Orlando has a number of big names: Dr. Raymond Holmes, Nightshade, [=TerraPhantom/WESKER69=], and jwfearman among many others. These people are often known throughout the multiple sites (originally one, [=HHNVault=], until it shut down) and have had their names hidden on the website or in the event props and scenery as easter eggs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Creator/RoosterTeeth Productions, the creators of the {{machinima}} ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. Rooster Teeth has been since commissioned by Microsoft to do advertisements, and high-definition copies of ''Red vs. Blue'' are sold in the Xbox Live Marketplace and in many game stores. The crew also have voice-acting roles in the game ''Halo 3'', including a hidden skit that changes cast members and lines based on the difficulty level selected. A custom gametype they created, Grifball, got playlists in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' and ''[[VideoGame/HaloReach Reach]]'', and was updated and expanded upon in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}''.
** Randall Glass, creator of the "Halo Physics Experiment", better known as [[https://youtu.be/nGQIQljaAc0 the Warthog Jump,]] became immensely popular for a time. He even got into the credits of ''Halo 2'' under the "Special Thanks" section.
*** Both the cast of ''Red vs. Blue'' and Randall Glass made it into a special "Tribute vault" in ''Halo: Reach'', along with several other groups of fans.
* Tehnoobshow, who started out with a few videos about a stereotypical noob, eventually became this to ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'', even being commissioned by Jagex to work on the videos to open their machinima contests.
* In the early to mid-nineties, a fair number of famous and semi-famous ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' mapmakers wound up being engaged as official level designers for actual developers. The first was Tim Willits, Doom enthusiast and mapmaker assimilated by id in the mid-nineties, his most notable work being The Ultimate Doom, Doom 3 and the entire ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' series. He later ascended even further to become the lead designer and current co-owner of the company.
* Of note in the ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' fandom is Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin, a professional translator working for Creator/FUNimation and lead/sole translator of the ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' and ''[[CompilationRerelease MOTHER 1+2]]'' FanTranslation projects, getting lots of love from both fans and the game industry for his virtually Herculean efforts in the case of the former. He's also a big name in the fan translation "scene" in general, having worked on high-profile projects like ''VideoGame/BahamutLagoon'' and ''{{VideoGame/Star Ocean|1}}'', and has been mentioned by famed translator [[{{Woolseyism}} Ted Woolsey]] in an interview. These days, he runs [[http://earthboundcentral.com/ Videogame/EarthBound Central,]] a personal blog dedicated to exploring the minutiae of ''Videogame/EarthBound'', new finds in the games, developments for the series, [[EpilepticTrees theorising about why everyone's so reluctant to rerelease them]], [[{{Woolseyism}} translation changes]], and occasionally talking about what creator Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto[=/=]Creator/ShigesatoItoi is up to these days, and Website/LegendsOfLocalization, a site that looks at changes made while bringing other games from Japan to English speaking regions, occasionally the other way around, and sometimes other combinations of "from" and "to" regions.
** On a more traditional level, there's Benjamin "Katon" Carignan, one of the masterminds between [[Fanfic/FobbiesAreBorange three well-renowned]] [[Fanfic/TreeFromMyYouth fan radio plays]] and is the most consistently popular radio DJ for STARMEN.net's internet radio station, Radio PSI. He is one of the few [=BNFs=] that is incredibly humble about his popularity and is often surprised at the reactions he gets after contacting people.
* Plenty of ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' fans have at least heard of Fladervy, one of the most notable speedrunners in the community. His runs of Lilac and especially Milla have exploited the game's physics so extensively he tends to top the leaderboards for the game. He's been invited to many Games Done Quick events to show off the game, even the game's creator Strife has expressed his approval many times. To a slightly lesser extent, there's Succinct and Punchy and johannhowitzer. They've all received favorable Tweats from the creator and voice actors.
* From the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' and ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' series:
** Xaran Alamas, the owner of a large ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' fansite back in the day and later the runner of a semi-official ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' "lore question and answers" thread at the fora. He is also reputedly a cyber-friend with Creator/ChrisMetzen, the leader of the series' creative division. In [=WoW's=] second expansion pack, he got an NPC named after him.
** Not to mention Skosiris, the founder of THE site for any World of Warcraft information, Wowhead. He is well known enough for Blizzard to name an NPC after him. They got the race wrong (Skorisis' main is an Orc as opposed to the Blood Elf NPC), but admittedly a Blood Elf make better Loremasters...
** Same goes for Breanni, founder of a site categorizing minipets in [=WoW=] who also gets referenced ingame as a minipet vendor, and the NPC IS a gnome.
** Many other fans have received items named after them. As examples, Aldriana's Gloves of Secrecy are named for the famous rogue theory-crafter on the Elitist Jerks website, Phaedra's Vestments of the Sprouting Seed are named for a woman who ran a popular blog about resto druids (and who was pregnant at the time the item debuted), and Blockade's Lost Shield is named for a dwarf warrior on the Barthilas server with an infamously large collection of tier sets and shields.
** Ahab Wheathoof, a tauren farmer with a simple quest in Mulgore, was designed and voiced by Ezra Chatterton, who was brought to Blizzard's offices by the Make-A-Wish foundation.
** There's also Boubille, creator of MMO-Champion, the [=WoW=] news and data mining site where most people get their information on upcoming patches way before Blizzard ever announces anything, and it's also a great compilation of developer posts.
* From the ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' series:
** Arguably every pro-level player, both in and out of Korea.
** Amateur commentators like Mike "Creator/HuskyStarcraft" Lamond, Sean "[=Day9=]" Plott (himself a former pro-level player), and a slew of others are regularly hired by Blizzard and other pro-level game leagues to commentate the games.
** [=StarCrafts=], created by Carbot, not only has official t-shirts sold by Blizzard, but also has his images incorporated into both icons and profile images in the game itself.
* Blizzard's generally extensive engagement with their fans has produced a lot of these. TournamentPlay masters aside, many independent commentators achieved internet stardom by doing {{After Action Report}}s and How To guides on the ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' series and ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', and were eventually brought on by Blizzard in some official capacity or another.
* Creator/MasahiroSakurai is known to include characters of games he loves to the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series. He grew up with fighting games and added Ryu from ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' into the [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU the Wii U/3DS entry in the series]], followed by Ken in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]''. He would also add Terry of ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' and ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' fame to ''Ultimate'' as DLC. He became enamored with ''VideoGame/Persona5'' and would go on to add the protagonist of that game, "Joker", as another DLC character in ''Ultimate''. He is also a big fan of ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' and, since ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'', has added more characters from the series with each entry, including [[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragon Marth]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade Roy]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Ike]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Robin, Lucina, Chrom]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Corrin]], and [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses Byleth]].
* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' fandom is pretty much split into three, and accordingly the heads of said ways are Big Name Fans:
** "Serebii" (real name Joe Merrick, ironically provided by a page about him on rival [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Serebii_(person) Bulbapedia.]] No relation to aintitcool's Joeseph Merrick as far as we know) hosts one of the two most well-known ''Pokémon'' sites, the self-titled Serebii.net, and has been known to appear on other ''Pokémon''-related forums, as well as on ''Star Trek''-related forums under the name of Captain Joe. His attitude regarding other ''Pokémon'' websites and a few allegations of plagiarism (though unsubstantiated in recent years), bullying and looking to pick fights (even with other fandoms!) have given him his own personal BrokenBase amongst ''Pokémon'' fans. His animosity with [[http://www.bulbagarden.net Bulbagarden]] and [[http://www.pokebeach.com PokéBeach]] in particular is near-legendary, though [[GoKartingWithBowser he still frequents both sites.]]
*** If you need another example of his reputation in the fandom, keep in mind that the Official Nintendo Magazine (the UK one) nearly always uses Serebii.net as a source for their Pokemon news. Serebii/Joe Merrick himself also often ends up writing for said magazine, so you've got a situation where a fan is well known enough that the official media for the company uses his work as a source themselves.
** "Archaic" (real name Liam Pomfret) is webmaster of the other big-name ''Pokémon'' site, Website/{{Bulbagarden}}.net. He's one of the oldest [=BNFs=] in the fandom, having first made a name for himself back in 2000-2002, primarily as a leader or spokesman for the Pokémon shippers community (which got him top billing for ShipToShipCombat here); a role in which he managed to turn the entire staff of Pokémasters, then one of the major forums, against shippers. He later worked for Serebii as his right hand man, but left to [[{{Uncancelled}} (re)establish Bulbagarden]], incidentally creating a conflict between the two communities that is still ongoing many years later. The initial relaunch of Bulbagarden is most charitably described as achieving somewhat underwhelming results, but after several years of the website struggling, Archaic added a wiki to the site, which quickly grew into [[TheWikiRule Bulbapedia]]; he later led the effort to expand into the collaborative Nintendo wiki network NIWA.
** "Water Pokémon Master" (real name Jon Sahagian; thanks to Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Black_and_White#Japanese_release this info]]) of TCG website PokéBeach.com is another well-known website in the fan community. His devotion to the franchise has allowed him to interview the previous director of the ''Pokémon''anime, Masamitsu Hidaka, and he is the only foreigner to have seen an early screening of the 12th Pokémon movie in Japan. His site has also been featured in several TCG magazines around the world. He is known to be in contact with internal Pokémon officials, even to the point where he can pick up the phone and call them to confirm rumors and stories. He is also a little infamous with some people at The Pokémon Company International for posting early scans of TCG sets several weeks before they are released.
* In ''VideoGame/FallFromHeaven'', Magister Cultuum fills this role, to the point of having a Great Sage named after him, an being quickly know to everyone on the Forums.
* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}:''
** [=KirbyM=] too, owner of ''[[http://www.walfas.org Walfas,]]'' a ''Touhou''-related site. Worked on Maikaze's ''Touhou'' anime, although that too was fanmade...
** Music/{{IOSYS}}, makers of some of the most notable song remixes.
** Rei Hiroe (the author of ''Manga/BlackLagoon'') has made Touhou doujin and fanart.
* Actor and former NFL player Creator/TerryCrews is a passionate fan of video games and is a particularly big fan of ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'', so much so that he offered to provide the voice of Doomfist. While he wouldn't get the role, he still expressed approval of Sahr Ngaujah's portrayal of the fan-favorite villain.
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has [=SethBling=], one of the more known abusers of the in-game wiring system. He is quite popular with the developers, too.
* [[http://www.pikminlink.com/ Pikmin Link]] is possibly the biggest BNF in the ''Zelda'' fandom. Being a cosplayer, even a particularly good one, is not usually enough to earn such a title. However, Pikmin Link's cosplay reached the attention of Nintendo executives, who recruited her to portray Link at the official release of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', and the costume she wore has been retired and is kept under glass. That's because it was signed by Shigeru Miyamoto himself.
* Gideon Zhi, of [[http://agtp.romhack.net/ Aeon Genesis,]] has released far more {{Fan Translation}}s than any other group, and his work is almost inevitably featured in any articles about the subject.
* While he was more associated with the [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM Saturday morning cartoon]] and the comics based on them, [[https://www.andrews.edu/~drazen/sonic.html Dan Drazen]] was a big name in ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fandom for a while. He's also into Franchise/CareBears.
** Additionally, Jay Axer and Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante both were fans who [[PromotedFanboy ended up drawing for the Archie comics.]]
** Further, Ian Flynn was just a fan and now he's [[PromotedFanboy writing the Archie comic]].
** Horror legend Creator/JohnCarpenter has also mentioned being a big fan, even mentioning liking ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' despite some people not liking certain parts of the game.
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is a perfect example of this trope. It went from a Quake mod to one of the premier "Steam" titles in the Orange Box collection. Within the game, a few high quality player-made maps have been honorarily canonized as official.
** Also in the Team Fortress 2 fandom are fans known for producing high-quality fanwork. Among them:
*** Chemical Alia for her work on the [[http://chemicalalia.deviantart.com/art/Medic-Heavy-character-select-145112417?q=1&qo=1 Female Medic and Heavy]] reskins.
*** Makani for [[http://makani.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d1pbaup designing]] what eventually became the official design for the Administrator.
*** Cat Bountry for writing what could be the best and well-known fanfics in the fandom, including Fanfic/RespawnOfTheDead.
*** This was turned into PromotedFanboy when Cat Bountry got the opportunity to write one of the official Team Fortress 2 comics.
* Anthony Burch from ''WebVideo/HeyAshWhatchaPlayin'' was offered, and accepted, a job a Gearbox because of how funny Hey Ash was.
* Irma 'Aimo' Ahmed is well-known in various Creator/BioWare fandoms, but perhaps she's best known these days for her fan works for ''Franchise/DragonAge''. She even got to do a [[http://blog.bioware.com/2010/03/01/dragon-age-the-revelation-comic/ comic based on a deleted scene]] ('''spoiler warning in the link''') with the head writer for the game.
** Also well known to [=BioWare=]'s fandom, particularly the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' fanbase, is Holly Conrad. A costume maker and prop maker, Conrad started gaining notoriety when she and her studio, Crabcat Industries, showed off a series of Mass Effect cosplays at Comic-Con 2010. By that time a year later Conrad had been commissioned by Bioware to make costumes for their live broadcast during Comic-Con 2011, make props and costumes for Mass Effect 3's [[https://youtu.be/OBESnvjZGt8&ob=av3e live-action trailer]] and she's become a symbol for [[FanNickname FemShep]] within the fandom.
*** Similarly, one of Crabcat's co-founders, Jessica Merizan, has since been hired by Bioware as the company's Community Manager.
* Zeality is known for running the [[http://www.chronocompendium.com/ Chrono Compendium,]] the biggest [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Chrono series]] website. Recently he was featured in [[http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3178331 an article]] about his role in the community.
* James Rolfe, aka WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd, is practically a celebrity in the online movies and video games fandom.
* Zan Sidera (or just Zan) is the number #1 public figure for the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series; known for his extensive canonical knowledge, keen analysis and immense dedication. For example, he built extremely detailed and comprehensive timelines for EVERY Mega Man game there is to date. Some of the more well-read and complete timelines involve the [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com the Zero series,]] [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=653.0 the X series]] and [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=120.0 the Legend Series.]] Obviously, the timelines are not spoiler-friendly.
** Also while they are not as known as him, there are Robert Oakes (Oakie), Hypershell and Marshmellow Man, with which Zan often discuss over the facts. Marshmellow Man himself can read Japanese and provided Zan Sidera and the fanbase with information, which would have been exclusively for the Japanese.
* FanFilm creators Beat Down Boogie became [=BNFs=] because of their [[CrossOver mashup]] of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' titled ''WebVideo/ModernWarGearSolid.''
** Likewise, [[Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFoxhound Chris Doucette]] and [[Webcomic/TheCobraDays inonibird]] both had their shares of fans for their respective ''Metal Gear Solid'' QuirkyMinibossSquad comics. Those who had [[PraisingShowsYouDontWatch never played the games]] read the comics and were surprised to see how little characterization both FOXHOUND and the Cobra Unit received when they played the games.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' fandom has [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/ Forte.]] Her [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3fri7e human versions of the personality cores]] (especially her [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/gallery/30570934#/d3h906k Wheatley design]]) are some of (if not the) most widely used in the fandom. Quite a few people even ship her with Wheatley.
** ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' also has Waffles, or Waffleguppies, author of the famous fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Blue Sky}}'', a super-popular work that has its own trope page and a dedicated circle of fans.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Achron}}'', [=Shadowfury333=] fills this role. He's become a sort of unoffocial game commentator, casting replays and live games, as well as making a large number of maps and special additions (such as observers) through modding the game.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' has [=VincentASM=], owner of Serenes Forest, the largest and most complete Fire Emblem site. The End also rose to this level when he translated the ''Hasha no Tsurugi'' manga.
* David Goldfarb, an ex-developer from DICE who helped with the production of the ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' series, is a huge fan of films that involve bank robberies and similar heists and had been wanting to produce a game in that genre for years. After David left DICE, he joined Overkill Software, the makers of ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'', and helped the studio produce [[VideoGame/PAYDAY2 the sequel.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'', [[http://www.cyborgmatt.com Cyborg Matt]] is famous for his analysis of patches and support of the ''Dota 2'' community, to the extent that some theorize he is the game's mysterious developer, [[ReclusiveArtist IceFrog.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX'' communities, you can expect to hear the player names MADOKA and DOLCE. a lot; they are known as two of the best ''IIDX'' players in Japan, often becoming the finalists in the ''IIDX'' tournament at the annual Konami Arcade Championship.
* Let's Play-er LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}} is a BNF of the ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' series, ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'', and ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' all at once. He can be considered a BNF of Nintendo in general.
** Chugga also has an unusually bilateral example of this in the case of WebAnimation/JaidenAnimations, as both content creators are subscribed to one another and follow each other on Twitter.
* ''LetsPlay/DeceasedCrab'' is well known for his {{Lets Play}}s of ''VideoGame/LaMulana'', to the point that he was on the special thanks credits of the remake.
* A Let's Player by the name of Northernlion is very well-known in the ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' community, mostly because he does a ''daily'' run through the game that has been on-going for several years. Community reactions are a bit split on him, largely over his playstyle, but he's well-known enough that game creator Edmund [=Mc=]Millen guest-commentated on one of his playthroughs.
* The ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' community has several: [=VaatiVidya=] and LetsPlay/EpicNameBro are both known for their in-depth, comprehensive analysis of the game series' lore (which is famously vague and complex). [=OnlyAfro=], on the other hand, is a FountainOfMemes who usually posts videos of himself trolling people in [=PvP=] in numerous inventive (and usually hilarious) ways.
* "mossbag" is well-known in the ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' community for his in-depth and comprehensive lore analysis videos, sometimes incorporating [[MemeticMutation memes]] to balance comedy and seriousness (In fact, some of the [[Memes/HollowKnight memes in the community]] originate from his videos). Whenever a new fan wants to learn more about the game's lore, veterans usually recommend watching mossbag's videos.
* Who enjoys the Creator/{{Sega}} [[UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn Saturn]] title ''VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams''? None other than Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto, and he's named it as a masterpiece and the one game he wishes he had developed.
* @/LadyNorbert is this for Eipix, the Serbian developer of the ''VideoGame/DarkParables'' and other point-and-click titles. The company has used her work for [[ApprovalOfGod official social media marketing]], as well as thanking her for making the page about the ''Dark Parables'' on Wiki/ThisVeryWiki. She was granted the honorary position in the company of "North American Vice-President of Fairytale Detection," as can be seen on their Facebook page.
* Jack Lusted was once just a guy modding ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar''. But after developing such greatly successful and popular - not to mention large-scale - mods such as ''Terra Expugnandae'', ''Late Romans'' and ''Lands to Conquer'' (for ''VideoGame/Medieval2TotalWar''), he was hired by Creative Assembly in 2007, and these days calls most of the shots on upcoming ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' games as Project Lead.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** Dave Humphrey is the the creator of the [[https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages,]] the first and foremost [[TheWikiRule wiki]] for all things ''Elder Scrolls''.
** Lady Nerevar is admin of The [[https://www.imperial-library.info/ Imperial Library,]] a site dedicated to the discussion and preservation of the series' lore, as well as the fiancee of former series writer Creator/MichaelKirkbride.
** Shirley Curry, a popular [[Website/YouTube Youtuber]] in her 80s that does LetsPlay videos of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5n2P_1F8nQhOo0fLGdh-iw Zaric Zhakaron]] posts his intriguing, detailed videos on the franchise (and on Creator/{{Bethesda}} games in general).
* Max Christiansen, AKA Maximilian Dood (of ''LetsPlay/TheOnlineWarrior'', ''WebVideo/AssistMe'', and ''LetsPlay/YoVideogames'' fame) is a Big Name Fan for the entire FightingGame genre, plus a few other specific titles like ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry''. He's held in high regard by quite a few big names in the industry like ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' producer Katsuhiro Harada, ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' co-creator Ed Boon, and actor Creator/ReubenLangdon (who plays two of his all-time favorite characters, [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ken Masters]] and [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]]). He's also become a PromotedFanboy a few times, doing official work for Creator/{{Capcom}}[[note]]Hosting the ''Cross Assault'' web series to promote ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'' and the ''Assist Me'' videos were officially sponsored to the point where Capcom's Yoshinori Ono cameoed in the last episode[[/note]] and more prominently Creator/IronGalaxyStudios.[[note]]Producing trailers and story mode cutscenes for the ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'' reboot[[/note]]
* Since not long after it was announced and released, the ''VideoGame/JurassicWorldEvolution'' fandom has been dominated by Website/{{YouTube}}r Best In Slot, who covered the game's development frequently on his Website/YouTube Channel in addition to videos covering various skins and features after release. His videos have become ubiquitous in the community that reactions to new features often illicit calls of excitement towards his videos on the subject.
** This also happened to Steamblust, a user who posted a variety of photoshopped images to Reddit depicting species not in the game, often using their appearances in other ''Jurassic Park'' media as a basis, such as the Troodon and Herrarasaurus from ''VideoGame/JurassicParkTheGame'' to the Carchardotonosaurus from ''VideoGame/JurassicParkOperationGenesis'' as well as fully original creations; he eventually added watermarks to his images due to people using them in videos and reposting them without permission. He has since even produced skins that work within the PC version. There are often many calls for the developers to follow him for inspiration.
* Many designers become BNF's in the ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon'' communities during periods of high productivity in modding and gradually become lost in the shuffle when their work is superseded by later designers; the most enduring names have usually been those who pioneered new capabilities, especially with modeling software.
** HENDRIX, originally known as Dinosaur Man, is a highly influential figure who has become known for his programming and scripting in recent years, though he was initially known as simply being a particularly talented designer. He was one of the pioneers of using Blender to create new models and later animations for the game, and created not only multiple popular solo project releases, but an entire user expansion in his own, as well as being a pivotal figure in both the ''Radical Remake'' and ''Cretaceous Calamity'' user projects. He later made a script to generate Zoo Tycoon 2 models as Zoo Tycoon 1 animals, and after fifteen years, created the long-desired script to allow importing edited models into ''VideoGame/JurassicParkOperationGenesis''.
** Although the designer Legosith is not quite as well-known in the community, he is also a BNF within the community for being the first to create a fully new biome, representing the deep sea Abyss, after five years of failed attempts to do so by senior designers in the community. (This was his first public project.) He also was the first to create new animations for the game, allowing flying birds, and was key to creating the first XL map for ''Cretaceous Calamity''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* The writer of ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' attracted the attention of Jane Goodall (a character in the comic and one of his heroes) to the point that he eventually had an interview with her that was posted in the comic. It wasn't fully apparent if she was a fan of the comic, however.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'':
** Writer/artist Creator/AndrewHussie featured a couple of ShoutOut[=s=] to Creator/DanteBasco[='s=] character "Rufio" from ''Film/{{Hook}}''. Naturally, the fandom told him about this, and he's now on Act 6.
** Creator/AndrewHussie later asked popular fan artist [[http://duedlyfirearms.tumblr.com/ Shelby]] to draw art for in-universe FanGirl [[spoiler: Calliope.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': Linkara has among his fans Creator/GailSimone (a fan of his comic reviews) and a Franchise/SuperSentai suit actress (a fan of ''History of Power Rangers'').
* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'':
** When Creator/DougWalker made contact with ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' creator Tom Ruegger, he was surprised to find out that Ruegger was a fan of Walker's own show.
** Within the TGWTG fandom itself, Rants, the admin of the TGWTG secrets blog has been making a name for himself. His popularity varies from person to person however.
*** One fan named Erica is well-acquainted with the Nostalgia Critic team, with their ''WebVideo/DemoReel'' SlashFic being [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsdUC0RqRa4 read by Doug and Uncle Yo.]] They're most well-known as the partial inspiration for Hyper Fangirl's character; see them interact with the team in cosplay [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnudkDVUUgY here.]]
*** For the later NC fandom, the most prominent Tumblr was [=ThatChickWithTheGifs=], responsible for most of the reaction gifs circulated around the fandom before it shut down in 2018. The members of the show have used these gifs on their own social media accounts.
* Creator/RoosterTeeth makes this list again. Before he joined the company, Creator/MontyOum was a fan of RT. Yes, [[WebAnimation/{{Haloid}} ''that'']] [[WebAnimation/DeadFantasy Mon]][[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} ty.]]
** Additionally, Creator/RoosterTeeth were able to hire one of their most prominent [=BNFs=] for Machinima/RedVsBlue. The name of said BNF? ''Creator/ElijahWood''.
** ''Rooster Teeth'' regularly hires fans doing something really cool on their website.
* Chris Hardwick of [=TheNerdistPodcast=], started out as a (very well connected) interdisciplinary geekdom BNF, but is now a AscendedFanboy (working for BBC America and [=ComicCon=]) and a cultural institution onto himself.
* Many of the bigger remixers in the [[WebVideo/GameGrumps Game Grumps]] fandom can get this status, including but not limited to the "Triforce" mixers, [=AtPunk=], Liltommyj, and [=JerryTerry=], the latter eventually [[AscendedFanboy composing several theme song variations]] for [[WebVideo/JonTron Jon's own show.]]
* Creator/NoahAntwiler of the ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'' is a big fan of the ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' series. ''Ultima'' creator Richard Garriott has said he's a fan of the show, and the two met for an interview during the production of Garriot's SpiritualSuccessor to ''Ultima'', ''VideoGame/ShroudOfTheAvatarForsakenVirtues.''
* Creator/TaraStrong follows LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}} on Twitter.
* LetsPlay/UberHaxorNova has several [=BNFs=], up to and including Jim Bonacci (creator of ''VideoGame/HappyWheels'') and even ''Notch,'' the man responsible for '''''{{VideoGame/Minecraft}}.'''''
* In WebVideo/SkyWilliams' second AMA video, he asked his opinion on Dunkey. He called himself a fan and said he'd like to collab with him. The two have since started playing together and appeared in each other's videos.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Surprisingly, Creator/CharlieChaplin himself, after whom WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat was patterned, loved the original Felix the Cat cartoons and envied the amount of control of timing animation allowed over live action. Fitting, since Otto Messmer had previously worked on a series of silent Charlie Chaplin cartoons in the past (which Chaplin also liked) and had studied Chaplin's films for reference, which proved as a ground zero of sorts for his Felix cartoons.
-->'''Otto Messmer''': "I patterned him after Charlie Chaplin. The audience loved him. And so did Chaplin. The cartoon format let Felix do things that Chaplin couldn't do on film..."
* There are two in the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fandom:
** "Megafan" Kimberly Miranda aka [[http://isaia.deviantart.com Isaia,]] one of the very first ''Avatar'' fan artists on Website/DeviantArt. Her account now has over a million views and her artwork is often shown in magazines for the show. Her [[http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39867827/ "It's Avatarded"]] satire comics are responsible for the [[FanCommunityNicknames Fan Community Nickname.]]
** Johane Matte aka [[http://rufftoon.deviantart.com/ Rufftoon,]] also on Deviant Art, earned one million pageviews in almost half the time that Isaia did. She was later [[http://www.drawingboard.org/blogs/Nofret/2424/Big+News%21%21.html hired]] as a storyboard artist for the show and provided illustrations for the ''Avatar''-dedicated Nick Mag.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has ''Korra Nation'', a website where people vote for who they think the 'biggest' fans are. Most of the top scorers are Big Name Fans.
* Several ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' fans had {{Shout Out}}s made to them in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', but the most famous must be [[http://www.bwtf.com Ben Yee,]] a ''Transformers'' site owner who actually was given credits props as a ''consultant'' on the show.
** Another Big Transformers Fan might be Chris Ho, AKA WebVideo/InternetPersonalityVangelus, having served as the voice of ''ComicBook/TransformersTransTech'' Shockwave and having fan art drawn ''of him'' by [[WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated Derrick J. Wyatt.]]
** Monzo also deserves mention, having helped Hasbro determine the copyright status of several Transformer-names. His name appears as Universe Onslaught's serial number, along with his birth date.
* Mark Moore was/is an infamous ''Captain N'' fan, notable for his "Season 4" (through 8) fanfic continuation of the original cartoon series.
* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko:''
** [=Thunderbird3=], or [=TB3=], is apparently on speaking terms with the creators and even made a documentary with interviews of the cast and crew. For the fairly small English-speaking fanbase, this was a big thing.
** [=SearchingLyoko=], founder of Code Lyoko United and a well known member on Website/LyokoFreak and Code Lyoko Evolved, communicates with [=MoonScoop=] quite regularly and was quite possibly a major factor in the creation of ''Series/CodeLyokoEvolution.''
* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' [[http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl forum]] There are a few members who are in on the entire plot of the revival webcomic and/or regularly correspond with higher-ups among the revival. The comic's writer himself is also a member, and regularly interacts with the members to get their input.
* Most ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' fans are aware of [=NeoYi=]. What most people know her for is her excellent fan comic ''[[http://neoyi.deviantart.com Chess Piece]]'' but really, it's nearly impossible to explore the fandom (specifically on Website/DeviantArt) without learning about her eventually. Others include Firefury Amahira, Tavalya Ra, The Alchemist's Muse and Esme Phantom, all of which are very well known around the community.
* The WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperForceGo fandom has [=Netbug009=], she will deny this but we all know it's true... Though her Status as a BNF may be the result of the fact that it's a small Fandom and she's the one currently running the only active fan-forum Monkey See, Monkey Fu.
** There were some others back in the day, but most of them have moved on.
*** While not still actively in the fandom, if you didn't know about Sora-Mito's fanart back in the day, you had either been hiding under a Shuggazoomian rock or had seen it without realizing it. (Quite a few people took it for their own websites without permission or credit.)
*** Then there was ii, who was the head Admin on MSMF for a while and went through SEVERAL Usernames in his time. Oh yea, he was also one of the few boys in the Fandom which certainly helped his case...
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama:''
** Creator/WinterRae, a notorious CrackPairing writer, and Creator/TheKoboldNecromancer, who wrote the pioneering ''[[Fanfic/TotalDramaComebackSeries Total Drama Comeback]]'' series as a spin-off second and third season. If you know anything about ''Total Drama'' fanfiction, you've heard of their works.
** Courtney Garcia, AKA [=CITPrincess=] is a very popular TDI artist on deviantART, who is well known for her outstanding cosplays of Courtney (the character) and live action reenactments of her scenes from the ''Total Drama'' series. She became even better known after winning a Halloween Contest sponsored by the official ''Total Drama Island'' Blog in 2009. She's even hung out with Chris Potenza himself for a convention and still keeps in contact with him.
* Heidi "Lady Niko" Rekell has been the unofficial administrator, and "go to" person for ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers Galaxy Rangers]]''. She worked closely with Koch when it came to the DVD release.
* ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' fans most likely will know Princess June (AKA [=Kablamoid96=] or June the [=KaBlamoid=]), who created the most music videos on Website/YouTube for the show, a fanfic writer, a fanart artist, and [[http://s1.zetaboards.com/The_KaBlam_Forum/index/ created the first message board for the show.]] She's one of the reasons why the cult following is getting bigger. Not to mention she knows Mo Willems, the creator of ''The Off-Beats.''
** And of course, there's another fanfic/fanart [=KaBlamoid=] who all the fans should know... [=KaBlamoid4Life=]!
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has Shaun Scotellaro (more commonly known as Sethisto), who runs one of the biggest fandom hub websites tied to the show: [[http://www.equestriadaily.com/ Equestria Daily]]. The site is notable enough that it's received exclusive content from The Hub (the Equestria Girls advert), and Sethisto has been interviewed for [[http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/bronies-my-little-ponys/ Wired's article about the show.]]
** Other well-known people are the co-moderators of Equestria Daily, such as Cereal Velocity, Phoe, and Calpain. Authors are fairly well-known too, such as Kkat, the author of the ([[{{Doorstopper}} literally)]] epic-length fanfic, ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria.''
** There's also The Smiling Pony, who (along with an entire team of moderators) runs [[http://www.derpiboo.ru Derpibooru]], the largest and most well known pony imageboard on the net.
** There's also [=BaldDumboRat=], who (at least when it comes to fanon) is considered THE voice for [[SeriesMascot Derpy Hooves.]]
** John De Lancie, after voicing Discord in the Season 2 premiere, has become one and eventually made [[Film/BroniesTheExtremelyUnexpectedAdultFansOfMyLittlePony a documentary]] to put a positive spin on the Brony fandom after seeing how disrespectfully the national news portrays them.
** The Living Tombstone, Wooden Toaster, and many other Brony musicians are world-famous for what they do.
** You won't go far into that fanbase without hearing the names Egophiliac, John Joseco, Kloudmutt, Braeburned, Pixelkitties, or Atryl[[note]]To name a few[[/note]], all of whom are ''very'' well known fan artists (some of whom do NSFW stuff so tread carefully) who have contributed thousands of pieces of artwork, are known by cast and crew members, and are responsible for a number of memes and {{Fanon}}.
** Then there's Wild Fire, an alias of MLP storyboard artist Sabrina Alberghetti, and Mandopony, a fan musician. The two met, began dating regularly, and formally announced their engagement in January 2015. They even run a shared Tumblr account, [[http://mandofire.tumblr.com available here.]]
** And then there's WebVideo/MLPAnalysis, essentially becoming the Website/ChannelAwesome of the Brony Community. Well-known members include, but are not limited to, {{Creator/Joshscorcher}}, Creator/SilverQuill, and Creator/ILoveKimPossibleALot.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' has a few, including Kara Wild who actually managed to score interviews with showrunners Glenn Eichler & Anne Bernstein. Novelist and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game designer Roger E. "The Angst Guy" Moore is also a major fixture within the fandom and is (in)famous for creating some of the most competently written & heart wrenching DarkFic known to man.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' has Mara S (or acaciathorn, if you want to use her deviantart account handle). She founded and currently runs the longest-running JN fansite on the net. Plus, she wrote a truly incredible, book-length fanfiction called 'The Other Side Of Tomorrow', complete with chapter illustrations and its own fandom. If you've participated in any JN fandom on the net, chances are you've run into Mara or her works at some point.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has a dedicated fandom - The [[FanCommunityNicknames Fallers]]- and the most well known faller is certainly Adam Warrock. Adam was already quite famous online because of the rap songs he created and uploaded to [=YouTube=]. When he made a rap about Gravity Falls using the theme song as the beat, [[https://youtu.be/ALstOqg0pig the video]] became so popular in the fandom, to the point the [[ApprovalOfGod show's creator]] tweeted him and called him [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/225466352792645632 "the greatest man who ever lived"]]. Now Adam, among with another fan, Chris Haley, hosts a podcast about the show, [[https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gravity-falls-gossiper-podcast/id547361019 "The Gravity Falls Gossiper,"]] in which the show's creator has already guest starred. Also among the show's fanbase [[https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/668252847700447232 is]] director Creator/GuillermoDelToro.
** There's also [[https://moringmark.tumblr.com Moringmark]] a.k.a. [[https://markmak.deviantart.com/gallery/ Markmak]] who were known as one of the most influential Gravity Falls fan-artist. He's also becoming a BNF in the [[WesternAnimation/StarvsTheForcesofEvil Star vs. The Forces of Evil]] fandom, as he creates a fancomic named [[WebComic/ShipWarAU Ship War AU]].
* [[Website/DeviantArt Deviantartists]] [[http://djcoulzanimalsonly.deviantart.com/gallery/ DJCoulz]] and [[http://dj88.deviantart.com/gallery/8276851 DJ88]] are well known across WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}} fandom for pioneering many of the most popular ideas across the fandom. The former's version of Ahadi and Uru (Mufasa and Scar's parents) has been copied by nearly every other fan. The latter is most famous for giving Zira an abusive father and giving characters from a series of books and comics more vibrant "movie" colors. They're some of the best artists in the fandom.
* ''WesternAnimation/KappaMikey'' fans know of Lizzy Silvas, aka [[http://kappalizzy.deviantart.com/ Kappa Lizzy]] who was actually drawn into an episode of ''Kappa Mikey'' from winning a fan contest and did her own voice-over. She attended conventions and even inspired other fans to nickname themselves. Kappa Lizzy is also well known by SEGA for playing the Sonic The Hedgehog video games, watching the shows & reading the comics during her years of recovering from a brain tumor when she was a child.
* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' has Creator/JohnKricfalusi, UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation purist, whereas some people have attempted to see the series as a blatant ripoff of his show ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', John seems to really like the show.
** John also really likes WesternAnimation/YogiBear, so much so in fact he did his own take on it with 3 shorts in the '90s.
* Fans of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' have heard of tumblr user [[http://azurajae.tumblr.com/ AzuraJae.]] Jae started [[http://mlsubbing.tumblr.com/ mlsubbing,]] a large scale fansubbing project for the budding show involving at least twelve different languages and gained 10,000+ followers in the span of just three months. Since the start of Jae's project, the fandom has exploded tremendously in numbers - One could say she revolutionized the fandom. She was also the one to give Creator/ThomasAstruc the affectionate fanon nickname Hawkdaddy, or Papapillon in French. Additionally, Jae loves to draw fan art and write fanfiction and uploads to them to tumblr.
* Website/{{YouTube}}r [=McKenzie Atwood=] (better known as [[https://www.youtube.com/user/MightBeMaybeME MKatwood]]) has done many things for the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' fandom. She's the creator of many meme compilation videos of the show, including [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJNl_1SWSSQaS2vXLC1ro73iUO6HPrSFz Pearl's Secret Rap Career.]] The last installment of the series features Pearl's voice actress Deedee Magno-Hall, and has been acknowledged by Michaela Dietz (Amethyst) and Shelby Rabara (Peridot). She is friends with Deedee Magno-Hall and Zach Callison (Steven), and later became an intern at Cartoon Network before becoming host of the show's official podcast.
* Though his name value isn't immediately recognized in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' fandom, Willie "Big-Will" Westwood is the creator of the South Park Scriptorium fansite, which has remained consistently updated since the show's first season; his transcriptions of episodes of the series since its first season are authoritative, and was recognized by the show's animators and creators in its early years; the scripts were also as a basis for the script project at the main fan wiki; he has been the sole active moderator at the official South Park Studios message board for well over a decade as well.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'':
** According to the DVDCommentary, Creator/HarlanEllison was a fan of the show and personally requested that Nickelodeon send him tapes of it.
** Creator/RebeccaSugar was a huge fan of the series as a teenager, writing various pieces of fan fiction for it. She would even come to loosely base the character of Peridot in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' on Zim, from their SmallNameBigEgo to the utter lack of respect they got from their very tall superiors.
* Ross O'Donovan of ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' has fond memories of watching ''WesternAnimation/BlinkyBill'' and ''WesternAnimation/LittleElvisJonesAndTheTruckstoppers'' as a child and recommends both series to Barry in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhx0yvOpvMY an episode of Grumpcade]].
* [[Website/DeviantArt DeviantArtist]] [=JustinandDennis=] (J&D) is well-known amongst the members of the small-but-dedicated ''WesternAnimation/PBAndJOtter'' fandom. He is responsible for creating several fan characters/[=OCs=] and has even created some of the show's {{Fanon}} such as backstories, and also wrote some TransformationFiction for the series (who's human characters/"[=TF=] victims" would later become [[AscendedExtra Ascended Extras]] in his original work). He is also active in other fandoms such as the ''WesternAnimation/BlazingDragons'' fandom.
* The ''WesternAnimation/BlazingDragons'' fandom has French [[Website/DeviantArt DeviantArtist]] [=Benthehyena=]. Her most notable contribution to the fandom is co-creating the [=#BDRevolution=] campaign with Season 2 story editor Erika Strobel.
[[/folder]]
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to:

