History Main / BigNameFan

* 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 Herb Abrams 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).

* 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]].

* 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 adaption]].

*** A controversial one, no less, courtesy of [[RuleThirtyFour artistic]] [[{{Guro}} career]]. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment More shall not be stated.]]

* Literature/MinaDeMalfois is a fictional example whose position occasionally sets her in the middle of the [[InternetBackdraft fandom controversy]] she comments on.

* 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 ''WebAnimation/FiftyPercentOff.''

* 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 the guitarist 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.''

* 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''.

** Elio and Linda, the owners of Westeros.org are this for the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' fandom, and actually help GRRM with keeping details straight. Some fans say they have a BrokenBase, however, because they strictly defend GRRM's "no fanfiction" beliefs.
** Stefan Sasse, often collaborates with Sean T. Collins on the Boiled Leather Podcast, and he became known in fandom for the popular "Southron Ambitions" theory and speculation which argued that Robert's Rebellion was driven by an organized conspiracy.

** ''Blog/RaceForTheIronThrone'' by Steven Attewell is notable for its detailed, historically researched and dense (its author is a trained historian) survey of the books WorldBuilding, unpacking its many AllohistoricalAllusion and is by itself provided an UnconventionalLearningExperience for some of the truly obscure parts of European history (such as the Refeudalization of Eastern Europe).

* DJ Creator/JohnPeel's love of Music/TheFall, which spanned decades and basically ensured the band's place in cult music canon.

* [[Music/TheBlackCrowes The Black Crowes]] count quite a few rock stars as big name fans. Among them are [[Music/AliceCooper Alice Cooper]], who applauded them as "a band out of time," [[Music/PeterFrampton Peter Frampton]], 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/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/Yoshiki Hayashi}}'s (and occasionally other fans') Website/{{Twitter}} postings.
* [[Music/BackstreetBoys Aaron Carter]], and Creator/AmyPoehler for Music/BoneThugsNHarmony if you believe that.

* Music/{{Devo}} can count Music/{{Korn}} as fans to the point that Korn considers itself Devo's SpiritualSuccessor. Music/{{Devo}} in turn are fans of Music/{{Kraftwerk}}.

* 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 achievement award, and the Scissor Sisters saying the band were the reason they got into music in the first place.

** 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 singlehandedly launching the solo career of frontman Music/IggyPop), 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.

* 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". Kurt Cobain 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.

* 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. 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]].

* Hugo Chavez, former President / Dictator (depending on who you ask) 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.

** 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 OCs 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.

** 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 singlehandedly launching the solo career of frontman Music/IggyPop), but also acts that were more obscure at the time, most notably Music/ThePixies.

*** A controversial one, no less, courtesy of [[RuleThirtyFour artistic]] [[{{Guro}} career]]. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement More shall not be stated.]]

* 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 and counting to try and make a [[Film/AlitaBattleAngel movie adaption]].

* Series/TheDailyShow host Creator/JonStewart (1999–present) is a fan of the New York Mets.

* 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 happ
ened, 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.

* Creator/SethMeyers loves comics. His twitter avatar has been a picture of him as Ted Kord aka ComicBook/BlueBeetle drawn by Kevin Maguire since 2010. He regularly has comics talents like Creator/AlexRoss, Creator/BrianMichaelBendis, Creator/GeoffJohns, and Creator/TomKing on ''Series/Late Night'' which is almost unheard of on other late night shows.

* Creator/SethMeyers loves comics. His twitter avatar has been a picture of him as Ted Kord aka ComicBook/BlueBeetle drawn by Kevin Maguire since 2010. He regularly has comics talents like Creator/AlexRoss, Creator/BrianMichaelBendis, Creator/GeoffJohns, and Creator/TomKing on ''Late Night''. He and Creator/BillHader even wrote a Franchise/SpiderMan comic together in 2009, called ''The Short Halloween'', a play on ComicBook/TheLongHalloween.

* 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.

** Sean T. Collins, author of Boiled Leather, and a noted critic of television, comics, and genre storytelling became known for his Feast[=/=]Dance, his fan-created reading order of ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'' and ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'' that merges the TwoLinesNoWaiting nature of Books 4 and 5 into an interlinked reading order by which the timeline of the narrative makes sense.

* Among the fans of ''Manga/BirdyTheMighty'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpiBaKiYcdE is]] director Creator/ZackSnyder, who cited it as an influence for a sequence in ''Film/ManOfSteel'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=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''.]]

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzzzQPsehwU As revealed in this video]], Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and the late Creator/RobinWilliams are also fans of the book.

* 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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f16gSeryPrI&feature=youtu.be in one of their official promos.]]
* Kerry, who sometimes goes by Veritas, created [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=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."

* Music/AlessiaCara (of "Here" fame) can count among her fans none other than Music/TaylorSwift, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXtzbcjUoH4 who eventually interviewed her]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cp2K0efXdY for Yahoo Music.]]

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

** 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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBESnvjZGt8&ob=av3e live-action trailer]] and she's become a symbol for [[FanNickname FemShep]] within the fandom.

* Since not long after it was announced and released, the ''VideoGame/JurassicWorldEvolution'' fandom has been dominated by YouTuber Best In Slot, who covered the game's development frequently on his 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.

* ''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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=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.

* Since not long after it was announced and released, [[VideoGame/JurassicWorldEvolution]]'s fandom has been dominated by BestInSlot, who covered the game's development frequently on his 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.

* 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 DinosaurMan, 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]].