History Main / YoungFutureFamousPeople

* ''Film/{{Backbeat}}'' portrays Music/TheBeatles in their Hamburg era, and focuses on tragically doomed Stu Sutcliff and his romance with Astrid Kirchherr (a solid performance by a young Sheryl Lee).

* While most of the performing bands on the '60s-set ''Series/AmericanDreams'' were already famous, one episode did featured an audition from an unknown, teenaged Linda Ronstadt (played by pop singer Jojo).

* The first season of ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' features some of the most infamous gangsters in American history like UsefulNotes/AlCapone, Charlie 'Lucky' Luciano and Meyer Lansky in 1920 at the beginning of the Prohibition, a decade or so before they reach the heights of their infamy. At the time all three are either minor underlings or enforcers for more influential gangsters, and all three are treated with no special attention until either their name is revealed or they introduce themselves.

** A recurring character in season 1 is Ernest Hemmingway, who's a local newspaper reporter in Toronto.

* ''Series/TheGoldbergs'' features the recurring character David Sirota, based on one of Adam Goldberg's real life childhood friends. By the time the show started airing, Sirota had become famous as Bernie Sanders' speechwriter and a political commentator. Narration during the character's first appearance points out Sirota's fame as an adult and with a clip of the real Sirota on ''Series/TheColbertReport''.
* ''Series/TheGreat'': UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat is much younger here (20) than when she took power in real life (40s), but the series fast tracks the buildup to the coup.

** In one season six episode, the Wright Brothers are interviewed (offscreen) three years prior to the Kitty Hawk flight, while UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill -- at the time newly famous for his actions in, and accounts of, the [[UsefulNotes/TheSecondBoerWar Boer War]] -- is a murder suspect in another episode.

** The episode "Murdoch and the Tramp" has Murdoch investigating a murder in a touring vaudeville company that includes Creator/CharlieChaplin, his then-understudy [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy Stan Laurel]] and a ''very'' young Creator/BusterKeaton. Crabtree inadvertantly invents the "little tramp" character, and Murdoch does an accidental ByWallThatIsHoley gag, which Keaton is impressed by.

** In one episode, Julia is impressed by one of Brackenreid's landscape paintings and enters it in a contest. After the painting is stolen for its frame and recovered, Brackenreid sells it to a young man who identifies himself as [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Thomson Tom Thomson]], a Canadian artist associated with the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Seven_(artists) Group of Seven]] whose most productive period spanned from 1914 to 1917 (more than a decade in the future in-universe).

** At a party in Virginia, Claire is wowed to meet a former British colonel named George Washington.
* This happens from time to time in ''Series/QuantumLeap'', due to Sam [[BeenThereShapedHistory just having amazing luck]]. For example, on one occasion, he meets a nerdy teenager named Creator/StephenKing. Bigger list [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Leap_(TV_series)#Brushes_with_History on Wikipedia]].

* ''Series/TheSpy'': Of all of construction magnate Mohammed bin Laden's 56 children, of course it's a young Osama who makes a brief appearance.
* Being a show about TimeTravel, ''Series/{{Timeless}}'' is bound to hit this trope once or twice. Although, for the most part, historical figures tend to be shown when already famous. A notable example is Creator/IanFleming during his time as a spy during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, years before he writes his ''Literature/JamesBond'' novels. Wyatt (fans of the books) and Rufus (fan of the films) are practically gushing about working with "James Bond". Their adventure also ends up inspiring a new book about Bond that also makes its way onto the big screen. Oh, and Fleming makes moves on Lucy, although she refuses to become a [[GirlOfTheWeek Bond Girl]].