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1603921753023815900 under discussion]] in the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1603921753023815900 Trope Repair Shop]].]]]]]]

A Big Name Fan (BNF) is someone who, while not ''officially'' associated with the company that produces a given work -- say, for the purposes of this article, ''Franchise/StarWars'' -- is still widely known in the ''Star Wars'' fan community, and possibly by the producers of ''Star Wars'' themselves.

Maybe the BNF created a fan website that has become ''the'' source for information on ''Star Wars''. Maybe they created a ''Star Wars'' {{Fanfic}} or other amateur {{Derivative Work|s}} that is so well-done ''everyone'' in the fandom has seen it. Maybe they just got posted on [=YouTube=] waving a lightsaber around like a spastic monkey.[[note]]Most [=BNFs=] are known for more positive things.[[/note]] Regardless, everyone in the fandom now knows their name... or at least their Internet handle.

This can get a little weird for some [=BNFs=], who often still think of themselves as "just another fan." Some will let it go to their heads ([[SmallNameBigEgo even before they've truly hit the big time]]), some will freak out, some will just take it in stride.

It's arguable where the line is between Big Name Fan and just plain fan is, of course. However, when they're invited to speak at a ''Franchise/StarWars'' convention, or [[PromotedFanboy hired by Lucasfilm]] to continue what they were already doing for free, any doubt that they've become a Big Name Fan goes out the window.

The recognition is great, but remember that CelebrityIsOverrated: [=BNFs=] are easy targets, and are often singled out for torment by jealous fans. This may extend to their friends. Thankfully, the anonymity factor helps their life from getting ''too'' crazy: the vast majority of [=BNFs=] today did whatever they became famous for on the Internet while older ones did so through fanzines and mail, so their faces (and/or real names) are often unknown to most, making them indeed just another fan in the real world (even if they're gods on the Net).

Not to be confused with [[Creator/SamuelLJackson B]]''[[Creator/SamuelLJackson M]]''[[Creator/SamuelLJackson F]], nor a Big Name / Important Person who turns out to be a Fan - otherwise known as JustForFun/OneOfUs. Compare/contrast with PromotedFanboy.
----

!! Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
* Creator/JamesCameron became a very well-known fan of ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'' after Creator/GuillermoDelToro introduced him to the manga. He's so much of a fan that he spent the past ''seventeen'' years to try and make a [[Film/AlitaBattleAngel movie adaptation]].
* Captain Osaka on Website/DeviantArt to the ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' fandom. Gained a massive reputation for producing the ''Webcomic/DoubleK'' comic, which is the ''Gurren Lagann'' cast thrown into a BuddyCopShow.
* Sakky, Sakura, or Sailor Astera is probably one of the more well-known fan character creators in the ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' fandom.
** Usagi Kou is more well-known. [[SmallNameBigEgo Though not necessarily for good reasons.]]
** Ian Miller is known as the idol of purists everywhere for doing ''in-depth research'' about [[SpellMyNameWithAnS what the canon terminology is supposed to be]]. Oh, and having a thing for collecting fanart of Hotaru in a bikini.
* WebVideo/{{Gigguk}} is one popular anime reviewer.
* Brad [=DeMoss=], one of the pioneers of the FanVid concept. His biggest claim to fame is his "Evangelion Episode One" video (''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' clips to the ''Franchise/StarWars Episode One'' trailer sound), which got notice and approval from both Lucasfilm and Gainax. He regularly co-hosts the [[CosPlay Masquerade]] event at [=Anime=]Expo.
* Mark Simmons, maintainer of the now-defunct ''Gundam Project'' website, ended up getting hired to assist with the English-language adaptation of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam.''
** He even got a minor character in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Gundam SEED]]'' named after him.
*** And protagonist of ''G-Saviour'' is '''''Mark''' Curran'' who has a sidekick call '''Simmons.'''
** Of similar note is his occasional work partner, Keith Rhee. Rhee originally started the Gundam Project site and later maintained Bandai's own Gundam Official site for a number of years.
* The crew of [[FanSub Dattebayo]], though technically operating illegally, have been in good relations with Creator/VizMedia for quite some time -- so much so, that, when Viz began releasing their own subs shortly after Japanese broadcast, rather than ruin that relationship, they chose to stop subbing ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'' rather than force Viz to send them a C&D letter.
* Alan Harnum is considered ''the'' writer of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' fanfiction. His unfinished opus is almost considered required reading in ''Utena'' fandom. On top of fanfiction he also contributed to the fandom in many notable ways. He was the one who used to host the Utena Fanfiction Repository.
** Giovanna and Yasha of [[http://ohtori.nu Empty Movement]] have a forum that was popular with fans before the rise of microblogging platforms.
* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' has several due to the wide-ranged aspects of the franchise:
** Creator/LittleKuriboh is one of the few Big Name Fans who has made a big name for himself ''outside'' [[Franchise/YuGiOh the fandom in question.]]
*** In fandom he's pretty much a hero and a saint.
*** And [=4Kids=] has been known to express their enjoyment as well.
*** Creator/ChristopherSabat is good friends with him and his team, although he recently stated that he hopes they use their great talent for original work someday.
** Slifertheskydragon is considered by most fans to be the best and most prolific artist in the Franchise/YuGiOh fandom. She also hosts fan activities, fan panels and is on first name basis with most of the Japanese and English production staff.
*** In March 2011, a card signed by Slifertheskydragon sold on ebay for 750 dollars in a charity auction.
** [[https://ygorganization.com/ YGOrganization]] are widely regarded as ''the'' unofficial news site for the franchise, covering almost every aspect of news from the anime to the card game to updates for the video games. [[TheWikiRule Yugipedia]] even specifically uses their translations/localizations for names when official English names are unknown.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', according to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_%28anime%29#Inspirations_and_influence The Other Wiki]], has several authoritative fan commentators, such as Creator/TaliesinJaffe (from the End of Eva DVD commentary, who Creator/FUNimation now turns to as their "Eva Expert" for Rebuild of Evangelion) and Sean [=McCoy=] (from the ADV Platinum DVD commentary, who now regularly runs Eva panels at [[http://publications.fanime.com/public/FanimeCon_Program_Guides/FanimeCon_2009_Program_Guide.pdfFanime Con.]])
* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/38119/Satashi Satashi]] in the ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' fandom, on FF.net, Animesuki, and [[http://nanofate.us/users/satashi the Nanofate.us]] fora.
* ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'' has [[http://www.kirafix.com/ Kira Takenouchi]] know for her Taming Riki fan fiction and other original yaoi works.
* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' has Chris [=Mc=]Feely, who operated the ''Digimon Encyclopedia'' back in the early 2000s.
** Similar to [=Mc=]Feely, Grace Anderson, known commonly as "Megchan", was not only the official translator for the first four seasons of ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', but also ran a now-defunct fan site called ''Megchan's Digimon Sekai'' where she provided overseas fans access to Japanese material and translated updates as the shows were coming out in Japan.
* With Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/{{Toonami}} block revived in 2012, a few fans have become so excited and vocal that Williams Street noticed them and have used their work on several occasions. Amateur rapper Richie Branson wrote several raps on Toonami's return and on shows they aired, the first of which the staff used to kick off the first broadcast on TV in May! Many songs used in the TV bumps are by fans of the block.
* In the ''Anime/{{Free}}'' fandom there's [[http://www.textsfromgayswimmers.tumblr.com textsfromgayswimmers]] and the duo of Octopimp and [=SparkyTheAndroid=], the creators of the successful AbridgedSeries ''WebVideo/FiftyPercentOff.''
** In fact, the latter's work became so well known that their parody's been referenced by a fan in ''Japan'' during Nagisa's birthday, and even by Greg Aryes, the dub voice of Nagisa!
* Creator/HiroshiMatsuyama of Creator/CyberConnect2 is video game developer example of this. The main reason he even makes Naruto and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure licensed games is because of his love for each series. Many fans of both consider his games based on them to be the best of them all. Creator/MasashiKishimoto even stated in a review that ''[[VideoGame/NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStorm3 Storm 3]]'' ''told his own story better then he could''!
* ''Manga/{{Nisekoi}}'' has Y-san from Chiba Prefecture, Marika's biggest supporter. His feats include putting Marika on top of the popularity polls, sending gifts to the author for her and actually placing on the popularity polls. [[spoiler: The epilogue even has Marika just about to encounter a "man from Chiba", strongly implied to be him.]]
* Among the fans of ''Manga/BirdyTheMighty'' [[https://youtu.be/OpiBaKiYcdE is]] director Creator/ZackSnyder, who cited it as an influence for a sequence in ''Film/ManOfSteel'', [[https://youtu.be/qZjbNhLODKU which is generally believed to be]] [[spoiler: the fight between Birdy and Nataru at the end of ''Decode''[='=]s second season inspiring the Superman/Zod fight at the end of ''Man of Steel''.]]
* Despite his overall disgust with the modern Light Novel industry, Tappei Nagatsuki, the creator of ''LightNovel/ReZero'', is a massive fan of ''LightNovel/MushokuTensei'', to the point of creating both a congratulation letter to the author of the latter, and a special crossover oneshot collaboration between both novels as well, as a celebration of the announcement of the anime adaption of Mushoku Tensei.
* Some Western celebrities that ''Manga/OnePiece'' can count as fans include Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Music/AvrilLavigne, Steven Adams (of the Oklahoma City Thunder), Creator/MasiOka, and Zara Larrson. Even Creator/JohnBoyega is a longtime fan of ''One Piece''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comedy]]
* [[UsefulNotes/HugoChavez Hugo Chávez]], former President of Venezuela was such a big fan of Creator/GeorgeCarlin that he actually followed a suggestion in his scathing routine about golfers and expropriated several golf courses to turn into housing developments.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]