* ''Series/TheTudors'' has the future Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Edward VI as supporting characters.
* ''Series/{{Vikings}}'' does this constantly. Side characters include [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollo Rollo of Normandy]], who begins the series as an enormously badass but unsophisticated warrior with vague and unrealistic dreams of greatness, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B6rn_Ironside Bjorn Ironside]], who would go on to sack cities as far away as Italy, first shows up as an 11 year old who tries to talk his parents out of domestic squabbling, and later we have the rest of Ragnar Lodbrok's famous/infamous sons like Ivar the Boneless and Ubba, who would nearly conquer all of England for the Northmen, as cute little kids.
* This is a staple of ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'', where a young Indiana Jones meets various celebrities of the early 1900s and 1910s. Some of them already famous during his lifetime, others who would only become world famous in later decades, such as UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, Creator/FranzKafka, T.E. Lawrence, Kemal Ataturk, etc. The most extreme example of this being a 6 year old boy Indy saves from a plague-striken village in the Congo named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barthélemy_Boganda Barthélemy Boganda]].

* In a music video released to promote "Is This Love", a song from Music/BobMarley's ''[[Music/KayaBobMarleyAlbum Kaya]]'' one of the children singing and dancing with Bob is a seven year old Naomi Campbell. Yes, the famous supermodel!

* A five year old Leonardo da Vinci is a minor character in ''ComicStrip/SafeHavens'', who occasionally appeared with his mother Maria, the two of them being time travelers. [[spoiler:He's also the grandson of leads Samantha and Dave.]]

* More like not-yet-born famous people in case of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', through the vision of Banquo's descendants as kings in Act 4. Especially the eighth wearing a double crown, who is supposed to be King James I of England, who was, incidentally, Shakespeare's own patron.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezGunslinger'': at the end of the game, the teenage boy listening to Silas' story turns out to be UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower.
* ''VideoGame/Europe1200'' features a young [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi Francis of Assisi]] (prior to his spiritual conversion) as a hirable party member.

* In ''Webcomic/TheDreamer'', a young Alexander Hamilton is a supporting character in the series, as well as Nathan Hale, since he technically became famous posthumously. Benjamin Tallmadge also makes an appearance.

** In "Gone Abie Gone", Grandpa Simpson worked as a busboy in New York City in the early 1970s alongside a young Music/MarvinHamlisch ([[AsHimself played by Hamlisch himself]], airing three months after he'd passed away)

* In ''WesternAnimation/FIsForFamily'', during a Memorial Day parade Frank has to deal with a little brat who is revealed to be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer Jeffry Dahmer]].

*** A side quest has Arno solve murder cases with the help of a young StreetUrchine named Eugène François Vidocq, who would go on to become the father of modern criminology.

*** A side quest has Arno solve murder cases with the help of a young petty criminal. That criminal turns out to be Eugène François Vidocq, who would go on to become the father of modern criminology.

*** A side quest has Arno solve murder cases with the help of a young petty criminal. That criminal turns out to be Eugène François Vidocq, who would go on the become the father of modern criminology.

** And ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity'' gives us [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte a certain young commander whose military career is on the rise...]]

* ''Literature/OonaOutOfOrder: In 1991 Oona and her friends go dancing at the Pyramid, and she spots Lady Bunny and Creator/RuPaul. She is tempted to tell them that they will be famous in the future, but figures they probably knew already.

* ''Film/TheNativityStory'' takes this UpToEleven with most of the movie being about what happened to UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} while He was still an ''unborn baby''. The film's climax is [[AwayInAManger His birth]], making Him a very young future famous person indeed.

** Amateur painter Brackenreid sells one of his landscapes to a young [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Thomson Tom Thomson]] a decade or so before his rise to fame.

** Followed a few episodes later by a pre-fame [[Creator/LMMontgomery Lucy Maud Montgomery]] attending Crabtree's writing classes.

** Subverted with the appearance of a young UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, as he's ''already'' famous for his war journalism and is treated as a celebrity in-universe.
** In one episode, Julia is impressed by one of Brackenreid's landscape paintings and enters it in a contest. After the painting is stolen for its frame and recovered, Brackenreid sells it to a young man who identifies himself as [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Thomson Tom Thomson]], a Canadian artist associated with the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Seven_(artists) Group of Seven]] whose most productive period spanned from 1914 to 1917 (more than a decade in the future in-universe).
** A young Creator/MaryPickford appears in "A Merry Murdoch Christmas" acting in a production of ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl'' and doing charitable work around Toronto.
** Followed a few episodes later by a pre-fame [[Creator/LMMontgomery Lucy Maud Montgomery]] attending Crabtree's writing classes.