* An early example can be found in ''Franchise/TheFlash'' books where Paul Gambi, tailor to the various Rogues of Central and Keystone City, is named after Paul Gambiccini who at the time was '''14'''. Gambiccini hasn't ever rested on his laurels as since then he's gone on to be a noted author and academic.
* ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' fan Kuljit Mithra, creator of the website [[http://www.manwithoutfear.com/daredevil.shtml Manwithoutfear.com.]] The site is considered the best archive of information on the comic book character, to the extent that writers of the Daredevil title routinely consult it for research, and Creator/BrianMichaelBendis thanked Mithra in the afterword of his last issue as a writer for Daredevil. Mithra & Manwithoutfear.com, along with Philipp Lenssen & Coverbrowser.com are given special thanks for providing the cover gallery at the end of Daredevil's 500th issue.
* Creator/DCComics historian John "Mikishawm" Wells is a Big Name Fan, having written the text pieces for collections such as ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Absolute Edition'', and even getting mentioned in Kurt Busiek's ''ComicBook/PowerCompany'', where Wells & Schaum is a research organization providing information on metahumans.
* In ''Comicbook/SpiderGirl'', a temporary love interest for the main character, Chris Jarkoer, was named after a fan, Jarkover.
* Dave Campbell, who writes the blog [[http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/ Dave's Long Box,]] ("I'm going to review my comic book collection and you're going to like it!") got to write handbook bios for the Official Handbook of the ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' Universe.
* George Olshevsky, a mathematician and amateur palentologist, comic book collector since childhood, created the Marvel Comics Index in 1976, then made the Official Marvel Index for Marvel and also other similar publications for DC.
* Jeff Christiansen, a boarded Veterinarian, created in 2001 the website [[http://www.marvunapp.com/ Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe]], in 2004 he was hired for a version of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, originally published in the 1980s and 1990s.
* Jess Nevins, whose various comic annotations not only lead him to [[UniverseCompendium literally writing the manual]] for each volume of ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' but also [[ShownTheirWork backup work]] in Ed Brubraker's ''ComicBook/{{Incognito}}.''
* Peter Sanderson, a comic book historian whose research work has been used by both DC and Marvel since the '80s. He's an academic in the field of comics and has written a long-running column.
%% (ZCE: Doesn't actually explain how he is a Big Name Fan. I'll guess he isn't and this is a shoehorn, but someone who knows better can expand or remove.) * Creator/SimonPegg overlaps this with PromotedFanboy. Several ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' issues appeared in ''Series/{{Spaced}}'' and Pegg would co-author a ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' strip in the comic as well as voice [[ComicBook/StrontiumDog Johnny Alpha]] in several Big Finish audio dramas.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* After an entry of ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' referred to Jane Goodall as a tramp, Gary Larson received a letter that threatened a lawsuit. After some complicated legal issues, it finally turned out that Goodall herself loved the cartoon and was completely unaware of any of what had happened, which quickly cleared everything up. In fact, the Jane Goodall Institute now has a licensing deal, and T-shirts featuring the "Jane Goodall Tramp" cartoon became one of the hottest sellers.
* Derrick Bang has held this role in the ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' fandom since the early '90s. After amassing a complete collection of strips by going through microfilms of old newspapers, he wrote a lengthy FAQ for the ''Peanuts'' newsgroup, then expanded that into a [[http://www.fivecentsplease.org website]] and a book (''50 Years of Happiness''), both with the cooperation of Charles M. Schulz himself. Since then he's written several other ''Peanuts''-related books and does freelance work for the Schulz organization.
* A Don Martin strip in an issue of ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' showed Wayne Gretzky in a dentist's chair with his dentist informing him a tooth had to be removed. The next frame shows the dentist preparing to slap shot a puck at Mr. Gretzky's mouth. Wayne Gretzky wrote ''Mad'', telling them that he was a long-time fan and actually requesting a poster-sized print of the strip to give to his dentist (whom he assured them used somewhat more modern techniques). It's one of the few Letters to the Editor that the ''Mad'' editorial staff didn't thoroughly mock when reprinted.
* ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' author Creator/HarperLee was flattered by her (and her novel's) mentions in ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty.'' Creator Berke Breathed maintained a written correspondence with her for a while, and made a strip in her honor when she died.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Franchise/StarWars:''
** ''[[http://www.ryanvsdorkman.com/ Ryan vs. Dorkman]]'' is a well-known fan video that uses skillful choreography and special effects to create a live-action lightsaber duel. After overwhelming fan response, Ryan and "Dorkman" proceeded to film a rematch, this time with a score composed (for free!) by film composers Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster. The fact that the lightsaber fights is better than the ones in the movies... they deserve it. Even better? They were helping with the movie fights, and this is the stuff that they were not allowed to do!
** Speaking of ''Star Wars'', [=SuperShadow=], infamous for being the one guy you should [[WordOfDante never ever believe]] about upcoming developments. The irony being that he was right about the female Exile, so idiots edit Wookieepedia to say the Jedi Exile is male. Yeah.
** Albin Johnson, founder of the 501st Legion, eventually had his organization worked into ''Star Wars'' canon: Darth Vader's personal platoon is named the 501st.
** Ernie Fosselus acted and directed one of the best parody films of ''Star Wars'' ever made, the 22-minute long ''Hardware Wars''. George Lucas liked it so much he had 20th Century Fox pay Fosselus to allow them to include the short on the DVD of ''Star Wars.''
* Bill "Jettman" Ramey, founder of the "Batman on Film" website and forum, is pretty well known to a good number of people in the online Batman and Superhero fandom.
* Creator/FrankMiller is a [[https://www.cbr.com/frank-miller-praises-wonder-woman-movie/ huge fan of]] ''Film/WonderWoman2017'', going so far as to call it the crown jewel of superhero movies.
* Scott Derrickson liked ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' so much that it's his favorite superhero movie and favorably compared it to ''Film/BladeRunner''.
* Sal Piro became a BNF for ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow,'' using AudienceParticipation to make the movie a cult classic.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Several examples in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fandom:
** [[Creator/CassandraClare Cassandra (Cassie) Claire]], known for popularizing (if not in fact creating) [[DracoInLeatherPants a certain characterization of Draco Malfoy]], and for plagiarizing most of her well known fic in that fandom. Parlayed her pre-existing fan-base into a publishing deal for [[Literature/TheMortalInstruments her original fiction.]]
*** She also has the privilege of being a BNF of two fandoms -- while she is mostly known for her ''Harry Potter'' fiction, she is infamous in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fandom for ''Fanfic/TheVerySecretDiaries.''
** Melissa Anelli, webmistress of [[http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org The Leaky Cauldron.]] Like Emerson, she was invited to interview Creator/JKRowling, managed to get an interview with Rowling on [=PotterCast=], got a foreward written by Rowling in her ''Harry: A History'' book and is often called on by the media to talk about the series. She is also a senior creative consultant on Pottermore, a project officially endorsed by Rowling.
** Steve Vander Ark of [[http://www.hp-lexicon.org/ The Harry Potter Lexicon.]] The Lexicon was one of the websites J. K. Rowling favored in the ''Harry Potter'' fandom, until they decided to publish a book based on the website that was almost entirely her own words...
** John Noe of [=Potter=]Cast / The Leaky Cauldron is also a bit of a BNF, since he had the character of John Dawlish named after him.
** [[http://acciobrain.ligermagic.com/ Makani]] is one of the most famous ''Harry Potter'' fanartists. Her art is used in The Leaky Cauldron as a kind of "official" image for HP characters, and her take on the Malfoy family is source of much fanon.
*** Makani soon became a BNF in the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' fandom for her [[http://makani.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d1pbaup artist's rendition]] of The Administrator, that [[AscendedFanon later became]] [[http://www.teamfortress.com/war/administrator/05.htm canon]]. [[PromotedFanboy And then Valve hired her.]]
** Creator/NeilCicierega is especially well known for his ''WebVideo/PotterPuppetPals'' series.
** Emerson Spartz, creator of [[http://mugglenet.com/ Mugglenet,]] deffinitely qualifies for this, as he has interviewed J. K. Rowling and he was one of the writers involved in two HP-based books, both of which were best-sellers.
** At least among the Marauders Era fanbase, FanFic/TheShoeboxProject is often accepted as the definitive fanfiction for the four friends. The writers, Website/LiveJournal users ladyjaida and dorkorific are respected and revered among the fandom.
*** ladyjaida, real name Jaida Jones, moved on to cowrite the book ''Literature/{{Havemercy}}''. And now she has her own fandom. Ninety percent of Havemercy fangirls started as Shoebox fangirls, and they're an insanely loyal bunch.
** Harry and the Potters, anyone? Draco and the Malfoys? Whoever heard of making rockbands off books, really...
** Also, the musical theatre group Creator/TeamStarKid who made the AffectionateParody ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical''. The guy who played Harry Potter (Darren Criss) is actually a mainstream actor now, what with his role on ''Series/{{Glee}}'', and Ron Weasley recently made an appearance as a background dancer.
** John Granger aka the Hogwarts Professor could count. He's written several books on the series and currently hosts Mugglenet Acadamia which dissects different aspects of the series. He also previously hosted the Pottercast recurring segment, Potter Pundits which does the same thing.
* Stephen Briggs has worked with Creator/TerryPratchett on ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' [[SpinOff maps and other supplemental materials]], narrates several audiobooks, and has written all of the stage adaptations of the books ''and'' played the role of [[VetinariJobSecurity Lord Vetinari]] in all of them. (That counts as fan activity because its strictly am-dram.) ''And'' he's part of the conventions.
** Although not as big a part as current convention organiser John Hicks, who was previously the Head of Productions, and has also been responsible for Discworld amateur dramatics, but is now better known as the black-robed and skull-ringed Dr Hix of Unseen University's Department of Post-Mortem Communications.
** In fact, Discworld has many Big Name Fans, since it's a relatively small fandom (the books are runaway bestsellers, but many of the fans aren't the sort of people who do "fannish" things; they just like the books). And since the merch is mostly on the cottage-industry, I've-got-a-good-idea-how-does-Pterry-feel? level, the difference between being a Big Name Fan and being part of The Discworld Industry is downright fractal.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'':
** Blizzardclaw (or "Blizz"), owner of Warrior's Wish, one of the most famous fansites of the series. She has been personally invited to two events by the author/editor of the series by name, once via the series' official e-mail newsletter. Vicky also [[{{Tuckerization}} wrote her as a character]] named Blizzardstar, leader of [=ShadowClan=] (Blizz' favorite Clan), in ''Code of the Clans''.
** Su Susann, a fan on Vicky's Facebook page who often answered questions for other fans, was given access as one of the page admins, and who Vicky has given permission to post things on her behalf (such as revealing names of otherwise unnamed characters). Unfortunately has a bit of a BrokenBase due to creating some {{Original Character}}s and resulting arguments as to whether they were canon (WordOfGod confirmed that they weren't and that it was just intended to be for fun), to the point that her hatedom even had reported her Facebook account enough for it to be temporarily banned.
** The Poole family, aka [=FarDrivingClan=]. They made a point of seeing Vicky on every one of her US tours, even if it meant driving across several states to see her, and were therefore featured in her tour diaries often, and over time she became good friends with them. She named the ''Omen of the Stars'' main character Ivypool after the then-infant of the family, Ivy, and her announcement about a studio acquiring movie rights was a video that included Ivy.
* In the words of [=Nuttymadam3575=]: [[Literature/{{Twilight}} UHHMAAAAAZING BOOOOOOOOOOOOK!]]
* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fandom, [[http://www.michael-martinez.com/ Michael Martinez]] is one of the most prolific scholars and trivia buffs, with several books and countless articles under his belt. (He is also, incidentally, the owner of a large ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' website as well.)
** Also Creator/StephenColbert who was invited to the filming of the Hobbit and beat the cast and crew in a Tolkien trivia contest.
* Michael Macauley, webmaster of Shurtugal.com, the #1 Inheritance Cycle fansite. The site get's heavy input form the series' author Christopher Paolini with monthy Q&A sesions from him. Palolini even put some of his imput in Macauley's book The Inheritance Almanac.
* For some years, M.J. Simpson was the leading expert and go-to guy on ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' and Creator/DouglasAdams generally, but hated [[Film/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy the movie]] so much that he became disillusioned and refused to do it anymore.
* For ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Elio and Linda, the owners of Westeros.org are this for the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' fandom, and actually help GRRM with keeping details straight.
** Adam Feldman, author of the blog, "The Meereneese Knot" was celebrated for more or less single-handedly reversing the ContestedSequel nature of ''A Feast for Crows'' and ''A Dance With Dragons'' especially the TrappedByMountainLions nature and DiabolusExMachina resolution of some of its plots by highlighting how both books feature a great deal of internal drama, coalesce with the larger themes of the series (namely whether a good person can be a good ruler) and the frustrating nature of the books is very much an IntendedAudienceReaction. George RR Martin himself praised Feldman's work.
** Adam Whitehead, aka Werthead, long-time forum moderator on Westeros.org and author of the ''Wertzone'' blog, who has contributed academic articles on ASOIAF to several publications over the years, and done extensive work on fan-made atlases and maps. Later expanded his coverage to other series with crossover appeal, and particularly knowledgeable about ''The Wheel of Time''.
** Roman Papsuev, aka "Amok," drew amateur portraits of characters from the series that became so popular that Martin personally provided corrections to the details of some characters and later [[PromotedFanBoy commissioned him]] to draw character portraits for ''The World of Ice and Fire''.
* Russian science-fiction has Semetsky, a frequent con-goer. A RunningGag among the Russian authors is inserting Semetsky as a RedShirt in their books.
* Literature/MinaDeMalfois is a fictional example whose position occasionally sets her in the middle of the fandom controversy she comments on.
* Jennifer, the owner of the Creator/VCAndrews fansite ''[[http://www.completevca.com/ The Complete V.C. Andrews,]]'' the biggest resource for any info on Andrews, her books, and the books written by her ghostwriter (including US and international book covers, timelines and family trees, and little known trivia facts).
* [[ComicStrip/BloomCounty Berkeley]] [[WesternAnimation/MarsNeedsMoms Breathed]] is a big fan of ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'', and has named characters after Milo.
* ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'':
** Creator/TerryBrooks, Creator/CharlaineHarris, Creator/PatrickRothfuss, [[Literature/{{Robopocalypse}} Daniel H. Wilson]], Creator/JohnScalzi, Creator/JamesSwallow and [[Literature/TheWardstoneChronicles Joseph Delaney]] have all given the book their recommendation.
** [[https://youtu.be/AzzzQPsehwU As revealed in this video,]] Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and the late Creator/RobinWilliams are also fans of the book.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/AndiMack'' has Sadie Anne Rue, who organized a popular project that involved sending 1,000 paper cranes to Disney Channel Headquarters to save the show. While the show wasn't renewed, the cranes were loved by the cast and crew.
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' had a plethora of celebrity fans, including Creator/GuillermoDelToro, Creator/MarkHamill, Creator/SethMeyers, Creator/PattonOswalt, Creator/LinManuelMiranda, Creator/SeanAstin, and a whole bunch of others. When the show's cancellation by Fox was announced, their public support of the show was instrumental in it being picked up by NBC. Miranda and Astin became guest stars on the show after its renewal, while Oswalt had already guest-starred a few times prior to that.
* For ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' the character Jamie in the season 4 episode Monster Movie was named for a sick fan.
** [[http://tracy-loo-who.livejournal.com/ Tracy]] went from a fan who writes Dean/Castiel fic and likes Misha Collins, to meeting Misha and having a milkshake with him, having her friends asked where she was when she wasn't at a convention and running the charity The Random Act which Misha's minions created.
** Madison from the same fandom also somewhat fits this; she had tea with Creator/MishaCollins and has arguably one of the best known [[http://jeric-kripke.tumblr.com/ blogs]] in the fandom.
* Melissa Good is a critically acclaimed FanFic writer in the ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' fandom. So critically acclaimed, in fact, that the producers of the show [[RunningTheAsylum asked her to write several episodes]] for the sixth season of the show.
** Producer David Eick, during commentary on his later show ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', while not mentioning names specifically, reflected back on the Xena years, and explained that at the time in the mid-1990s, "fan reaction from the Internet" was a very new thing. The show's staff got very excited about going online and reading the real-time reactions of fans. The problem was, because this was so new and shiny to them, they had no real concept of how to contextualize or frame what they were reading: internet fans are the most obsessive, and you kind of need to read through a lot of it, or "professional reviews" to get even a basic feel of what the "reaction" was. But because "the Internet" was so new at the time, they'd basically just go online and read through major fanfiction hubs without much of a sense of "cognitive dissonance" like "maybe these are just obsessed niche fans". As Eick explained, in the later seasons this resulted in them pandering on a massive scale, doing all sorts of things the online fans they encountered suggested... And it actually turned a lot of the casual viewers away. It's open to interpretation how "good" these episodes were, but they really weren't as "accessible."
* Bjo Trimble and her husband John are [=BNFs=] for the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise, having driven the letter-writing campaign that spared the original series from cancellation before its third season. It's believed that the producers of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' named the Bajorans in her honor.
** She also authored the original ''Franchise/StarTrek [[UniverseConcordance Concordance]]'' that was the definitive reference work for many years.
** Paula Smith, author of the parody fanfic ''A Trekkie's Tale'' and inventor of the term MarySue.
* The crew of the fan produced web series ''WebVideo/StarTrekNewVoyages'', who not only have props from the original show in their own set but have had appearances from multiple former cast members of the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original series]], with Creator/WalterKoenig and Creator/GeorgeTakei playing major roles in two of their episodes (playing aged versions of their own characters.)
** More recently joining the ranks is voice actor Creator/VicMignogna, who guest-starred and -directed in ''New Voyages'' and [[TheKnightsWhoSaySquee squee'd]] about it during his guest appearances at anime cons. And now he's doing his own series, ''WebVideo/StarTrekContinues.''
** The Kirk/Spock fandom itself has a few:
*** Killashandra (aka Killa or Killabeez) -- wrote some of the most beautiful fic ever written on the pairing, as well as ''the'' ship manifesto for the same. Her story "Surrender" is considered the finest exploration of D/s and dubcon in the fandom, and "Turning Point" was the first K/S fanfic ever posted online.
*** Diane Marchant -- wrote the very first K/S fanfic, "A Fragment Out of Time". (Note that this was not only the very first K/S fic but the very first ''SlashFic'', published in 1974.)
*** Leslie Fish -- wrote the second ever K/S fanfic, "Shelter", which likely inspired the "Kirk and Spock in a cave" cliche. She's also quite well known for her {{Filk Song}}s.
*** Brittany Diamond -- aka [[http://suicidallyreckless.tumblr.com "suicidallyreckless"]] on Website/{{Tumblr}} and nicknamed "Captain". Rose to prominence during the 2009 post-[[Film/StarTrek2009 movie]] boom, and has created ''WebVideo/TheShipsCloset'', a vidcast analyzing Kirk/Spock, as well as the ''Analyzation/Commentary'', which does the same thing only in writing. She's a bit bemused by her status, amusingly enough.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Ian Levine is also well known amongst fandom. As well as his efforts to locate missing stories, he also briefly worked on the show as an unofficial fan continuity advisor.
** Jean-Marc Lofficier, author of {{Universe Concordance}}s ''The Doctor Who Programme Guide'', ''The Terrestrial Index'' and ''The Universal Databank.''
** Before he became a PromotedFanboy as the official voice of the Daleks and Cybermen, Creator/NicholasBriggs was well known for writing and starring in some fanvids and audios during the cancellation. To the extent that his portrayal of the Doctor appeared in the ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strip as a [[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Doctor_%28Party_Animals%29 possible future self.]]
** The most famous fan of ''Series/DoctorWho'' is Queen Elizabeth II. Fans don't get much more big-name than that.
** Lawrence Miles is a ''Doctor Who'' Big Name fan who wrote some very popular spin-off novels in the 90s, including a number that acted as {{Wham Episode}}s for the first half of the Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures. He failed to get a writing job on the revived series, but still has a devoted following online despite his extremely negative views on much of the 21st-century show.
** Creator/PeterCapaldi is arguably the biggest BNF the franchise has seen. In the early 1970s he attempted to take over the main Doctor Who fan club - a fact noted in a number of books - and at one point received a package of scripts from then-producer Barry Letts. He later wrote articles for a number of fanzines, as well as getting letters related to Doctor Who published in the ''Magazine/RadioTimes''. All this decades before he was cast as the Twelfth Doctor in 2013.
** Current showrunner Creator/ChrisChibnall was a well-known fan of the show, even appearing on national TV in the 1980s to discuss it.
* A few ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' [=BNF=]s have had shout-outs as well:
** Derik Smith: MonsterOfTheWeek named Kired.
** Joe Rovang: MonsterOfTheWeek named Rofang.
** Jason Takach: MonsterOfTheWeek named Takach.
** Jesse Lee Herndon (better known as [=SirSTACK=]) -- Herndon Laboratories.
** Chris Funaro: Funaro Maximum Security Prison.
** And don't forget Amit Bhaumik. He was the webmaster of an extensive, detailed and now defunct Power Rangers information database called the "Online Archives". He was one mind behind the (in)famous Scorpion Rain hoax. He became story editor of ''[[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Wild Force]]'' and worked on that season's two crossover eps. He also worked as a "consultant" on [[Series/PowerRangersSamurai Power Rangers (Super) Samurai]], and co-wrote two of the series clip shows. Unfortunately, Chris Funaro revealed that the two had had a bitter falling out (Amit understandably loves Samurai, Chris does not)
** Creator/LewisLovhaug probably counts, especially considering he got invited as a guest to [=Power=]Morphicon.
** For the show's 20th Anniversary Saban created the [[http://powerrangers.com/20-year/twenty-year-power-force.html Super Fan Power Force]] and invited fans to apply to help participate in the promotion of the 20th anniversary. Since slots were extremely limited to 20, you pretty much had to be a Big Name Fan to get in, with the application asking for what sites the applicants were involved with and other credentials, so many fans need not have applied. Amongst those picked were Linkara, Fury Diamond, Darkblaze, Lavender Ranger, Linear Ranger, and Power Morphicon to name a few.
** WebVideo/AndreTheBlackNerd was always a fan, but started gaining more attention around the Neo-Saban era. By 2015 he was big enough that he was hosting the panel for ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'' at Comic-Con.
* In a bit of a reversal, Creator/WilWheaton is now arguably in this category: he's most popular for his blogging and being "just a geek" as he puts it, and he regularly associates with Gabe and Tycho, his fellow Big Name Fans from ''Webcomic/PennyArcade''. Whether you consider this a promotion, demotion, or something in between probably depends on how harshly you dislike [[CreatorsPet his previous claim to "fame" as Wesley Crusher.]]
** But don't forget! Wil Wheaton disliked Wesley, too.
** Not so much that Wil hated Wesley, more that he hated the way Wesley was written. He liked the later, edgier Wesley of "Final Mission" and "The First Duty."
* [[http://www.lippsisters.com/ The Lipp Sisters (Deborah and Roberta Lipp)]] are this for ''Series/MadMen'' -- they were even invited to sit in the VIP section (directly behind Creator/ElisabethMoss and January Jones) at the Season 4 Premiere in Times Square, pictures of which including them can be seen [[http://blogs.amctv.com/photo-galleries/mad-men-season-4-times-square-premiere-party/january-elisabeth.php here.]]
* For the ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' fandom, we have [[http://angrybeige.livejournal.com/ Angry]][[http://angrybeige.tumblr.com/ beige.]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/OtakuASSEMBLE Larry Williams,]] who decided to just make a Youtube video reviewing the first episode of ''Series/GameOfThrones'', not being familiar at all with ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. This soon expanded into reviews for every episode, with his emotional ranting about his love for the show and rabid defense of his favorite characters earning him a ton of new subscribers and eventually the attention of the people behind the show, who even sent him a poster signed by the producers and Sean Bean (though he apparently gave up on the show from Season 5 onward, as he produced no reviews after Season 4).
* Music/{{Cher}}, apparently, was a big fan of ''Series/TheXFiles''. The episode "Post Modern Prometheus" revolves around a monster who has a huge Cher obsession. The part of Cher was written for Cher herself, but she declined as she thought her appearance would be tacky.
* ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' has Marc Green and John Sly, founders of ''Price'' fan forum golden-road.net. The forum was once so popular that several staff members posted there, even former producer Roger Dobkowitz.
* Anyone who is a devoted fan of Franchise/TheMuppets will know the names Ryan Dosier of [[http://themuppetmindset.blogspot.com/ The Muppet Mindset]] and Joe Hennes and Ryan Roe of [[http://www.toughpigs.com/ ToughPigs]]. In fact, they are ''such'' big name fans, Disney even used blurbs from their reviews of Film/MuppetsMostWanted [[https://youtu.be/f16gSeryPrI&feature=youtu.be in one of their official promos.]]
* Kerry, who sometimes goes by Veritas, created [[https://youtu.be/SsBvqDwVqwc a Jeff/Annie fanvideo]] for "Series/{{Community}}" set to Sara Bareilles' "Gravity" in the early days of the show. It gained enough recognition to be directly referenced in "Paradigms of Human Memory." Dan Harmon paid out of pocket for the rights to the song and called her "the Van Halen of Community fans."
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' fans are ''hugely'' aware of fan artist [[http://lordmesa-art.tumblr.com/ Lord Mesa,]] who creates short, small, cute and silly ''Arrow'' fan art pieces. They're so well known to the fans that [[http://36.media.tumblr.com/cb79beb0ed7db6a654ecbc3ba3eb959d/tumblr_nj5udac0YS1qziqawo1_500.jpg the Arrow production team have a wall of their art at the offices.]]
* Music/DavidBowie was a huge fan of ''Series/TheAmericans''. One of the last business matters he settled before his death in early 2016 was to personally sign off on the license to let “Under Pressure” be used in a season 4 episode.
* Katie G, who runs the ''Series/HellsKitchen'' Facebook community "Hell's Kitchen Underground", has personally met with and interviewed several of the contestants on the show, and Creator/GordonRamsay himself himself has retweeted her Youtube videos. One of the contestants,Barret, even temporarily took over "Underground" after Katie's mom (who appeared in some of Katie's interviews with the contestants) unexpectedly passed away.
* Music/BarbraStreisand is usually very conservative about licensing her music. She was given a sneak peek of season 1 of ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'' during production to try to sway her. She fell in love with the show and considers it a loving enough recreation of the New York of her youth that she obliged. She also licensed another song to be used in season 2.
* ''Series/SchittsCreek'' has a number of famous fans who have expressed their love of the show. Music/KellyClarkson openly fangirls when the cast appears on her show. Music/PaulaAbdul and Creator/WillArnett both posted about their love of the show and appeared in a post-series documentary about the show. Music/KeithUrban tweeted creator Creator/DanielLevy about his love of the show, and later his wife Creator/NicoleKidman sought out the cast at an event so she could have pictures with them. Levy also wrote his own love of Music/MariahCarey into the show and was thrilled when she tweeted her support of it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* DJ Creator/JohnPeel's love of Music/TheFall, which spanned decades and ensured the band's place in cult music canon.
* [[http://www.theninhotline.net/meatpers/meatpers.html meathead]] is the most prominent "Music/NineInchNails" humour guy, and he makes rather poorly-animated (though really funny) Flash cartoons... one of which found its way onto the official NIN website.
* [[http://www.geowayne.com/psbhtml.htm Wayne Studer, Ph.D.]] has pretty much the most detailed Music/PetShopBoys fansite in existence. He's appeared in one of the documentaries about them, and his "On This Date..." feature has been incorporated into the front page of their official site.
* Music/TheBlackCrowes count quite a few rock stars as big name fans. Among them are Music/AliceCooper, who applauded them as "a band out of time," Music/PeterFrampton, who said they were the band to bring a dirty sound back to rock and roll, and [[Music/GunsNRoses Slash]], who considers them one of his favorite bands, and has nothing but compliments whenever he talks about them.
** [[Music/LedZeppelin Jimmy Page]] is such a big name fan that he did a whole tour performing with them, playing part Crowes material, part Zeppelin material, and a healthy dose of blues standards. A well-received live album came out of it.
* [[PunkRock OFF!]] has [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers Anthony Kiedis]] as a fan of their work. He once wore an OFF! hat during his music video for the Adventures of Raindance Maggie.
* Sasha Grey, while not building her name on being such (she is far better known as a star in... a certain genre of film...), is the foremost known fan of US [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible avant-garde]] band Scissor Shock. It doesn't help that she's also an established avant-gardist who, at one point, even guest-starred on a Music/Current93 album.
* Speaking of Current 93, Music/AndrewWK sat in on bass for one of their tours, to surprisingly little fanfare. He is also a devoted fan of American horror author Creator/ThomasLigotti.
* Chinen Yuri is, without a doubt, hands down, the biggest Music/{{Arashi}}/Ohno fan ever. It probably helps that he's in the same company as the group as they inspired him to become an idol himself.
* [[http://www.disturbedpedia.com/ Disturbedpedia]] has attained this status within Music/{{Disturbed}}'s fanbase for archiving nearly every single video about the band on [[https://www.youtube.com/user/disturbedpedia their YouTube channel,]] including some very rare material that can't be found anywhere else.
* Music/{{Space}} fandom had Pab UK and Eiteews, aka Paul and Donna, who ran [[http://www.spacetheband.com Spacetheband.]] There's also Billy Cook, who is responsible for making ''[[DevelopmentHell Love You More Than Football]]'', the 'lost' third album, available to fans.
* Music/FaithNoMore has Music/LadyGaga as a fan of theirs; they did a cover of her song "Poker Face", and Lady Gaga tweeted that she could die a happy woman because of that.
** Faith No More also has Music/{{Metallica}}, Music/{{Anthrax}}, Music/{{Korn}}, Music/LimpBizkit, Music/{{Helloween}}, Music/AliceInChains, Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/GunsNRoses, and many others as fans of theirs.
* [[https://twitter.com/#!/yoshiomibu Omi]] has gained fame in the Music/XJapan fandom for her fancomics based on Music/YoshikiHayashi's (and occasionally other fans') Website/{{Twitter}} postings.
* [[Music/BackstreetBoys Nick Carter]], and Creator/AmyPoehler for Music/BoneThugsNHarmony if you believe that.
* Music/BitterRuin has Creator/StephenFry and Music/TimMinchin for fans.
* Music/{{Devo}} can count Music/{{Korn}} as fans to the point that Korn considers itself Devo's SpiritualSuccessor. Devo in turn are fans of Music/{{Kraftwerk}}.
** Music/JohnLennon, Music/MickJagger, and Music/IggyPop have also expressed admiration for Devo.
* Apparently, the first Music/TheB52s album was what prompted John Lennon to get back to making music.
* Music/DuranDuran were huge fans of Music/RoxyMusic and Music/DavidBowie and are considered musical successors of both, particularly Roxy Music. On the flip side, Jonathan Davis of Music/{{Korn}}, Gwen Stefani, Music/JustinTimberlake, the Music/ScissorSisters, and Music/FranzFerdinand have all spoken the praises of Duran Duran, with Jonathan Davis almost collaborating with the band (but not being able to do so because of his schedule), Justin Timberlake presenting the band with their MTV Awards Lifetime aAchievement award, and the Scissor Sisters saying the band were the reason they got into music in the first place.
* Bolle Gregmar for Music/BlueOysterCult. As one of the band members once said, "Bolle is the Blue Oyster Cult - we're just the band."
* Music/DavidBowie had an affinity for the Music/VelvetUnderground, having even covered some of their songs in his BBC radio sessions. Eventually, he ended up working as a producer (with Mick Ronson) on ''Music/{{Transformer}}'', the second solo album of VU frontman Music/LouReed (who in turn admired Bowie's work as well). What's especially interesting about Bowie's interest in the Velvet Underground is that it started ''before their first album was even released'', stemming from him receiving a pre-release test acetate of it.
** Bowie was also a huge fan of Music/MottTheHoople, convincing them to stay together when they were about to break up. He wrote one of their biggest hits, "All the Young Dudes", just to keep them together; he also produced the album of the same name, and for one of the tracks had them cover "Sweet Jane", a Velvet Underground song. Without Bowie's involvement, Mott would have folded, their guitarist Mick Ralphs wouldn't have met Paul Rodgers and thus no Music/BadCompany, Mick Jones of Music/TheClash wouldn't be inspired by Mott's lead singer Ian Hunter... the musical landscape would be very different.
** In general, Bowie was a fan of a fair amount of other musicians, covering a surprisingly diverse range of genres and popularity. Some of the groups Bowie admired range from more popularly-known groups like Music/{{Radiohead}}, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/BrianEno (even before the two started collaborating), and Music/TheStooges (to the point of single-handedly launching Music/IggyPop's solo career), but also acts that were more obscure at the time, most notably Music/ThePixies. In the 2000s, he acted as a mentor figure to indie rock bands he admired like Music/ArcadeFire and Music/TVOnTheRadio, even appearing as a guest on their songs.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/tyleroakley Tyler Oakley,]] video-blogging extraordinaire with a [[HoYay huge crush]] on ''Music/OneDirection'', got to interview them in August 2013.
* Music/{{Journey}} has [[http://www.jonathancain.com Rhonda Dirr]], who had the first fansite for Jonathan Cain (Journey's current keyboardist) and who has become good friends and webmaster for Mr. Cain; Dan Stacy, who founded the Journey e-mail group in the '90s, and Cyndi Poon & Lora Beard, longtime fans of the band who were brought on-board with the band to run the band's fan club Journey Force throughout the '70s and '80s and now manage [[http://fanasylum.com/ FanAsylum,]] one of the premier fanclub companies in the US, who still handles Steve Perry's promotions.
* Music/{{Morrissey}}, even before the success of Music/TheSmiths, has always been a tireless supporter of Music/TheNewYorkDolls, often writing many enthusiastic letters to the editors of music publications praising the Dolls (and critiquing other acts the publications covered). Music/TheCramps, Music/MarcBolan, Music/{{Sparks}}, Petula Clark and Sandie Shaw were also early favorites of the singer.
* Music/{{Nirvana}} outed themselves as big name fans when a mashup band approached them. They went on record saying they only considered themselves to have arrived in the mainstream when Music/WeirdAlYankovic parodied "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as "Smells Like Nirvana". Music/KurtCobain in particular was also a huge fan of Music/{{REM}} and even struck up a friendship with lead singer Michael Stipe. Like David Bowie, Cobain also used his admiration of other, lesser-known musicians to help them gain greater public visibility.
* Music/AlessiaCara (of "Here" fame) can count among her fans none other than Music/TaylorSwift, [[https://youtu.be/EXtzbcjUoH4 who eventually interviewed her]] [[https://youtu.be/6Cp2K0efXdY for Yahoo Music.]]
* While multiple members of Music/TheBlackDahliaMurder are known for their championing of small-time and obscure acts and efforts to expose them to a wider audience, Trevor Strnad and Alan Cassidy take it even further. The former runs The Obituarist, a column on Metal Injection, where he does a rundown of recent and up-and-coming releases from a wide variety of underground acts, while the latter took it one step further and joined the UK technical death metal outfit Slugdge (which he was a longtime fan of) as a dedicated drummer after they asked him to do session drums on a future release.
* Hall of Fame basketball legend Bill Walton is a devoted fan of Music/TheGratefulDead, having attended over 800 of their concerts since 1967. He's been a fan since he was in high school, well before he was famous as an athlete. He also befriended the band, and accompanied them to Egypt for their famous concert at the Pyramids.[[note]]As pointed out in the video for "Touch of Grey" in ''Series/PopUpVideo'', the Celtics jacket Mickey Hart is wearing was a gift from Walton himself.[[/note]] He still attends Dead shows to this day, and profiles on him often mention his love for the band and their importance in his daily life or [[http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/sdut-bill-walton-chats-about-life-and-the-grateful-dead-2015jun27-htmlstory.html focus on it specifically.]]
* Music/MichaelJackson was a fan of Music/{{Queen}}, and would frequently attend the band's concerts in Los Angeles. He suggested that the band should release "Another One Bites the Dust" as a single at a backstage meeting. He also cited their album ''Hot Space'' as an influence on ''Music/{{Thriller}}''.
* Jim Davidson is a huge fan of Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer and later became friends with Keith Emerson, who provided the theme song for his sitcom ''Up the Elephant and Round the Castle''. When Emerson died in 2017, Davidson organised a tribute concert. He also opened his 1982 live show ''Too Risky'' a secion of "Karn Evil 9".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* ''Podcast/MyBrotherMyBrotherAndMe'': Fans who frequently submit Yahoo Answers for Griffin to read on the show get shout-outs and credits from the boys. The most prolific of these get into BigNameFan territory, typically denoted by them getting their own little RunningGag PhraseCatcher. There's Rachel Rosing ([[PhraseCatcher "Game recognize game"]]), Zoe Kinsky ([[PhraseCatcher "Climbing that ladder!"]]), Jacob Locker ([[PhraseCatcher "Coming out of retirement!"]]), Ira Wray ([[CallAndResponseSong "Are you Ira Wray?" "Who wants to know?"]]), and the undisputed king of them all, Level [[MadLibsCatchPhrase 9000]] Yadrew Drewydd Drew Davenport.
** Drew Davenport's fame spilled over into the Creator/McElroyBrothers' other podcast, ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'', where he was the namesake for Davenport, the gnome butler [[spoiler:and intrepid interdimensional starship captain.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/{{ECW}} had a core group of superfans, known as "Club ECW", who seemed to appear in choice seats in the audience of their shows week after week. Some of them became known by {{Fan Nickname}}s due to their distinctive appearances ("Sign Guy" always had a witty sign, "Hat Guy" always wore a straw hat and Hawaiian shirt, "Faith No More Guy" bore a stunning resemblance to Jim Martin from Faith No More, etc.). Eventually, ECW staffers started reserving the best seats in the house for these fans. Five years after ECW shut down, their special status was still honored for the official ECW reunion show, ''ECW One Night Stand'', as well as the unofficial one, ''Hardcore Homecoming.''
* Perhaps the biggest Big Name Fan in ProfessionalWrestling, however, is Dave Meltzer, author and publisher of the ''Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter'', the original SmartMark newsletter. Others include Wade Keller (of the ''Pro Wrestling Torch'', another popular newsletter), Bob Ryder (who made the transition from BNF to wrestling insider when he took a job with Wrestling/{{WCW}}), Scott Keith, Christopher Robin Zimmerman, and Chris Hyatte. Unlike most other entertainment companies, wrestling promotions (with the exceptions of the aforementioned ECW and Wrestling/RingOfHonor) tend to ''hate'' those [=BNFs=] who write on the subject with a passion, since they have a distinct tendency to pull back the curtain on {{Kayfabe}} (the late promoter Wrestling/{{Herb Abrams|UWF}} went so far as to feature a wrestler named Davey "The Observer" Meltzer on his UWF tv program; needless to say, "Meltzer" suffered defeat and humiliation). RD Reynolds and Blade Braxton of Website/{{WrestleCrap}} also have a fairly large online following, although both have been involved in independent pro wrestling, and they also tend to take a comically self-deprecating view of their importance as [=BNFs=] (Blade's insistence that he had a brief affair with Amy "Wrestling/{{Lita}}" Dumas after meeting her once at a car show, for example).
** Finally, there are Creator/BillAndDoug (AKA [=RVDTito4Life=] of Website/YouTube fame, and rival of Kent Jones), who were hired by Wrestling/{{TNA}} to become the hosts of the online show, ''TNA Addicts.''
* Jae, the guy who ran what was the only English language Wrestling/DragonGate website, was enlisted by the promotion to help set up their first tour of the United States. In an interview, he told a short story about how CIMA, the promotion's top draw, called him at 2 a.m. one night.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sports]]
%%* John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood anyone...
* Shirley Manson of Garbage (and "The Sarah Connor Chronicles") is perhaps the most unlikely San Antonio Spurs fan you'll ever encounter. She said she became a Spurs fan when she caught a glimpse of Tim Duncan doing a free throw and became smitten with him.
* Virtually every NFL team has a signature fan who is frequently shown in advertisements. Some of them even featured in a dedicated exhibit at the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame (though, contrary to the opinion of some, never actually inducted). Examples include:
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_%22Pinto_Ron%22_Johnson "Pinto Ron"]] (Buffalo Bills)
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_Man_%28Denver_Broncos%29 "Barrel Man"]] (Denver Broncos)
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogettes The Hogettes]] (Washington Football Team)
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Football_League_mascots Darth Raider]] (Oakland Raiders)
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Ray "Crazy Ray"]] (Dallas Cowboys)
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireman_Ed "Fireman Ed"]] (New York Jets)
** [[http://brownshistory.50megs.com/stats/personalities/bigdawg.htm "Big Dawg"]] (Cleveland Browns)
* Music/DropkickMurphys are huge fans of the Boston Red Sox, and have participated in multiple parades for the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, and the New England Patriots.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* With the development of the Master List of Limitations, Jack Butler became this for the ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}''[=/=]''TabletopGame/HeroSystem'' community.
* It is generally agreed that Surbrook's Stuff, maintained by Michael Surbrook, is the go-to site for ''Champions''[=/=]''Hero System'' gamers needing character sheets for, well, just about anything.
* Brian R. James (known at one time as "Iakhovas" online) counts as one for the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' fandom, since the higher-ups at Wizards of the Coast were so impressed by his compilation of names, dates, and facts regarding the Realms into a 100-page PDF history tool that he was approached for permission and eventually tapped to have his work fleshed out, illustrated, and added to by numerous well-known writers including Eric Boyd, George Krashos, and Ed Greenwood himself to become the ''Grand History of the Realms.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' fan Christine Daaé is now largely known for having legally changed her name to that of the show's heroine, but in the 1990s ran an international fanzine and founded most of the early Phantom discussion forums on the internet, including [[http://www.phantomoftheopera.com/ Phantom of the Opera.com]] She has represented the fandom on radio, television, and in the press. Her public dislike of Andrew Lloyd Webber sometimes made her a controversial figure. She has refused to confirm or deny rumors of relationships with two ''The Phantom of the Opera'' actors.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* The Halloween Horror Nights fandom of Universal Studios Orlando has a number of big names: Dr. Raymond Holmes, Nightshade, [=TerraPhantom/WESKER69=], and jwfearman among many others. These people are often known throughout the multiple sites (originally one, [=HHNVault=], until it shut down) and have had their names hidden on the website or in the event props and scenery as easter eggs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Creator/RoosterTeeth Productions, the creators of the {{machinima}} ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. Rooster Teeth has been since commissioned by Microsoft to do advertisements, and high-definition copies of ''Red vs. Blue'' are sold in the Xbox Live Marketplace and in many game stores. The crew also have voice-acting roles in the game ''Halo 3'', including a hidden skit that changes cast members and lines based on the difficulty level selected. A custom gametype they created, Grifball, got playlists in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' and ''[[VideoGame/HaloReach Reach]]'', and was updated and expanded upon in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}''.
** Randall Glass, creator of the "Halo Physics Experiment", better known as [[https://youtu.be/nGQIQljaAc0 the Warthog Jump,]] became immensely popular for a time. He even got into the credits of ''Halo 2'' under the "Special Thanks" section.
*** Both the cast of ''Red vs. Blue'' and Randall Glass made it into a special "Tribute vault" in ''Halo: Reach'', along with several other groups of fans.
* Tehnoobshow, who started out with a few videos about a stereotypical noob, eventually became this to ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'', even being commissioned by Jagex to work on the videos to open their machinima contests.
* In the early to mid-nineties, a fair number of famous and semi-famous ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' mapmakers wound up being engaged as official level designers for actual developers. The first was Tim Willits, Doom enthusiast and mapmaker assimilated by id in the mid-nineties, his most notable work being The Ultimate Doom, Doom 3 and the entire ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' series. He later ascended even further to become the lead designer and current co-owner of the company.
* Of note in the ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' fandom is Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin, a professional translator working for Creator/FUNimation and lead/sole translator of the ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' and ''[[CompilationRerelease MOTHER 1+2]]'' FanTranslation projects, getting lots of love from both fans and the game industry for his virtually Herculean efforts in the case of the former. He's also a big name in the fan translation "scene" in general, having worked on high-profile projects like ''VideoGame/BahamutLagoon'' and ''{{VideoGame/Star Ocean|1}}'', and has been mentioned by famed translator [[{{Woolseyism}} Ted Woolsey]] in an interview. These days, he runs [[http://earthboundcentral.com/ Videogame/EarthBound Central,]] a personal blog dedicated to exploring the minutiae of ''Videogame/EarthBound'', new finds in the games, developments for the series, [[EpilepticTrees theorising about why everyone's so reluctant to rerelease them]], [[{{Woolseyism}} translation changes]], and occasionally talking about what creator Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto[=/=]Creator/ShigesatoItoi is up to these days, and Website/LegendsOfLocalization, a site that looks at changes made while bringing other games from Japan to English speaking regions, occasionally the other way around, and sometimes other combinations of "from" and "to" regions.
** On a more traditional level, there's Benjamin "Katon" Carignan, one of the masterminds between [[Fanfic/FobbiesAreBorange three well-renowned]] [[Fanfic/TreeFromMyYouth fan radio plays]] and is the most consistently popular radio DJ for STARMEN.net's internet radio station, Radio PSI. He is one of the few [=BNFs=] that is incredibly humble about his popularity and is often surprised at the reactions he gets after contacting people.
* Plenty of ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' fans have at least heard of Fladervy, one of the most notable speedrunners in the community. His runs of Lilac and especially Milla have exploited the game's physics so extensively he tends to top the leaderboards for the game. He's been invited to many Games Done Quick events to show off the game, even the game's creator Strife has expressed his approval many times. To a slightly lesser extent, there's Succinct and Punchy and johannhowitzer. They've all received favorable Tweats from the creator and voice actors.
* From the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' and ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' series:
** Xaran Alamas, the owner of a large ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' fansite back in the day and later the runner of a semi-official ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' "lore question and answers" thread at the fora. He is also reputedly a cyber-friend with Creator/ChrisMetzen, the leader of the series' creative division. In [=WoW's=] second expansion pack, he got an NPC named after him.
** Not to mention Skosiris, the founder of THE site for any World of Warcraft information, Wowhead. He is well known enough for Blizzard to name an NPC after him. They got the race wrong (Skorisis' main is an Orc as opposed to the Blood Elf NPC), but admittedly a Blood Elf make better Loremasters...
** Same goes for Breanni, founder of a site categorizing minipets in [=WoW=] who also gets referenced ingame as a minipet vendor, and the NPC IS a gnome.
** Many other fans have received items named after them. As examples, Aldriana's Gloves of Secrecy are named for the famous rogue theory-crafter on the Elitist Jerks website, Phaedra's Vestments of the Sprouting Seed are named for a woman who ran a popular blog about resto druids (and who was pregnant at the time the item debuted), and Blockade's Lost Shield is named for a dwarf warrior on the Barthilas server with an infamously large collection of tier sets and shields.
** Ahab Wheathoof, a tauren farmer with a simple quest in Mulgore, was designed and voiced by Ezra Chatterton, who was brought to Blizzard's offices by the Make-A-Wish foundation.
** There's also Boubille, creator of MMO-Champion, the [=WoW=] news and data mining site where most people get their information on upcoming patches way before Blizzard ever announces anything, and it's also a great compilation of developer posts.
* From the ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' series:
** Arguably every pro-level player, both in and out of Korea.
** Amateur commentators like Mike "Creator/HuskyStarcraft" Lamond, Sean "[=Day9=]" Plott (himself a former pro-level player), and a slew of others are regularly hired by Blizzard and other pro-level game leagues to commentate the games.
** [=StarCrafts=], created by Carbot, not only has official t-shirts sold by Blizzard, but also has his images incorporated into both icons and profile images in the game itself.
* Blizzard's generally extensive engagement with their fans has produced a lot of these. TournamentPlay masters aside, many independent commentators achieved internet stardom by doing {{After Action Report}}s and How To guides on the ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' series and ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', and were eventually brought on by Blizzard in some official capacity or another.
* Creator/MasahiroSakurai is known to include characters of games he loves to the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series. He grew up with fighting games and added Ryu from ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' into the [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU the Wii U/3DS entry in the series]], followed by Ken in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]''. He would also add Terry of ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' and ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' fame to ''Ultimate'' as DLC. He became enamored with ''VideoGame/Persona5'' and would go on to add the protagonist of that game, "Joker", as another DLC character in ''Ultimate''. He is also a big fan of ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' and, since ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'', has added more characters from the series with each entry, including [[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragon Marth]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade Roy]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Ike]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Robin, Lucina, Chrom]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Corrin]], and [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses Byleth]].
* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' fandom is pretty much split into three, and accordingly the heads of said ways are Big Name Fans:
** "Serebii" (real name Joe Merrick, ironically provided by a page about him on rival [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Serebii_(person) Bulbapedia.]] No relation to aintitcool's Joeseph Merrick as far as we know) hosts one of the two most well-known ''Pokémon'' sites, the self-titled Serebii.net, and has been known to appear on other ''Pokémon''-related forums, as well as on ''Star Trek''-related forums under the name of Captain Joe. His attitude regarding other ''Pokémon'' websites and a few allegations of plagiarism (though unsubstantiated in recent years), bullying and looking to pick fights (even with other fandoms!) have given him his own personal BrokenBase amongst ''Pokémon'' fans. His animosity with [[http://www.bulbagarden.net Bulbagarden]] and [[http://www.pokebeach.com PokéBeach]] in particular is near-legendary, though [[GoKartingWithBowser he still frequents both sites.]]
*** If you need another example of his reputation in the fandom, keep in mind that the Official Nintendo Magazine (the UK one) nearly always uses Serebii.net as a source for their Pokemon news. Serebii/Joe Merrick himself also often ends up writing for said magazine, so you've got a situation where a fan is well known enough that the official media for the company uses his work as a source themselves.
** "Archaic" (real name Liam Pomfret) is webmaster of the other big-name ''Pokémon'' site, Website/{{Bulbagarden}}.net. He's one of the oldest [=BNFs=] in the fandom, having first made a name for himself back in 2000-2002, primarily as a leader or spokesman for the Pokémon shippers community (which got him top billing for ShipToShipCombat here); a role in which he managed to turn the entire staff of Pokémasters, then one of the major forums, against shippers. He later worked for Serebii as his right hand man, but left to [[{{Uncancelled}} (re)establish Bulbagarden]], incidentally creating a conflict between the two communities that is still ongoing many years later. The initial relaunch of Bulbagarden is most charitably described as achieving somewhat underwhelming results, but after several years of the website struggling, Archaic added a wiki to the site, which quickly grew into [[TheWikiRule Bulbapedia]]; he later led the effort to expand into the collaborative Nintendo wiki network NIWA.
** "Water Pokémon Master" (real name Jon Sahagian; thanks to Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Black_and_White#Japanese_release this info]]) of TCG website PokéBeach.com is another well-known website in the fan community. His devotion to the franchise has allowed him to interview the previous director of the ''Pokémon''anime, Masamitsu Hidaka, and he is the only foreigner to have seen an early screening of the 12th Pokémon movie in Japan. His site has also been featured in several TCG magazines around the world. He is known to be in contact with internal Pokémon officials, even to the point where he can pick up the phone and call them to confirm rumors and stories. He is also a little infamous with some people at The Pokémon Company International for posting early scans of TCG sets several weeks before they are released.
* In ''VideoGame/FallFromHeaven'', Magister Cultuum fills this role, to the point of having a Great Sage named after him, an being quickly know to everyone on the Forums.
* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}:''
** [=KirbyM=] too, owner of ''[[http://www.walfas.org Walfas,]]'' a ''Touhou''-related site. Worked on Maikaze's ''Touhou'' anime, although that too was fanmade...
** Music/{{IOSYS}}, makers of some of the most notable song remixes.
** Rei Hiroe (the author of ''Manga/BlackLagoon'') has made Touhou doujin and fanart.
* Actor and former NFL player Creator/TerryCrews is a passionate fan of video games and is a particularly big fan of ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'', so much so that he offered to provide the voice of Doomfist. While he wouldn't get the role, he still expressed approval of Sahr Ngaujah's portrayal of the fan-favorite villain.
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has [=SethBling=], one of the more known abusers of the in-game wiring system. He is quite popular with the developers, too.
* [[http://www.pikminlink.com/ Pikmin Link]] is possibly the biggest BNF in the ''Zelda'' fandom. Being a cosplayer, even a particularly good one, is not usually enough to earn such a title. However, Pikmin Link's cosplay reached the attention of Nintendo executives, who recruited her to portray Link at the official release of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', and the costume she wore has been retired and is kept under glass. That's because it was signed by Shigeru Miyamoto himself.
* Gideon Zhi, of [[http://agtp.romhack.net/ Aeon Genesis,]] has released far more {{Fan Translation}}s than any other group, and his work is almost inevitably featured in any articles about the subject.
* While he was more associated with the [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM Saturday morning cartoon]] and the comics based on them, [[https://www.andrews.edu/~drazen/sonic.html Dan Drazen]] was a big name in ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fandom for a while. He's also into Franchise/CareBears.
** Additionally, Jay Axer and Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante both were fans who [[PromotedFanboy ended up drawing for the Archie comics.]]
** Further, Ian Flynn was just a fan and now he's [[PromotedFanboy writing the Archie comic]].
** Horror legend Creator/JohnCarpenter has also mentioned being a big fan, even mentioning liking ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' despite some people not liking certain parts of the game.
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is a perfect example of this trope. It went from a Quake mod to one of the premier "Steam" titles in the Orange Box collection. Within the game, a few high quality player-made maps have been honorarily canonized as official.
** Also in the Team Fortress 2 fandom are fans known for producing high-quality fanwork. Among them:
*** Chemical Alia for her work on the [[http://chemicalalia.deviantart.com/art/Medic-Heavy-character-select-145112417?q=1&qo=1 Female Medic and Heavy]] reskins.
*** Makani for [[http://makani.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d1pbaup designing]] what eventually became the official design for the Administrator.
*** Cat Bountry for writing what could be the best and well-known fanfics in the fandom, including Fanfic/RespawnOfTheDead.
*** This was turned into PromotedFanboy when Cat Bountry got the opportunity to write one of the official Team Fortress 2 comics.
* Anthony Burch from ''WebVideo/HeyAshWhatchaPlayin'' was offered, and accepted, a job a Gearbox because of how funny Hey Ash was.
* Irma 'Aimo' Ahmed is well-known in various Creator/BioWare fandoms, but perhaps she's best known these days for her fan works for ''Franchise/DragonAge''. She even got to do a [[http://blog.bioware.com/2010/03/01/dragon-age-the-revelation-comic/ comic based on a deleted scene]] ('''spoiler warning in the link''') with the head writer for the game.
** Also well known to [=BioWare=]'s fandom, particularly the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' fanbase, is Holly Conrad. A costume maker and prop maker, Conrad started gaining notoriety when she and her studio, Crabcat Industries, showed off a series of Mass Effect cosplays at Comic-Con 2010. By that time a year later Conrad had been commissioned by Bioware to make costumes for their live broadcast during Comic-Con 2011, make props and costumes for Mass Effect 3's [[https://youtu.be/OBESnvjZGt8&ob=av3e live-action trailer]] and she's become a symbol for [[FanNickname FemShep]] within the fandom.
*** Similarly, one of Crabcat's co-founders, Jessica Merizan, has since been hired by Bioware as the company's Community Manager.
* Zeality is known for running the [[http://www.chronocompendium.com/ Chrono Compendium,]] the biggest [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Chrono series]] website. Recently he was featured in [[http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3178331 an article]] about his role in the community.
* James Rolfe, aka WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd, is practically a celebrity in the online movies and video games fandom.
* Zan Sidera (or just Zan) is the number #1 public figure for the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series; known for his extensive canonical knowledge, keen analysis and immense dedication. For example, he built extremely detailed and comprehensive timelines for EVERY Mega Man game there is to date. Some of the more well-read and complete timelines involve the [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com the Zero series,]] [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=653.0 the X series]] and [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=120.0 the Legend Series.]] Obviously, the timelines are not spoiler-friendly.
** Also while they are not as known as him, there are Robert Oakes (Oakie), Hypershell and Marshmellow Man, with which Zan often discuss over the facts. Marshmellow Man himself can read Japanese and provided Zan Sidera and the fanbase with information, which would have been exclusively for the Japanese.
* FanFilm creators Beat Down Boogie became [=BNFs=] because of their [[CrossOver mashup]] of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' titled ''WebVideo/ModernWarGearSolid.''
** Likewise, [[Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFoxhound Chris Doucette]] and [[Webcomic/TheCobraDays inonibird]] both had their shares of fans for their respective ''Metal Gear Solid'' QuirkyMinibossSquad comics. Those who had [[PraisingShowsYouDontWatch never played the games]] read the comics and were surprised to see how little characterization both FOXHOUND and the Cobra Unit received when they played the games.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' fandom has [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/ Forte.]] Her [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3fri7e human versions of the personality cores]] (especially her [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/gallery/30570934#/d3h906k Wheatley design]]) are some of (if not the) most widely used in the fandom. Quite a few people even ship her with Wheatley.
** ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' also has Waffles, or Waffleguppies, author of the famous fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Blue Sky}}'', a super-popular work that has its own trope page and a dedicated circle of fans.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Achron}}'', [=Shadowfury333=] fills this role. He's become a sort of unoffocial game commentator, casting replays and live games, as well as making a large number of maps and special additions (such as observers) through modding the game.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' has [=VincentASM=], owner of Serenes Forest, the largest and most complete Fire Emblem site. The End also rose to this level when he translated the ''Hasha no Tsurugi'' manga.
* David Goldfarb, an ex-developer from DICE who helped with the production of the ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' series, is a huge fan of films that involve bank robberies and similar heists and had been wanting to produce a game in that genre for years. After David left DICE, he joined Overkill Software, the makers of ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'', and helped the studio produce [[VideoGame/PAYDAY2 the sequel.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'', [[http://www.cyborgmatt.com Cyborg Matt]] is famous for his analysis of patches and support of the ''Dota 2'' community, to the extent that some theorize he is the game's mysterious developer, [[ReclusiveArtist IceFrog.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX'' communities, you can expect to hear the player names MADOKA and DOLCE. a lot; they are known as two of the best ''IIDX'' players in Japan, often becoming the finalists in the ''IIDX'' tournament at the annual Konami Arcade Championship.
* Let's Play-er LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}} is a BNF of the ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' series, ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'', and ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' all at once. He can be considered a BNF of Nintendo in general.
** Chugga also has an unusually bilateral example of this in the case of WebAnimation/JaidenAnimations, as both content creators are subscribed to one another and follow each other on Twitter.
* ''LetsPlay/DeceasedCrab'' is well known for his {{Lets Play}}s of ''VideoGame/LaMulana'', to the point that he was on the special thanks credits of the remake.
* A Let's Player by the name of Northernlion is very well-known in the ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' community, mostly because he does a ''daily'' run through the game that has been on-going for several years. Community reactions are a bit split on him, largely over his playstyle, but he's well-known enough that game creator Edmund [=Mc=]Millen guest-commentated on one of his playthroughs.
* The ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' community has several: [=VaatiVidya=] and LetsPlay/EpicNameBro are both known for their in-depth, comprehensive analysis of the game series' lore (which is famously vague and complex). [=OnlyAfro=], on the other hand, is a FountainOfMemes who usually posts videos of himself trolling people in [=PvP=] in numerous inventive (and usually hilarious) ways.
* "mossbag" is well-known in the ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' community for his in-depth and comprehensive lore analysis videos, sometimes incorporating [[MemeticMutation memes]] to balance comedy and seriousness (In fact, some of the [[Memes/HollowKnight memes in the community]] originate from his videos). Whenever a new fan wants to learn more about the game's lore, veterans usually recommend watching mossbag's videos.
* Who enjoys the Creator/{{Sega}} [[UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn Saturn]] title ''VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams''? None other than Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto, and he's named it as a masterpiece and the one game he wishes he had developed.
* @/LadyNorbert is this for Eipix, the Serbian developer of the ''VideoGame/DarkParables'' and other point-and-click titles. The company has used her work for [[ApprovalOfGod official social media marketing]], as well as thanking her for making the page about the ''Dark Parables'' on Wiki/ThisVeryWiki. She was granted the honorary position in the company of "North American Vice-President of Fairytale Detection," as can be seen on their Facebook page.
* Jack Lusted was once just a guy modding ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar''. But after developing such greatly successful and popular - not to mention large-scale - mods such as ''Terra Expugnandae'', ''Late Romans'' and ''Lands to Conquer'' (for ''VideoGame/Medieval2TotalWar''), he was hired by Creative Assembly in 2007, and these days calls most of the shots on upcoming ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' games as Project Lead.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** Dave Humphrey is the the creator of the [[https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages,]] the first and foremost [[TheWikiRule wiki]] for all things ''Elder Scrolls''.
** Lady Nerevar is admin of The [[https://www.imperial-library.info/ Imperial Library,]] a site dedicated to the discussion and preservation of the series' lore, as well as the fiancee of former series writer Creator/MichaelKirkbride.
** Shirley Curry, a popular [[Website/YouTube Youtuber]] in her 80s that does LetsPlay videos of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5n2P_1F8nQhOo0fLGdh-iw Zaric Zhakaron]] posts his intriguing, detailed videos on the franchise (and on Creator/{{Bethesda}} games in general).
* Max Christiansen, AKA Maximilian Dood (of ''LetsPlay/TheOnlineWarrior'', ''WebVideo/AssistMe'', and ''LetsPlay/YoVideogames'' fame) is a Big Name Fan for the entire FightingGame genre, plus a few other specific titles like ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry''. He's held in high regard by quite a few big names in the industry like ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' producer Katsuhiro Harada, ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' co-creator Ed Boon, and actor Creator/ReubenLangdon (who plays two of his all-time favorite characters, [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ken Masters]] and [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]]). He's also become a PromotedFanboy a few times, doing official work for Creator/{{Capcom}}[[note]]Hosting the ''Cross Assault'' web series to promote ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'' and the ''Assist Me'' videos were officially sponsored to the point where Capcom's Yoshinori Ono cameoed in the last episode[[/note]] and more prominently Creator/IronGalaxyStudios.[[note]]Producing trailers and story mode cutscenes for the ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'' reboot[[/note]]
* Since not long after it was announced and released, the ''VideoGame/JurassicWorldEvolution'' fandom has been dominated by Website/{{YouTube}}r Best In Slot, who covered the game's development frequently on his Website/YouTube Channel in addition to videos covering various skins and features after release. His videos have become ubiquitous in the community that reactions to new features often illicit calls of excitement towards his videos on the subject.
** This also happened to Steamblust, a user who posted a variety of photoshopped images to Reddit depicting species not in the game, often using their appearances in other ''Jurassic Park'' media as a basis, such as the Troodon and Herrarasaurus from ''VideoGame/JurassicParkTheGame'' to the Carchardotonosaurus from ''VideoGame/JurassicParkOperationGenesis'' as well as fully original creations; he eventually added watermarks to his images due to people using them in videos and reposting them without permission. He has since even produced skins that work within the PC version. There are often many calls for the developers to follow him for inspiration.
* Many designers become BNF's in the ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon'' communities during periods of high productivity in modding and gradually become lost in the shuffle when their work is superseded by later designers; the most enduring names have usually been those who pioneered new capabilities, especially with modeling software.
** HENDRIX, originally known as Dinosaur Man, is a highly influential figure who has become known for his programming and scripting in recent years, though he was initially known as simply being a particularly talented designer. He was one of the pioneers of using Blender to create new models and later animations for the game, and created not only multiple popular solo project releases, but an entire user expansion in his own, as well as being a pivotal figure in both the ''Radical Remake'' and ''Cretaceous Calamity'' user projects. He later made a script to generate Zoo Tycoon 2 models as Zoo Tycoon 1 animals, and after fifteen years, created the long-desired script to allow importing edited models into ''VideoGame/JurassicParkOperationGenesis''.
** Although the designer Legosith is not quite as well-known in the community, he is also a BNF within the community for being the first to create a fully new biome, representing the deep sea Abyss, after five years of failed attempts to do so by senior designers in the community. (This was his first public project.) He also was the first to create new animations for the game, allowing flying birds, and was key to creating the first XL map for ''Cretaceous Calamity''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* The writer of ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' attracted the attention of Jane Goodall (a character in the comic and one of his heroes) to the point that he eventually had an interview with her that was posted in the comic. It wasn't fully apparent if she was a fan of the comic, however.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'':
** Writer/artist Creator/AndrewHussie featured a couple of ShoutOut[=s=] to Creator/DanteBasco[='s=] character "Rufio" from ''Film/{{Hook}}''. Naturally, the fandom told him about this, and he's now on Act 6.
** Creator/AndrewHussie later asked popular fan artist [[http://duedlyfirearms.tumblr.com/ Shelby]] to draw art for in-universe FanGirl [[spoiler: Calliope.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': Linkara has among his fans Creator/GailSimone (a fan of his comic reviews) and a Franchise/SuperSentai suit actress (a fan of ''History of Power Rangers'').
* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'':
** When Creator/DougWalker made contact with ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' creator Tom Ruegger, he was surprised to find out that Ruegger was a fan of Walker's own show.
** Within the TGWTG fandom itself, Rants, the admin of the TGWTG secrets blog has been making a name for himself. His popularity varies from person to person however.
*** One fan named Erica is well-acquainted with the Nostalgia Critic team, with their ''WebVideo/DemoReel'' SlashFic being [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsdUC0RqRa4 read by Doug and Uncle Yo.]] They're most well-known as the partial inspiration for Hyper Fangirl's character; see them interact with the team in cosplay [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnudkDVUUgY here.]]
*** For the later NC fandom, the most prominent Tumblr was [=ThatChickWithTheGifs=], responsible for most of the reaction gifs circulated around the fandom before it shut down in 2018. The members of the show have used these gifs on their own social media accounts.
* Creator/RoosterTeeth makes this list again. Before he joined the company, Creator/MontyOum was a fan of RT. Yes, [[WebAnimation/{{Haloid}} ''that'']] [[WebAnimation/DeadFantasy Mon]][[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} ty.]]
** Additionally, Creator/RoosterTeeth were able to hire one of their most prominent [=BNFs=] for Machinima/RedVsBlue. The name of said BNF? ''Creator/ElijahWood''.
** ''Rooster Teeth'' regularly hires fans doing something really cool on their website.
* Chris Hardwick of [=TheNerdistPodcast=], started out as a (very well connected) interdisciplinary geekdom BNF, but is now a AscendedFanboy (working for BBC America and [=ComicCon=]) and a cultural institution onto himself.
* Many of the bigger remixers in the [[WebVideo/GameGrumps Game Grumps]] fandom can get this status, including but not limited to the "Triforce" mixers, [=AtPunk=], Liltommyj, and [=JerryTerry=], the latter eventually [[AscendedFanboy composing several theme song variations]] for [[WebVideo/JonTron Jon's own show.]]
* Creator/NoahAntwiler of the ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'' is a big fan of the ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' series. ''Ultima'' creator Richard Garriott has said he's a fan of the show, and the two met for an interview during the production of Garriot's SpiritualSuccessor to ''Ultima'', ''VideoGame/ShroudOfTheAvatarForsakenVirtues.''
* Creator/TaraStrong follows LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}} on Twitter.
* LetsPlay/UberHaxorNova has several [=BNFs=], up to and including Jim Bonacci (creator of ''VideoGame/HappyWheels'') and even ''Notch,'' the man responsible for '''''{{VideoGame/Minecraft}}.'''''
* In WebVideo/SkyWilliams' second AMA video, he asked his opinion on Dunkey. He called himself a fan and said he'd like to collab with him. The two have since started playing together and appeared in each other's videos.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Surprisingly, Creator/CharlieChaplin himself, after whom WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat was patterned, loved the original Felix the Cat cartoons and envied the amount of control of timing animation allowed over live action. Fitting, since Otto Messmer had previously worked on a series of silent Charlie Chaplin cartoons in the past (which Chaplin also liked) and had studied Chaplin's films for reference, which proved as a ground zero of sorts for his Felix cartoons.
-->'''Otto Messmer''': "I patterned him after Charlie Chaplin. The audience loved him. And so did Chaplin. The cartoon format let Felix do things that Chaplin couldn't do on film..."
* There are two in the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fandom:
** "Megafan" Kimberly Miranda aka [[http://isaia.deviantart.com Isaia,]] one of the very first ''Avatar'' fan artists on Website/DeviantArt. Her account now has over a million views and her artwork is often shown in magazines for the show. Her [[http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39867827/ "It's Avatarded"]] satire comics are responsible for the [[FanCommunityNicknames Fan Community Nickname.]]
** Johane Matte aka [[http://rufftoon.deviantart.com/ Rufftoon,]] also on Deviant Art, earned one million pageviews in almost half the time that Isaia did. She was later [[http://www.drawingboard.org/blogs/Nofret/2424/Big+News%21%21.html hired]] as a storyboard artist for the show and provided illustrations for the ''Avatar''-dedicated Nick Mag.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has ''Korra Nation'', a website where people vote for who they think the 'biggest' fans are. Most of the top scorers are Big Name Fans.
* Several ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' fans had {{Shout Out}}s made to them in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', but the most famous must be [[http://www.bwtf.com Ben Yee,]] a ''Transformers'' site owner who actually was given credits props as a ''consultant'' on the show.
** Another Big Transformers Fan might be Chris Ho, AKA WebVideo/InternetPersonalityVangelus, having served as the voice of ''ComicBook/TransformersTransTech'' Shockwave and having fan art drawn ''of him'' by [[WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated Derrick J. Wyatt.]]
** Monzo also deserves mention, having helped Hasbro determine the copyright status of several Transformer-names. His name appears as Universe Onslaught's serial number, along with his birth date.
* Mark Moore was/is an infamous ''Captain N'' fan, notable for his "Season 4" (through 8) fanfic continuation of the original cartoon series.
* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko:''
** [=Thunderbird3=], or [=TB3=], is apparently on speaking terms with the creators and even made a documentary with interviews of the cast and crew. For the fairly small English-speaking fanbase, this was a big thing.
** [=SearchingLyoko=], founder of Code Lyoko United and a well known member on Website/LyokoFreak and Code Lyoko Evolved, communicates with [=MoonScoop=] quite regularly and was quite possibly a major factor in the creation of ''Series/CodeLyokoEvolution.''
* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' [[http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl forum]] There are a few members who are in on the entire plot of the revival webcomic and/or regularly correspond with higher-ups among the revival. The comic's writer himself is also a member, and regularly interacts with the members to get their input.
* Most ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' fans are aware of [=NeoYi=]. What most people know her for is her excellent fan comic ''[[http://neoyi.deviantart.com Chess Piece]]'' but really, it's nearly impossible to explore the fandom (specifically on Website/DeviantArt) without learning about her eventually. Others include Firefury Amahira, Tavalya Ra, The Alchemist's Muse and Esme Phantom, all of which are very well known around the community.
* The WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperForceGo fandom has [=Netbug009=], she will deny this but we all know it's true... Though her Status as a BNF may be the result of the fact that it's a small Fandom and she's the one currently running the only active fan-forum Monkey See, Monkey Fu.
** There were some others back in the day, but most of them have moved on.
*** While not still actively in the fandom, if you didn't know about Sora-Mito's fanart back in the day, you had either been hiding under a Shuggazoomian rock or had seen it without realizing it. (Quite a few people took it for their own websites without permission or credit.)
*** Then there was ii, who was the head Admin on MSMF for a while and went through SEVERAL Usernames in his time. Oh yea, he was also one of the few boys in the Fandom which certainly helped his case...
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama:''
** Creator/WinterRae, a notorious CrackPairing writer, and Creator/TheKoboldNecromancer, who wrote the pioneering ''[[Fanfic/TotalDramaComebackSeries Total Drama Comeback]]'' series as a spin-off second and third season. If you know anything about ''Total Drama'' fanfiction, you've heard of their works.
** Courtney Garcia, AKA [=CITPrincess=] is a very popular TDI artist on deviantART, who is well known for her outstanding cosplays of Courtney (the character) and live action reenactments of her scenes from the ''Total Drama'' series. She became even better known after winning a Halloween Contest sponsored by the official ''Total Drama Island'' Blog in 2009. She's even hung out with Chris Potenza himself for a convention and still keeps in contact with him.
* Heidi "Lady Niko" Rekell has been the unofficial administrator, and "go to" person for ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers Galaxy Rangers]]''. She worked closely with Koch when it came to the DVD release.
* ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' fans most likely will know Princess June (AKA [=Kablamoid96=] or June the [=KaBlamoid=]), who created the most music videos on Website/YouTube for the show, a fanfic writer, a fanart artist, and [[http://s1.zetaboards.com/The_KaBlam_Forum/index/ created the first message board for the show.]] She's one of the reasons why the cult following is getting bigger. Not to mention she knows Mo Willems, the creator of ''The Off-Beats.''
** And of course, there's another fanfic/fanart [=KaBlamoid=] who all the fans should know... [=KaBlamoid4Life=]!
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has Shaun Scotellaro (more commonly known as Sethisto), who runs one of the biggest fandom hub websites tied to the show: [[http://www.equestriadaily.com/ Equestria Daily]]. The site is notable enough that it's received exclusive content from The Hub (the Equestria Girls advert), and Sethisto has been interviewed for [[http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/bronies-my-little-ponys/ Wired's article about the show.]]
** Other well-known people are the co-moderators of Equestria Daily, such as Cereal Velocity, Phoe, and Calpain. Authors are fairly well-known too, such as Kkat, the author of the ([[{{Doorstopper}} literally)]] epic-length fanfic, ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria.''
** There's also The Smiling Pony, who (along with an entire team of moderators) runs [[http://www.derpiboo.ru Derpibooru]], the largest and most well known pony imageboard on the net.
** There's also [=BaldDumboRat=], who (at least when it comes to fanon) is considered THE voice for [[SeriesMascot Derpy Hooves.]]
** John De Lancie, after voicing Discord in the Season 2 premiere, has become one and eventually made [[Film/BroniesTheExtremelyUnexpectedAdultFansOfMyLittlePony a documentary]] to put a positive spin on the Brony fandom after seeing how disrespectfully the national news portrays them.
** The Living Tombstone, Wooden Toaster, and many other Brony musicians are world-famous for what they do.
** You won't go far into that fanbase without hearing the names Egophiliac, John Joseco, Kloudmutt, Braeburned, Pixelkitties, or Atryl[[note]]To name a few[[/note]], all of whom are ''very'' well known fan artists (some of whom do NSFW stuff so tread carefully) who have contributed thousands of pieces of artwork, are known by cast and crew members, and are responsible for a number of memes and {{Fanon}}.
** Then there's Wild Fire, an alias of MLP storyboard artist Sabrina Alberghetti, and Mandopony, a fan musician. The two met, began dating regularly, and formally announced their engagement in January 2015. They even run a shared Tumblr account, [[http://mandofire.tumblr.com available here.]]
** And then there's WebVideo/MLPAnalysis, essentially becoming the Website/ChannelAwesome of the Brony Community. Well-known members include, but are not limited to, {{Creator/Joshscorcher}}, Creator/SilverQuill, and Creator/ILoveKimPossibleALot.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' has a few, including Kara Wild who actually managed to score interviews with showrunners Glenn Eichler & Anne Bernstein. Novelist and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game designer Roger E. "The Angst Guy" Moore is also a major fixture within the fandom and is (in)famous for creating some of the most competently written & heart wrenching DarkFic known to man.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' has Mara S (or acaciathorn, if you want to use her deviantart account handle). She founded and currently runs the longest-running JN fansite on the net. Plus, she wrote a truly incredible, book-length fanfiction called 'The Other Side Of Tomorrow', complete with chapter illustrations and its own fandom. If you've participated in any JN fandom on the net, chances are you've run into Mara or her works at some point.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has a dedicated fandom - The [[FanCommunityNicknames Fallers]]- and the most well known faller is certainly Adam Warrock. Adam was already quite famous online because of the rap songs he created and uploaded to [=YouTube=]. When he made a rap about Gravity Falls using the theme song as the beat, [[https://youtu.be/ALstOqg0pig the video]] became so popular in the fandom, to the point the [[ApprovalOfGod show's creator]] tweeted him and called him [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/225466352792645632 "the greatest man who ever lived"]]. Now Adam, among with another fan, Chris Haley, hosts a podcast about the show, [[https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gravity-falls-gossiper-podcast/id547361019 "The Gravity Falls Gossiper,"]] in which the show's creator has already guest starred. Also among the show's fanbase [[https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/668252847700447232 is]] director Creator/GuillermoDelToro.
** There's also [[https://moringmark.tumblr.com Moringmark]] a.k.a. [[https://markmak.deviantart.com/gallery/ Markmak]] who were known as one of the most influential Gravity Falls fan-artist. He's also becoming a BNF in the [[WesternAnimation/StarvsTheForcesofEvil Star vs. The Forces of Evil]] fandom, as he creates a fancomic named [[WebComic/ShipWarAU Ship War AU]].
* [[Website/DeviantArt Deviantartists]] [[http://djcoulzanimalsonly.deviantart.com/gallery/ DJCoulz]] and [[http://dj88.deviantart.com/gallery/8276851 DJ88]] are well known across WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}} fandom for pioneering many of the most popular ideas across the fandom. The former's version of Ahadi and Uru (Mufasa and Scar's parents) has been copied by nearly every other fan. The latter is most famous for giving Zira an abusive father and giving characters from a series of books and comics more vibrant "movie" colors. They're some of the best artists in the fandom.
* ''WesternAnimation/KappaMikey'' fans know of Lizzy Silvas, aka [[http://kappalizzy.deviantart.com/ Kappa Lizzy]] who was actually drawn into an episode of ''Kappa Mikey'' from winning a fan contest and did her own voice-over. She attended conventions and even inspired other fans to nickname themselves. Kappa Lizzy is also well known by SEGA for playing the Sonic The Hedgehog video games, watching the shows & reading the comics during her years of recovering from a brain tumor when she was a child.
* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' has Creator/JohnKricfalusi, UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation purist, whereas some people have attempted to see the series as a blatant ripoff of his show ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', John seems to really like the show.
** John also really likes WesternAnimation/YogiBear, so much so in fact he did his own take on it with 3 shorts in the '90s.
* Fans of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' have heard of tumblr user [[http://azurajae.tumblr.com/ AzuraJae.]] Jae started [[http://mlsubbing.tumblr.com/ mlsubbing,]] a large scale fansubbing project for the budding show involving at least twelve different languages and gained 10,000+ followers in the span of just three months. Since the start of Jae's project, the fandom has exploded tremendously in numbers - One could say she revolutionized the fandom. She was also the one to give Creator/ThomasAstruc the affectionate fanon nickname Hawkdaddy, or Papapillon in French. Additionally, Jae loves to draw fan art and write fanfiction and uploads to them to tumblr.
* Website/{{YouTube}}r [=McKenzie Atwood=] (better known as [[https://www.youtube.com/user/MightBeMaybeME MKatwood]]) has done many things for the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' fandom. She's the creator of many meme compilation videos of the show, including [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJNl_1SWSSQaS2vXLC1ro73iUO6HPrSFz Pearl's Secret Rap Career.]] The last installment of the series features Pearl's voice actress Deedee Magno-Hall, and has been acknowledged by Michaela Dietz (Amethyst) and Shelby Rabara (Peridot). She is friends with Deedee Magno-Hall and Zach Callison (Steven), and later became an intern at Cartoon Network before becoming host of the show's official podcast.
* Though his name value isn't immediately recognized in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' fandom, Willie "Big-Will" Westwood is the creator of the South Park Scriptorium fansite, which has remained consistently updated since the show's first season; his transcriptions of episodes of the series since its first season are authoritative, and was recognized by the show's animators and creators in its early years; the scripts were also as a basis for the script project at the main fan wiki; he has been the sole active moderator at the official South Park Studios message board for well over a decade as well.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'':
** According to the DVDCommentary, Creator/HarlanEllison was a fan of the show and personally requested that Nickelodeon send him tapes of it.
** Creator/RebeccaSugar was a huge fan of the series as a teenager, writing various pieces of fan fiction for it. She would even come to loosely base the character of Peridot in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' on Zim, from their SmallNameBigEgo to the utter lack of respect they got from their very tall superiors.
* Ross O'Donovan of ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' has fond memories of watching ''WesternAnimation/BlinkyBill'' and ''WesternAnimation/LittleElvisJonesAndTheTruckstoppers'' as a child and recommends both series to Barry in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhx0yvOpvMY an episode of Grumpcade]].
* [[Website/DeviantArt DeviantArtist]] [=JustinandDennis=] (J&D) is well-known amongst the members of the small-but-dedicated ''WesternAnimation/PBAndJOtter'' fandom. He is responsible for creating several fan characters/[=OCs=] and has even created some of the show's {{Fanon}} such as backstories, and also wrote some TransformationFiction for the series (who's human characters/"[=TF=] victims" would later become [[AscendedExtra Ascended Extras]] in his original work). He is also active in other fandoms such as the ''WesternAnimation/BlazingDragons'' fandom.
* The ''WesternAnimation/BlazingDragons'' fandom has French [[Website/DeviantArt DeviantArtist]] [=Benthehyena=]. Her most notable contribution to the fandom is co-creating the [=#BDRevolution=] campaign with Season 2 story editor Erika Strobel.
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** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogettes The Hogettes]] (Washington Redskins)