* ''ComicBook/MyFriendDahmer'' depicts Jeffrey Dahmer, an American SerialKiller during his high school years. The reason being that it's actually based on real witnesses from the author Derf, who went at the same school as Dahmer.

* ''Manga/AfterschoolCharisma'' is basically ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' [[RecycledINSPACE IN JAPAN]] (and not quite so wacky). It's got teenage clone versions of Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, Einstein, UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud...

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents'' episode Father Time, it appears Timmy's predecessor under the Fairy God Parents was a bespectacled boy named Billy. After Present Cosmo and Wanda show that computers displaying lava lamps on the screen are more entertaining than actual Lava Lamps to the Past Cosmo and Wanda, Billy passes by and mentions the idea of having all computers connected through something called "The Internet", but Present Cosmo tells him it should be called "The Timmy". Past Wanda then mentions little Billy Gates (Bill Gates) has the craziest ideas. It does end up being called The Timmy, and his name changes to Internet.

-->'''Fry:''' Oh man, I have ''got'' to go back to law school.

* ''VideoGame/ExpeditionsRome'' has the player meeting a friendly young man, one Gaius Julius Caesar, at the beginning of the story. [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted, as it turns out that this game is an AlternateHistory in which Caesar is killed during the Mithridatic War. This version of Caesar will never get the chance to become Pontifex Maximus, conquer Gaul, or become Dictator for Life. The PlayerCharacter, on the other hand...]]

* While most of the performing bands on the '60s-set ''Series/AmericanDreams'' were already famous, one episode did featured an audition from a unknown, teenaged Linda Ronstadt (played by pop singer Jojo).

* The first season of ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' features gangsters like UsefulNotes/AlCapone, Charlie 'Lucky' Luciano and Meyer Lansky in 1920 at the beginning of the Prohibition. They will not reach the height of their infamy for at least another decade.

* A creepier version happens in ''Series/ForeverKnight''. During a flashback, Lacroix is sitting on a train next to an unshaven German soldier returning from [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne the western front]] after the cease-fire. He seriously considers turning him and comes within seconds of taking a bite as he is shaving, but something tells him that adding vampirism to the darkness he already sensed in his soul would be a Bad Idea... just as the soldier turns around to reveal ''that'' [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler moustache]]. Which is a bit of an inaccuracy as photos of Hitler show that he had a handlebar moustache when he was younger.
** Not to mention that Hitler was in a military hospital in Northeast Germany, hundreds of miles from the Western Front when he heard of the November Revolution and the armistice.

* ''Film/AKnightsTale'' has Creator/GeoffreyChaucer as a freelance SmartGuy with a gambling problem. Ends with an IShouldWriteABookAboutThis.

* On the show ''Do Over'', the main character loses a baseball game to a young Greg Maddux.

* This is a staple of ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'', where a young Indiana Jones meets various celebrities of the early 1900s and 1910s. Some of them already famous during his lifetime, others who would only become world famous in later decades, such as UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, Creator/FranzKafka, T.E. Lawrence, Kemal Ataturk, etc. The most extreme example of this being a 6 year old boy Indy saves from a plague-striken village in the Congo named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barth%C3%A9lemy_Boganda Barthelemy Boganda]].

* This is a staple of ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'', where a young Indiana Jones meets various celebrities of the early 1900s and 1910s. Some of them already famous during his lifetime, others who would only become world famous in later decades, such as UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, Creator/FranzKafka, T.E. Lawrence, Kemal Ataturk and a 6 year old boy he saved from a plague-striken village in the Congo named Barthelemy Boganda, first president of the Central African Republic.

** In another episode, [[ComicBook/{{Firestorm}} Martin Stein]] cures a young boy of tuberculosis using modern medicine. The boy's name? [[Creator/HGWells Herbert George Wells]].