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** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogettes The Hogettes]] (Washington Redskins)Football Team)
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* The ''WesternAnimation/BlazingDragons'' fandom has French [[Website/DeviantArt DeviantArtist]] [=Benthehyena=]. Her most notable contribution to the fandom is co-creating the [=#BDRevolution=] campaign with Season 2 story editor Erika Strobel.

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* Heidi "Lady Niko" Rekell has been the unofficial administrator, and "go to" person for ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers Galaxy Rangers]]''. She worked closely with Kosh when it came to the DVD release.

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* Heidi "Lady Niko" Rekell has been the unofficial administrator, and "go to" person for ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers Galaxy Rangers]]''. She worked closely with Kosh Koch when it came to the DVD release.



* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' has Creator/JohnKricfalusi, UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation purist, Whereas some people have attempted to see the series as a blatant ripoff of his show ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', John seems to really like the show.

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* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' has Creator/JohnKricfalusi, UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation purist, Whereas whereas some people have attempted to see the series as a blatant ripoff of his show ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', John seems to really like the show.


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* [[Website/DeviantArt DeviantArtist]] [=JustinandDennis=] (J&D) is well-known amongst the members of the small-but-dedicated ''WesternAnimation/PBAndJOtter'' fandom. He is responsible for creating several fan characters/[=OCs=] and has even created some of the show's {{Fanon}} such as backstories, and also wrote some TransformationFiction for the series (who's human characters/"[=TF=] victims" would later become [[AscendedExtra Ascended Extras]] in his original work). He is also active in other fandoms such as the ''WesternAnimation/BlazingDragons'' fandom.
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* Creator/JamesCameron became a very well-known fan of ''Manga/{{Gunnm}}'' after Creator/GuillermoDelToro introduced him to the manga. He's so much of a fan that he spent the past ''seventeen'' years to try and make a [[Film/AlitaBattleAngel movie adaptation]].

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* Creator/JamesCameron became a very well-known fan of ''Manga/{{Gunnm}}'' ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'' after Creator/GuillermoDelToro introduced him to the manga. He's so much of a fan that he spent the past ''seventeen'' years to try and make a [[Film/AlitaBattleAngel movie adaptation]].
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* An early example can be found in ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' books where Paul Gambi, tailor to the various Rogues of Central and Keystone City, is named after Paul Gambiccini who at the time was '''14'''. Gambiccini hasn't ever rested on his laurels as since then he's gone on to be a noted author and academic.

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* An early example can be found in ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' ''Franchise/TheFlash'' books where Paul Gambi, tailor to the various Rogues of Central and Keystone City, is named after Paul Gambiccini who at the time was '''14'''. Gambiccini hasn't ever rested on his laurels as since then he's gone on to be a noted author and academic.
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[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1603921753023815900 under discussion]] in the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1603921753023815900 Trope Repair Shop]].]]]]]]
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*** For the later NC fandom, the most prominent Tumblr was [=ThatChickWithTheGifs=], responsible for most of the reaction gifs circulated around the fandom before it shut down in 2018.

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*** For the later NC fandom, the most prominent Tumblr was [=ThatChickWithTheGifs=], responsible for most of the reaction gifs circulated around the fandom before it shut down in 2018. The members of the show have used these gifs on their own social media accounts.
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* ''Series/AndiMack'' has Sadie Anne Rue, who organized a popular project that involved sending 1,000 paper cranes to Disney Channel Headquarters to save the show. While the show wasn't renewed, the cranes were loved by the cast and crew.

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** Also well known to [=BioWare=]'s fandom, particularly the Franchise/MassEffect fanbase, is Holly Conrad. A costume maker and prop maker, Conrad started gaining notoriety when she and her studio, Crabcat Industries, showed off a series of Mass Effect cosplays at Comic-Con 2010. By that time a year later Conrad had been commissioned by Bioware to make costumes for their live broadcast during Comic-Con 2011, make props and costumes for Mass Effect 3's [[https://youtu.be/OBESnvjZGt8&ob=av3e live-action trailer]] and she's become a symbol for [[FanNickname FemShep]] within the fandom.

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** Also well known to [=BioWare=]'s fandom, particularly the Franchise/MassEffect ''Franchise/MassEffect'' fanbase, is Holly Conrad. A costume maker and prop maker, Conrad started gaining notoriety when she and her studio, Crabcat Industries, showed off a series of Mass Effect cosplays at Comic-Con 2010. By that time a year later Conrad had been commissioned by Bioware to make costumes for their live broadcast during Comic-Con 2011, make props and costumes for Mass Effect 3's [[https://youtu.be/OBESnvjZGt8&ob=av3e live-action trailer]] and she's become a symbol for [[FanNickname FemShep]] within the fandom.


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* "mossbag" is well-known in the ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' community for his in-depth and comprehensive lore analysis videos, sometimes incorporating [[MemeticMutation memes]] to balance comedy and seriousness (In fact, some of the [[Memes/HollowKnight memes in the community]] originate from his videos). Whenever a new fan wants to learn more about the game's lore, veterans usually recommend watching mossbag's videos.
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** Creator/WinterRae, a notorious CrackPairing writer, and Kobold Necromancer, who wrote the pioneering ''[[Fanfic/TotalDramaComebackSeries Total Drama Comeback]]'' series as a spin-off second and third season. If you know anything about ''Total Drama'' fanfiction, you've heard of their works.

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** Creator/WinterRae, a notorious CrackPairing writer, and Kobold Necromancer, Creator/TheKoboldNecromancer, who wrote the pioneering ''[[Fanfic/TotalDramaComebackSeries Total Drama Comeback]]'' series as a spin-off second and third season. If you know anything about ''Total Drama'' fanfiction, you've heard of their works.

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** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has ''Website/KorraNation'', a website where people vote for who they think the 'biggest' fans are. Most of the top scorers are Big Name Fans.

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** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has ''Website/KorraNation'', ''Korra Nation'', a website where people vote for who they think the 'biggest' fans are. Most of the top scorers are Big Name Fans.



* Mark Moore was/is an infamous ''Captain N'' fan, notable for his "Season 4" (Through 8) fanfic continuation of the original cartoon series.

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* Mark Moore was/is an infamous ''Captain N'' fan, notable for his "Season 4" (Through (through 8) fanfic continuation of the original cartoon series.


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* Ross O'Donovan of ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' has fond memories of watching ''WesternAnimation/BlinkyBill'' and ''WesternAnimation/LittleElvisJonesAndTheTruckstoppers'' as a child and recommends both series to Barry in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhx0yvOpvMY an episode of Grumpcade]].
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* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', according to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_%28anime%29#Inspirations_and_influence The Other Wiki]], has several authoritative fan commentators, such as Creator/TaliesinJaffe (from the End of Eva DVD commentary, who Creator/FUNimation now turns to as their "Eva Expert" for Rebuild of Evangelion) and Sean [=McCoy=] (from the ADV Platinum DVD commentary, who now regularly runs Eva panels at Fanime Con [[http://publications.fanime.com/public/FanimeCon_Program_Guides/FanimeCon_2009_Program_Guide.pdf]])

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* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', according to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_%28anime%29#Inspirations_and_influence The Other Wiki]], has several authoritative fan commentators, such as Creator/TaliesinJaffe (from the End of Eva DVD commentary, who Creator/FUNimation now turns to as their "Eva Expert" for Rebuild of Evangelion) and Sean [=McCoy=] (from the ADV Platinum DVD commentary, who now regularly runs Eva panels at Fanime Con [[http://publications.fanime.com/public/FanimeCon_Program_Guides/FanimeCon_2009_Program_Guide.pdf]])pdfFanime Con.]])



* ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' fan Kuljit Mithra, creator of the website [[http://www.manwithoutfear.com/daredevil.shtml Manwithoutfear.com]]. The site is considered the best archive of information on the comic book character, to the extent that writers of the Daredevil title routinely consult it for research, and Creator/BrianMichaelBendis thanked Mithra in the afterword of his last issue as a writer for Daredevil. Mithra & Manwithoutfear.com, along with Philipp Lenssen & Coverbrowser.com are given special thanks for providing the cover gallery at the end of Daredevil's 500th issue.

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* ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' fan Kuljit Mithra, creator of the website [[http://www.manwithoutfear.com/daredevil.shtml Manwithoutfear.com]]. com.]] The site is considered the best archive of information on the comic book character, to the extent that writers of the Daredevil title routinely consult it for research, and Creator/BrianMichaelBendis thanked Mithra in the afterword of his last issue as a writer for Daredevil. Mithra & Manwithoutfear.com, along with Philipp Lenssen & Coverbrowser.com are given special thanks for providing the cover gallery at the end of Daredevil's 500th issue.



* Dave Campbell, who writes the blog [[http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/ Dave's Long Box]], ("I'm going to review my comic book collection and you're going to like it!") got to write handbook bios for the Official Handbook of the ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' Universe.

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* Dave Campbell, who writes the blog [[http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/ Dave's Long Box]], Box,]] ("I'm going to review my comic book collection and you're going to like it!") got to write handbook bios for the Official Handbook of the ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' Universe.



** Melissa Anelli, webmistress of [[http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org The Leaky Cauldron]]. Like Emerson, she was invited to interview Creator/JKRowling, managed to get an interview with Rowling on [=PotterCast=], got a foreward written by Rowling in her ''Harry: A History'' book and is often called on by the media to talk about the series. She is also a senior creative consultant on Pottermore, a project officially endorsed by Rowling.
** How about Steve Vander Ark of [[http://www.hp-lexicon.org/ The Harry Potter Lexicon]]? The Lexicon was one of the websites J. K. Rowling favored in the ''Harry Potter'' fandom, until they decided to publish a book based on the website that was almost entirely her own words...

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** Melissa Anelli, webmistress of [[http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org The Leaky Cauldron]]. Cauldron.]] Like Emerson, she was invited to interview Creator/JKRowling, managed to get an interview with Rowling on [=PotterCast=], got a foreward written by Rowling in her ''Harry: A History'' book and is often called on by the media to talk about the series. She is also a senior creative consultant on Pottermore, a project officially endorsed by Rowling.
** How about Steve Vander Ark of [[http://www.hp-lexicon.org/ The Harry Potter Lexicon]]? Lexicon.]] The Lexicon was one of the websites J. K. Rowling favored in the ''Harry Potter'' fandom, until they decided to publish a book based on the website that was almost entirely her own words...



** Emerson Spartz, creator of [[http://mugglenet.com/ Mugglenet]], deffinitely qualifies for this, as he has interviewed J. K. Rowling and he was one of the writers involved in two HP-based books, both of which were best-sellers.

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** Emerson Spartz, creator of [[http://mugglenet.com/ Mugglenet]], Mugglenet,]] deffinitely qualifies for this, as he has interviewed J. K. Rowling and he was one of the writers involved in two HP-based books, both of which were best-sellers.



* Jennifer, the owner of the Creator/VCAndrews fansite ''[[http://www.completevca.com/ The Complete V.C. Andrews]]'', the biggest resource for any info on Andrews, her books, and the books written by her ghostwriter (including US and international book covers, timelines and family trees, and little known trivia facts).

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* Jennifer, the owner of the Creator/VCAndrews fansite ''[[http://www.completevca.com/ The Complete V.C. Andrews]]'', Andrews,]]'' the biggest resource for any info on Andrews, her books, and the books written by her ghostwriter (including US and international book covers, timelines and family trees, and little known trivia facts).



** [[https://youtu.be/AzzzQPsehwU As revealed in this video]], Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and the late Creator/RobinWilliams are also fans of the book.

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** [[https://youtu.be/AzzzQPsehwU As revealed in this video]], video,]] Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and the late Creator/RobinWilliams are also fans of the book.



*** Brittany Diamond -- aka "[[http://suicidallyreckless.tumblr.com suicidallyreckless]]" on Website/{{Tumblr}} and nicknamed "Captain". Rose to prominence during the 2009 post-[[Film/StarTrek2009 movie]] boom, and has created ''WebVideo/TheShipsCloset'', a vidcast analyzing Kirk/Spock, as well as the ''Analyzation/Commentary'', which does the same thing only in writing. She's a bit bemused by her status, amusingly enough.

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*** Brittany Diamond -- aka "[[http://suicidallyreckless.[[http://suicidallyreckless.tumblr.com suicidallyreckless]]" "suicidallyreckless"]] on Website/{{Tumblr}} and nicknamed "Captain". Rose to prominence during the 2009 post-[[Film/StarTrek2009 movie]] boom, and has created ''WebVideo/TheShipsCloset'', a vidcast analyzing Kirk/Spock, as well as the ''Analyzation/Commentary'', which does the same thing only in writing. She's a bit bemused by her status, amusingly enough.



* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/OtakuASSEMBLE Larry Williams]], who decided to just make a Youtube video reviewing the first episode of ''Series/GameOfThrones'', not being familiar at all with ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. This soon expanded into reviews for every episode, with his emotional ranting about his love for the show and rabid defense of his favorite characters earning him a ton of new subscribers and eventually the attention of the people behind the show, who even sent him a poster signed by the producers and Sean Bean (though he apparently gave up on the show from Season 5 onward, as he produced no reviews after Season 4).

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* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/OtakuASSEMBLE Larry Williams]], Williams,]] who decided to just make a Youtube video reviewing the first episode of ''Series/GameOfThrones'', not being familiar at all with ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. This soon expanded into reviews for every episode, with his emotional ranting about his love for the show and rabid defense of his favorite characters earning him a ton of new subscribers and eventually the attention of the people behind the show, who even sent him a poster signed by the producers and Sean Bean (though he apparently gave up on the show from Season 5 onward, as he produced no reviews after Season 4).



* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' fans are ''hugely'' aware of fan artist [[http://lordmesa-art.tumblr.com/ Lord Mesa]], who creates short, small, cute and silly ''Arrow'' fan art pieces. They're so well known to the fans that [[http://36.media.tumblr.com/cb79beb0ed7db6a654ecbc3ba3eb959d/tumblr_nj5udac0YS1qziqawo1_500.jpg the Arrow production team have a wall of their art at the offices.]]

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* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' fans are ''hugely'' aware of fan artist [[http://lordmesa-art.tumblr.com/ Lord Mesa]], Mesa,]] who creates short, small, cute and silly ''Arrow'' fan art pieces. They're so well known to the fans that [[http://36.media.tumblr.com/cb79beb0ed7db6a654ecbc3ba3eb959d/tumblr_nj5udac0YS1qziqawo1_500.jpg the Arrow production team have a wall of their art at the offices.]]



* [[http://www.disturbedpedia.com/ Disturbedpedia]] has attained this status within Music/{{Disturbed}}'s fanbase for archiving nearly every single video about the band on [[https://www.youtube.com/user/disturbedpedia their YouTube channel]], including some very rare material that can't be found anywhere else.
* Music/{{Space}} fandom had Pab UK and Eiteews, aka Paul and Donna, who ran [[http://www.spacetheband.com Spacetheband]]. There's also Billy Cook, who is responsible for making ''[[DevelopmentHell Love You More Than Football]]'', the 'lost' third album, available to fans.

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* [[http://www.disturbedpedia.com/ Disturbedpedia]] has attained this status within Music/{{Disturbed}}'s fanbase for archiving nearly every single video about the band on [[https://www.youtube.com/user/disturbedpedia their YouTube channel]], channel,]] including some very rare material that can't be found anywhere else.
* Music/{{Space}} fandom had Pab UK and Eiteews, aka Paul and Donna, who ran [[http://www.spacetheband.com Spacetheband]]. Spacetheband.]] There's also Billy Cook, who is responsible for making ''[[DevelopmentHell Love You More Than Football]]'', the 'lost' third album, available to fans.



* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/tyleroakley Tyler Oakley]], video-blogging extraordinaire with a [[HoYay huge crush]] on ''Music/OneDirection'', got to interview them in August 2013.
* Music/{{Journey}} has [[http://www.jonathancain.com Rhonda Dirr]], who had the first fansite for Jonathan Cain (Journey's current keyboardist) and who has become good friends and webmaster for Mr. Cain; Dan Stacy, who founded the Journey e-mail group in the '90s, and Cyndi Poon & Lora Beard, longtime fans of the band who were brought on-board with the band to run the band's fan club Journey Force throughout the '70s and '80s and now manage [[http://fanasylum.com/ FanAsylum]], one of the premier fanclub companies in the US, who still handles Steve Perry's promotions.

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* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/tyleroakley Tyler Oakley]], Oakley,]] video-blogging extraordinaire with a [[HoYay huge crush]] on ''Music/OneDirection'', got to interview them in August 2013.
* Music/{{Journey}} has [[http://www.jonathancain.com Rhonda Dirr]], who had the first fansite for Jonathan Cain (Journey's current keyboardist) and who has become good friends and webmaster for Mr. Cain; Dan Stacy, who founded the Journey e-mail group in the '90s, and Cyndi Poon & Lora Beard, longtime fans of the band who were brought on-board with the band to run the band's fan club Journey Force throughout the '70s and '80s and now manage [[http://fanasylum.com/ FanAsylum]], FanAsylum,]] one of the premier fanclub companies in the US, who still handles Steve Perry's promotions.



* Hall of Fame basketball legend Bill Walton is a devoted fan of Music/TheGratefulDead, having attended over 800 of their concerts since 1967. He's been a fan since he was in high school, well before he was famous as an athlete. He also befriended the band, and accompanied them to Egypt for their famous concert at the Pyramids.[[note]]As pointed out in the video for "Touch of Grey" in ''Series/PopUpVideo'', the Celtics jacket Mickey Hart is wearing was a gift from Walton himself.[[/note]] He still attends Dead shows to this day, and profiles on him often mention his love for the band and their importance in his daily life or [[http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/sdut-bill-walton-chats-about-life-and-the-grateful-dead-2015jun27-htmlstory.html focus on it specifically]].

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* Hall of Fame basketball legend Bill Walton is a devoted fan of Music/TheGratefulDead, having attended over 800 of their concerts since 1967. He's been a fan since he was in high school, well before he was famous as an athlete. He also befriended the band, and accompanied them to Egypt for their famous concert at the Pyramids.[[note]]As pointed out in the video for "Touch of Grey" in ''Series/PopUpVideo'', the Celtics jacket Mickey Hart is wearing was a gift from Walton himself.[[/note]] He still attends Dead shows to this day, and profiles on him often mention his love for the band and their importance in his daily life or [[http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/sdut-bill-walton-chats-about-life-and-the-grateful-dead-2015jun27-htmlstory.html focus on it specifically]].specifically.]]



** Randall Glass, creator of the "Halo Physics Experiment", better known as [[https://youtu.be/nGQIQljaAc0 the Warthog Jump]], became immensely popular for a time. He even got into the credits of ''Halo 2'' under the "Special Thanks" section.

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** Randall Glass, creator of the "Halo Physics Experiment", better known as [[https://youtu.be/nGQIQljaAc0 the Warthog Jump]], Jump,]] became immensely popular for a time. He even got into the credits of ''Halo 2'' under the "Special Thanks" section.



* Of note in the ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' fandom is Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin, a professional translator working for Creator/FUNimation and lead/sole translator of the ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' and ''[[CompilationRerelease MOTHER 1+2]]'' FanTranslation projects, getting lots of love from both fans and the game industry for his virtually Herculean efforts in the case of the former. He's also a big name in the fan translation "scene" in general, having worked on high-profile projects like ''VideoGame/BahamutLagoon'' and ''{{VideoGame/Star Ocean|1}}'', and has been mentioned by famed translator [[{{Woolseyism}} Ted Woolsey]] in an interview. These days, he runs [[http://earthboundcentral.com/ Videogame/EarthBound Central]], a personal blog dedicated to exploring the minutiae of ''Videogame/EarthBound'', new finds in the games, developments for the series, [[EpilepticTrees theorising about why everyone's so reluctant to rerelease them]], [[{{Woolseyism}} translation changes]], and occasionally talking about what creator Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto[=/=]Creator/ShigesatoItoi is up to these days, and Website/LegendsOfLocalization, a site that looks at changes made while bringing other games from Japan to English speaking regions, occasionally the other way around, and sometimes other combinations of "from" and "to" regions.

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* Of note in the ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' fandom is Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin, a professional translator working for Creator/FUNimation and lead/sole translator of the ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' and ''[[CompilationRerelease MOTHER 1+2]]'' FanTranslation projects, getting lots of love from both fans and the game industry for his virtually Herculean efforts in the case of the former. He's also a big name in the fan translation "scene" in general, having worked on high-profile projects like ''VideoGame/BahamutLagoon'' and ''{{VideoGame/Star Ocean|1}}'', and has been mentioned by famed translator [[{{Woolseyism}} Ted Woolsey]] in an interview. These days, he runs [[http://earthboundcentral.com/ Videogame/EarthBound Central]], Central,]] a personal blog dedicated to exploring the minutiae of ''Videogame/EarthBound'', new finds in the games, developments for the series, [[EpilepticTrees theorising about why everyone's so reluctant to rerelease them]], [[{{Woolseyism}} translation changes]], and occasionally talking about what creator Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto[=/=]Creator/ShigesatoItoi is up to these days, and Website/LegendsOfLocalization, a site that looks at changes made while bringing other games from Japan to English speaking regions, occasionally the other way around, and sometimes other combinations of "from" and "to" regions.



** "Serebii" (real name Joe Merrick, ironically provided by a page about him on rival [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Serebii_(person) Bulbapedia]]. No relation to aintitcool's Joeseph Merrick as far as we know) hosts one of the two most well-known ''Pokémon'' sites, the self-titled Serebii.net, and has been known to appear on other ''Pokémon''-related forums, as well as on ''Star Trek''-related forums under the name of Captain Joe. His attitude regarding other ''Pokémon'' websites and a few allegations of plagiarism (though unsubstantiated in recent years), bullying and looking to pick fights (even with other fandoms!) have given him his own personal BrokenBase amongst ''Pokémon'' fans. His animosity with [[http://www.bulbagarden.net Bulbagarden]] and [[http://www.pokebeach.com PokéBeach]] in particular is near-legendary, though [[GoKartingWithBowser he still frequents both sites.]]

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** "Serebii" (real name Joe Merrick, ironically provided by a page about him on rival [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Serebii_(person) Bulbapedia]]. Bulbapedia.]] No relation to aintitcool's Joeseph Merrick as far as we know) hosts one of the two most well-known ''Pokémon'' sites, the self-titled Serebii.net, and has been known to appear on other ''Pokémon''-related forums, as well as on ''Star Trek''-related forums under the name of Captain Joe. His attitude regarding other ''Pokémon'' websites and a few allegations of plagiarism (though unsubstantiated in recent years), bullying and looking to pick fights (even with other fandoms!) have given him his own personal BrokenBase amongst ''Pokémon'' fans. His animosity with [[http://www.bulbagarden.net Bulbagarden]] and [[http://www.pokebeach.com PokéBeach]] in particular is near-legendary, though [[GoKartingWithBowser he still frequents both sites.]]



** [=KirbyM=] too, owner of ''[[http://www.walfas.org Walfas]]'', a ''Touhou''-related site. Worked on Maikaze's ''Touhou'' anime, although that too was fanmade...

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** [=KirbyM=] too, owner of ''[[http://www.walfas.org Walfas]]'', Walfas,]]'' a ''Touhou''-related site. Worked on Maikaze's ''Touhou'' anime, although that too was fanmade...



* Gideon Zhi, of [[http://agtp.romhack.net/ Aeon Genesis]], has released far more {{Fan Translation}}s than any other group, and his work is almost inevitably featured in any articles about the subject.
* While he was more associated with the [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM Saturday morning cartoon]] and the comics based on them, Dan Drazen was a big name in ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fandom for a while. He's apparently into Franchise/CareBears now. ''Huh.''

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* Gideon Zhi, of [[http://agtp.romhack.net/ Aeon Genesis]], Genesis,]] has released far more {{Fan Translation}}s than any other group, and his work is almost inevitably featured in any articles about the subject.
* While he was more associated with the [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM Saturday morning cartoon]] and the comics based on them, [[https://www.andrews.edu/~drazen/sonic.html Dan Drazen Drazen]] was a big name in ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fandom for a while. He's apparently also into Franchise/CareBears now. ''Huh.''Franchise/CareBears.



* Zeality is known for running the [[http://www.chronocompendium.com/ Chrono Compendium]], the biggest [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Chrono series]] website. Recently he was featured in [[http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3178331 an article]] about his role in the community.

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* Zeality is known for running the [[http://www.chronocompendium.com/ Chrono Compendium]], Compendium,]] the biggest [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Chrono series]] website. Recently he was featured in [[http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3178331 an article]] about his role in the community.



* Zan Sidera (or just Zan) is the number #1 public figure for the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series; known for his extensive canonical knowledge, keen analysis and immense dedication. For example, he built extremely detailed and comprehensive timelines for EVERY Mega Man game there is to date. Some of the more well-read and complete timelines involve the [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com the Zero series]], [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=653.0 the X series]] and [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=120.0 the Legend Series]]. Obviously, the timelines are not spoiler-friendly.

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* Zan Sidera (or just Zan) is the number #1 public figure for the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series; known for his extensive canonical knowledge, keen analysis and immense dedication. For example, he built extremely detailed and comprehensive timelines for EVERY Mega Man game there is to date. Some of the more well-read and complete timelines involve the [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com the Zero series]], series,]] [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=653.0 the X series]] and [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=120.0 the Legend Series]]. Series.]] Obviously, the timelines are not spoiler-friendly.



* The ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' fandom has [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/ Forte]]. Her [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3fri7e human versions of the personality cores]] (especially her [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/gallery/30570934#/d3h906k Wheatley design]]) are some of (if not the) most widely used in the fandom. Quite a few people even ship her with Wheatley.

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* The ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' fandom has [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/ Forte]]. Forte.]] Her [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3fri7e human versions of the personality cores]] (especially her [[http://forte-girl7.deviantart.com/gallery/30570934#/d3h906k Wheatley design]]) are some of (if not the) most widely used in the fandom. Quite a few people even ship her with Wheatley.



** Dave Humphrey is the the creator of the [[https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages]], the first and foremost [[TheWikiRule wiki]] for all things ''Elder Scrolls''.
** Lady Nerevar is admin of The [[https://www.imperial-library.info/ Imperial Library]], a site dedicated to the discussion and preservation of the series' lore, as well as the fiancee of former series writer Creator/MichaelKirkbride.

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** Dave Humphrey is the the creator of the [[https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages]], Pages,]] the first and foremost [[TheWikiRule wiki]] for all things ''Elder Scrolls''.
** Lady Nerevar is admin of The [[https://www.imperial-library.info/ Imperial Library]], Library,]] a site dedicated to the discussion and preservation of the series' lore, as well as the fiancee of former series writer Creator/MichaelKirkbride.



* Max Christiansen, AKA Maximilian Dood (of ''LetsPlay/TheOnlineWarrior'', ''WebVideo/AssistMe'', and ''LetsPlay/YoVideogames'' fame) is a Big Name Fan for the entire FightingGame genre, plus a few other specific titles like ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry''. He's held in high regard by quite a few big names in the industry like ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' producer Katsuhiro Harada, ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' co-creator Ed Boon, and actor Creator/ReubenLangdon (who plays two of his all-time favorite characters, [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ken Masters]] and [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]]). He's also become a PromotedFanboy a few times, doing official work for Creator/{{Capcom}}[[note]]Hosting the ''Cross Assault'' web series to promote ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'' and the ''Assist Me'' videos were officially sponsored to the point where Capcom's Yoshinori Ono cameoed in the last episode[[/note]] and more prominently Creator/IronGalaxyStudios[[note]]Producing trailers and story mode cutscenes for the ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'' reboot[[/note]].

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* Max Christiansen, AKA Maximilian Dood (of ''LetsPlay/TheOnlineWarrior'', ''WebVideo/AssistMe'', and ''LetsPlay/YoVideogames'' fame) is a Big Name Fan for the entire FightingGame genre, plus a few other specific titles like ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry''. He's held in high regard by quite a few big names in the industry like ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' producer Katsuhiro Harada, ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' co-creator Ed Boon, and actor Creator/ReubenLangdon (who plays two of his all-time favorite characters, [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ken Masters]] and [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]]). He's also become a PromotedFanboy a few times, doing official work for Creator/{{Capcom}}[[note]]Hosting the ''Cross Assault'' web series to promote ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'' and the ''Assist Me'' videos were officially sponsored to the point where Capcom's Yoshinori Ono cameoed in the last episode[[/note]] and more prominently Creator/IronGalaxyStudios[[note]]Producing Creator/IronGalaxyStudios.[[note]]Producing trailers and story mode cutscenes for the ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'' reboot[[/note]].reboot[[/note]]



** "Megafan" Kimberly Miranda aka [[http://isaia.deviantart.com Isaia]], one of the very first ''Avatar'' fan artists on Website/DeviantArt. Her account now has over a million views and her artwork is often shown in magazines for the show. Her "[[http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39867827/ It's Avatarded]]" satire comics are responsible for the [[FanCommunityNicknames Fan Community Nickname.]]
** Johane Matte aka [[http://rufftoon.deviantart.com/ Rufftoon]], also on Deviant Art, earned one million pageviews in almost half the time that Isaia did. She was later [[http://www.drawingboard.org/blogs/Nofret/2424/Big+News%21%21.html hired]] as a storyboard artist for the show and provided illustrations for the ''Avatar''-dedicated Nick Mag.

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** "Megafan" Kimberly Miranda aka [[http://isaia.deviantart.com Isaia]], Isaia,]] one of the very first ''Avatar'' fan artists on Website/DeviantArt. Her account now has over a million views and her artwork is often shown in magazines for the show. Her "[[http://www.[[http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39867827/ It's Avatarded]]" "It's Avatarded"]] satire comics are responsible for the [[FanCommunityNicknames Fan Community Nickname.]]
** Johane Matte aka [[http://rufftoon.deviantart.com/ Rufftoon]], Rufftoon,]] also on Deviant Art, earned one million pageviews in almost half the time that Isaia did. She was later [[http://www.drawingboard.org/blogs/Nofret/2424/Big+News%21%21.html hired]] as a storyboard artist for the show and provided illustrations for the ''Avatar''-dedicated Nick Mag.



* ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' fans most likely will know Princess June (AKA [=Kablamoid96=] or June the [=KaBlamoid=]), who created the most music videos on Website/YouTube for the show, a fanfic writer, a fanart artist, and [[http://s1.zetaboards.com/The_KaBlam_Forum/index/ created the first message board for the show]]. She's one of the reasons why the cult following is getting bigger. Not to mention she knows Mo Willems, the creator of ''The Off-Beats.''

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* ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' fans most likely will know Princess June (AKA [=Kablamoid96=] or June the [=KaBlamoid=]), who created the most music videos on Website/YouTube for the show, a fanfic writer, a fanart artist, and [[http://s1.zetaboards.com/The_KaBlam_Forum/index/ created the first message board for the show]]. show.]] She's one of the reasons why the cult following is getting bigger. Not to mention she knows Mo Willems, the creator of ''The Off-Beats.''



* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has a dedicated fandom - The [[FanCommunityNicknames Fallers]]- and the most well known faller is certainly Adam Warrock. Adam was already quite famous online because of the rap songs he created and uploaded to [=YouTube=]. When he made a rap about Gravity Falls using the theme song as the beat, [[https://youtu.be/ALstOqg0pig the video]] became so popular in the fandom, to the point the [[ApprovalOfGod show's creator]] tweeted him and called him [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/225466352792645632 "the greatest man who ever lived"]]. Now Adam, among with another fan, Chris Haley, hosts a podcast about the show, [[https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gravity-falls-gossiper-podcast/id547361019 "The Gravity Falls Gossiper"]], in which the show's creator has already guest starred. Also among the show's fanbase [[https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/668252847700447232 is]] director Creator/GuillermoDelToro.

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* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has a dedicated fandom - The [[FanCommunityNicknames Fallers]]- and the most well known faller is certainly Adam Warrock. Adam was already quite famous online because of the rap songs he created and uploaded to [=YouTube=]. When he made a rap about Gravity Falls using the theme song as the beat, [[https://youtu.be/ALstOqg0pig the video]] became so popular in the fandom, to the point the [[ApprovalOfGod show's creator]] tweeted him and called him [[https://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/225466352792645632 "the greatest man who ever lived"]]. Now Adam, among with another fan, Chris Haley, hosts a podcast about the show, [[https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gravity-falls-gossiper-podcast/id547361019 "The Gravity Falls Gossiper"]], Gossiper,"]] in which the show's creator has already guest starred. Also among the show's fanbase [[https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/668252847700447232 is]] director Creator/GuillermoDelToro.



* Fans of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' have heard of tumblr user [[http://azurajae.tumblr.com/ AzuraJae]]. Jae started [[http://mlsubbing.tumblr.com/ mlsubbing]], a large scale fansubbing project for the budding show involving at least twelve different languages and gained 10,000+ followers in the span of just three months. Since the start of Jae's project, the fandom has exploded tremendously in numbers - One could say she revolutionized the fandom. She was also the one to give Creator/ThomasAstruc the affectionate fanon nickname Hawkdaddy, or Papapillon in French. Additionally, Jae loves to draw fan art and write fanfiction and uploads to them to tumblr.
* Website/{{YouTube}}r [=McKenzie Atwood=] (better known as [[https://www.youtube.com/user/MightBeMaybeME MKatwood]]) has done many things for the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' fandom. She's the creator of many meme compilation videos of the show, including [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJNl_1SWSSQaS2vXLC1ro73iUO6HPrSFz Pearl's Secret Rap Career]]. The last installment of the series features Pearl's voice actress Deedee Magno-Hall, and has been acknowledged by Michaela Dietz (Amethyst) and Shelby Rabara (Peridot). She is friends with Deedee Magno-Hall and Zach Callison (Steven), and later became an intern at Cartoon Network before becoming host of the show's official podcast.

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* Fans of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' have heard of tumblr user [[http://azurajae.tumblr.com/ AzuraJae]]. AzuraJae.]] Jae started [[http://mlsubbing.tumblr.com/ mlsubbing]], mlsubbing,]] a large scale fansubbing project for the budding show involving at least twelve different languages and gained 10,000+ followers in the span of just three months. Since the start of Jae's project, the fandom has exploded tremendously in numbers - One could say she revolutionized the fandom. She was also the one to give Creator/ThomasAstruc the affectionate fanon nickname Hawkdaddy, or Papapillon in French. Additionally, Jae loves to draw fan art and write fanfiction and uploads to them to tumblr.
* Website/{{YouTube}}r [=McKenzie Atwood=] (better known as [[https://www.youtube.com/user/MightBeMaybeME MKatwood]]) has done many things for the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' fandom. She's the creator of many meme compilation videos of the show, including [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJNl_1SWSSQaS2vXLC1ro73iUO6HPrSFz Pearl's Secret Rap Career]]. Career.]] The last installment of the series features Pearl's voice actress Deedee Magno-Hall, and has been acknowledged by Michaela Dietz (Amethyst) and Shelby Rabara (Peridot). She is friends with Deedee Magno-Hall and Zach Callison (Steven), and later became an intern at Cartoon Network before becoming host of the show's official podcast.
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* Some Western celebrities that ''Manga/{{One Piece}}'' can count as fans include Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Music/AvrilLavigne, Steven Adams (of the Oklahoma City Thunder), Creator/MasiOka, and Zara Larrson. Even Creator/JohnBoyega is a longtime fan of ''One Piece''.

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* Some Western celebrities that ''Manga/{{One Piece}}'' ''Manga/OnePiece'' can count as fans include Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Music/AvrilLavigne, Steven Adams (of the Oklahoma City Thunder), Creator/MasiOka, and Zara Larrson. Even Creator/JohnBoyega is a longtime fan of ''One Piece''.

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* Creator/LittleKuriboh is one of the few Big Name Fans who has made a big name for himself ''outside'' [[Franchise/YuGiOh the fandom in question.]]
** In fandom he's pretty much a hero and a saint.
** And [=4Kids=] has been known to express their enjoyment as well.
** Creator/ChristopherSabat is good friends with him and his team, although he recently stated that he hopes they use their great talent for original work someday.
* Slifertheskydragon is considered by most fans to be the best and most prolific artist in the Franchise/YuGiOh fandom. She also hosts fan activities, fan panels and is on first name basis with most of the Japanese and English production staff.
** In March 2011, a card signed by Slifertheskydragon sold on ebay for 750 dollars in a charity auction.

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* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' has several due to the wide-ranged aspects of the franchise:
**
Creator/LittleKuriboh is one of the few Big Name Fans who has made a big name for himself ''outside'' [[Franchise/YuGiOh the fandom in question.]]
** *** In fandom he's pretty much a hero and a saint.
** *** And [=4Kids=] has been known to express their enjoyment as well.
** *** Creator/ChristopherSabat is good friends with him and his team, although he recently stated that he hopes they use their great talent for original work someday.
* ** Slifertheskydragon is considered by most fans to be the best and most prolific artist in the Franchise/YuGiOh fandom. She also hosts fan activities, fan panels and is on first name basis with most of the Japanese and English production staff.
** *** In March 2011, a card signed by Slifertheskydragon sold on ebay for 750 dollars in a charity auction.auction.
** [[https://ygorganization.com/ YGOrganization]] are widely regarded as ''the'' unofficial news site for the franchise, covering almost every aspect of news from the anime to the card game to updates for the video games. [[TheWikiRule Yugipedia]] even specifically uses their translations/localizations for names when official English names are unknown.
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fixed wicks + formatting


** At least among the Marauders Era fanbase, TheShoeboxProject is often accepted as the definitive fanfiction for the four friends. The writers, Website/LiveJournal users ladyjaida and dorkorific are respected and revered among the fandom.

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** At least among the Marauders Era fanbase, TheShoeboxProject FanFic/TheShoeboxProject is often accepted as the definitive fanfiction for the four friends. The writers, Website/LiveJournal users ladyjaida and dorkorific are respected and revered among the fandom.



* In the words of Nuttymadam3575: [[Literature/{{Twilight}} UHHMAAAAAZING BOOOOOOOOOOOOK!]]

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* In the words of Nuttymadam3575: [=Nuttymadam3575=]: [[Literature/{{Twilight}} UHHMAAAAAZING BOOOOOOOOOOOOK!]]



* The Halloween Horror Nights fandom of Universal Studios Orlando has a number of big names: Dr. Raymond Holmes, Nightshade, TerraPhantom/WESKER69, and jwfearman among many others. These people are often known throughout the multiple sites (originally one, HHNVault, until it shut down) and have had their names hidden on the website or in the event props and scenery as easter eggs.

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* The Halloween Horror Nights fandom of Universal Studios Orlando has a number of big names: Dr. Raymond Holmes, Nightshade, TerraPhantom/WESKER69, [=TerraPhantom/WESKER69=], and jwfearman among many others. These people are often known throughout the multiple sites (originally one, HHNVault, [=HHNVault=], until it shut down) and have had their names hidden on the website or in the event props and scenery as easter eggs.



** Amateur commentators like Mike "Creator/HuskyStarcraft" Lamond, Sean "Day9" Plott (himself a former pro-level player), and a slew of others are regularly hired by Blizzard and other pro-level game leagues to commentate the games.
** StarCrafts, created by Carbot, not only has official t-shirts sold by Blizzard, but also has his images incorporated into both icons and profile images in the game itself.

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** Amateur commentators like Mike "Creator/HuskyStarcraft" Lamond, Sean "Day9" "[=Day9=]" Plott (himself a former pro-level player), and a slew of others are regularly hired by Blizzard and other pro-level game leagues to commentate the games.
** StarCrafts, [=StarCrafts=], created by Carbot, not only has official t-shirts sold by Blizzard, but also has his images incorporated into both icons and profile images in the game itself.



** Horror legend JohnCarpenter has also mentioned being a big fan, even mentioning liking ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' despite some people not liking certain parts of the game.

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** Horror legend JohnCarpenter Creator/JohnCarpenter has also mentioned being a big fan, even mentioning liking ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' despite some people not liking certain parts of the game.



* Zan Sidera (or just Zan) is the number #1 public figure for the ''Framchise/MegaMan'' series; known for his extensive canonical knowledge, keen analysis and immense dedication. For example, he built extremely detailed and comprehensive timelines for EVERY Mega Man game there is to date. Some of the more well-read and complete timelines involve the [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com the Zero series]], [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=653.0 the X series]] and [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=120.0 the Legend Series]]. Obviously, the timelines are not spoiler-friendly.

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* Zan Sidera (or just Zan) is the number #1 public figure for the ''Framchise/MegaMan'' ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series; known for his extensive canonical knowledge, keen analysis and immense dedication. For example, he built extremely detailed and comprehensive timelines for EVERY Mega Man game there is to date. Some of the more well-read and complete timelines involve the [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com the Zero series]], [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=653.0 the X series]] and [[http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?topic=120.0 the Legend Series]]. Obviously, the timelines are not spoiler-friendly.



* In ''VideoGame/{{Achron}}'', Shadowfury333 fills this role. He's become a sort of unoffocial game commentator, casting replays and live games, as well as making a large number of maps and special additions (such as observers) through modding the game.

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* In ''VideoGame/{{Achron}}'', Shadowfury333 [=Shadowfury333=] fills this role. He's become a sort of unoffocial game commentator, casting replays and live games, as well as making a large number of maps and special additions (such as observers) through modding the game.



* Jack Lusted was once just a guy modding ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar''. But after developing such greatly successful and popular - not to mention large-scale - mods such as ''Terra Expugnandae'', ''Late Romans'' and ''Lands to Conquer'' (for ''VideoGame/Medieval2TotalWar''), he was hired by Creative Assembly in 2007, and these days calls most of the shots on upcoming ''TotalWar'' games as Project Lead.

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* Jack Lusted was once just a guy modding ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar''. But after developing such greatly successful and popular - not to mention large-scale - mods such as ''Terra Expugnandae'', ''Late Romans'' and ''Lands to Conquer'' (for ''VideoGame/Medieval2TotalWar''), he was hired by Creative Assembly in 2007, and these days calls most of the shots on upcoming ''TotalWar'' ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' games as Project Lead.



** Additionally, Creator/RoosterTeeth were able to hire one of their most prominent BNFs for Machinima/RedVsBlue. The name of said BNF? ''Creator/ElijahWood''.

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** Additionally, Creator/RoosterTeeth were able to hire one of their most prominent BNFs [=BNFs=] for Machinima/RedVsBlue. The name of said BNF? ''Creator/ElijahWood''.



* Several ''WesternAnimation/{{Transformers}}'' fans had {{Shout Out}}s made to them in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', but the most famous must be [[http://www.bwtf.com Ben Yee,]] a ''Transformers'' site owner who actually was given credits props as a ''consultant'' on the show.

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* Several ''WesternAnimation/{{Transformers}}'' ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' fans had {{Shout Out}}s made to them in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', but the most famous must be [[http://www.bwtf.com Ben Yee,]] a ''Transformers'' site owner who actually was given credits props as a ''consultant'' on the show.



** Thunderbird3, or [=TB3=], is apparently on speaking terms with the creators and even made a documentary with interviews of the cast and crew. For the fairly small English-speaking fanbase, this was a big thing.

to:

** Thunderbird3, [=Thunderbird3=], or [=TB3=], is apparently on speaking terms with the creators and even made a documentary with interviews of the cast and crew. For the fairly small English-speaking fanbase, this was a big thing.



* Most ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' fans are aware of NeoYi. What most people know her for is her excellent fan comic ''[[http://neoyi.deviantart.com Chess Piece]]'' but really, it's nearly impossible to explore the fandom (specifically on Website/DeviantArt) without learning about her eventually. Others include Firefury Amahira, Tavalya Ra, The Alchemist's Muse and Esme Phantom, all of which are very well known around the community.
* The WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperForceGo fandom has Netbug009, she will deny this but we all know it's true... Though her Status as a BNF may be the result of the fact that it's a small Fandom and she's the one currently running the only active fan-forum MonkeySeeMonkeyFu.

to:

* Most ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' fans are aware of NeoYi.[=NeoYi=]. What most people know her for is her excellent fan comic ''[[http://neoyi.deviantart.com Chess Piece]]'' but really, it's nearly impossible to explore the fandom (specifically on Website/DeviantArt) without learning about her eventually. Others include Firefury Amahira, Tavalya Ra, The Alchemist's Muse and Esme Phantom, all of which are very well known around the community.
* The WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperForceGo fandom has Netbug009, [=Netbug009=], she will deny this but we all know it's true... Though her Status as a BNF may be the result of the fact that it's a small Fandom and she's the one currently running the only active fan-forum MonkeySeeMonkeyFu.Monkey See, Monkey Fu.



* ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' fans most likely will know Princess June (AKA Kablamoid96 or June the [=KaBlamoid=]), who created the most music videos on Website/YouTube for the show, a fanfic writer, a fanart artist, and [[http://s1.zetaboards.com/The_KaBlam_Forum/index/ created the first message board for the show]]. She's one of the reasons why the cult following is getting bigger. Not to mention she knows Mo Willems, the creator of ''The Off-Beats.''
** And of course, there's another fanfic/fanart [=KaBlamoid=] who all the fans should know... KaBlamoid4Life!

to:

* ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' fans most likely will know Princess June (AKA Kablamoid96 [=Kablamoid96=] or June the [=KaBlamoid=]), who created the most music videos on Website/YouTube for the show, a fanfic writer, a fanart artist, and [[http://s1.zetaboards.com/The_KaBlam_Forum/index/ created the first message board for the show]]. She's one of the reasons why the cult following is getting bigger. Not to mention she knows Mo Willems, the creator of ''The Off-Beats.''
** And of course, there's another fanfic/fanart [=KaBlamoid=] who all the fans should know... KaBlamoid4Life![=KaBlamoid4Life=]!
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** Incoming showrunner Creator/ChrisChibnall was a well-known fan of the show, even appearing on national TV in the 1980s to discuss it.

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** Incoming Current showrunner Creator/ChrisChibnall was a well-known fan of the show, even appearing on national TV in the 1980s to discuss it.
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* Some Western celebrities that ''One Piece'' can count as fans include Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Music/AvrilLavigne, Steven Adams (of the Oklahoma City Thunder), Creator/MasiOka, and Zara Larrson. Even Creator/JohnBoyega is a longtime fan of ''One Piece''.

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* Some Western celebrities that ''One Piece'' ''Manga/{{One Piece}}'' can count as fans include Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Music/AvrilLavigne, Steven Adams (of the Oklahoma City Thunder), Creator/MasiOka, and Zara Larrson. Even Creator/JohnBoyega is a longtime fan of ''One Piece''.
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* Some Western celebrities that ''One Piece'' can count as fans include Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Music/AvrilLavigne, Steven Adams (of the Oklahoma City Thunder), Creator/MasiOka, and Zara Larrson. Even Creator/JohnBoyega is a longtime fan of ''One Piece''.
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* Music/DropkickMurphys are huge fans of the Boston Red Sox, and have participated in multiple parades for the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, and the New England Patriots.
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BNF =/= "famous person who is a fan"


** My Little Pony also has UsefulNotes/BarackObama, Creator/JackBlack, Music/WeirdAlYankovic, Music/LadyGaga, [[Creator/ValveSoftware Gabe Newell]], Creator/RobertPattinson, Creator/SethGreen, UsefulNotes/BillClinton, Creator/StephenColbert (maybe), and many others as fans of theirs.

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