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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"My entire career has been a secret plan to get this job. I applied before but I got knocked back because the BBC wanted someone else. Also, I was seven."''|'''[[Steven Moffat]]''', upon being named lead writer/producer for '''''[[
Some fans have all the luck. Somehow they've managed to be a part of the very
Compare [[Ascended Fanboy]] (a fan [[In
As noted in the ''[[
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]] ==▼
== Multimedia Franchises with Multiple Examples ==
* A lot of folks who appear on ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' get roles because they are big fans of the show(s).▼
** ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Film)|Star Trek the Motion Picture]]'' had a scene where a lot of fans were used as extras. The unions really complained about this one.▼
▲* A lot of folks who appear on ''[[
* Ronald Moore arranged a tour of the ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' set through his girlfriend and managed to pass a script to one of [[Gene Roddenberry]]'s assistants while there. By the show's final season, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|he was head writer]].▼
▲** ''[[Star Trek: The
▲* Ronald Moore arranged a tour of the ''[[Star Trek:
** And now, he's made [[Battlestar Galactica|his own sci-fi series]].
* The entire role of Guinan was created because Whoopi Goldberg was a ''[[Star Trek:
* [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Gabriel_Koerner Gabriel Koerner], amateur 3d artist and ''huge'' Trek fan was interviewed for the documentary ''Trekkies'' in 1997. Fast forward eight years, and he was working on the CGI team for the fourth season of ''[[Star Trek
* [[Bryan Singer]] revealed to [[Patrick Stewart]] that he was a ''Trek'' fan, and therefore Stewart arranged for him a quick cameo in ''[[Star Trek
* Allegedly when Paramount learned Tyler Perry, of Madea fame, was a ''Trek'' fan, they got him a guest appearance in [[Star Trek (
** This is also how [[Zachary Quinto]] who plays Sylar on ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' got the part of young Spock in the new movie.
** It is very possible that this is part of the '''reason''' the new movie was made. Writer Roberto Orci considers himself quite the hardcore Trekkie.
* [
* Karl Urban was a hardcore Trekkie growing up. He was cast as Dr. McCoy in the [[Star Trek (
* [[Simon Pegg]] is also a major fan of Trek, and he has said that he was placed in the [[Star Trek (
{{quote|
* Jolene Blalock (T'Pol of ''[[Star Trek
* In his book "Worlds of Wonder" writer David Gerrold states he was one of these already during the show's original run.
* [[Seth
* [[Seinfeld|Jason Alexander]] has credited [[William Shatner]] for him wanting to be an actor and watched the original series growing up. He guest starred in an episode of ''[[Star Trek
* [[Dwight Schultz]] was a big fan of Star
* Tim Russ, most famous for his role as Lieutenant Tuvok in ''[[Star Trek
* Almost happened to [[Tom Hanks]], yet another long-time Trekkie, who auditioned for the role of Zephram Cochrane in ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]''. He was very disappointed when the role went to [[James Cromwell]].
=== ''[[Star Wars]]'' ===▼
▲== [[Star Wars]] ==
* [[Mark Hamill]] was a comics and sci-fi fan before playing the part of Luke Skywalker and becoming a voice actor for characters like [[The Joker]].
* Ryan Weiber, one of the creators of the popular ''[[Star Wars]]'' fanfilms "Ryan Vs Dorkman". While he doesn't work for George Lucas or ILM, he ''did'' work for LucasGames for a time; currently he is doing special effects work in Hollywood, notably on ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''.
** His partner, Michael Scott, is also a budding filmmaker.
* Matt Sloan, the voice of [[Chad Vader]] on the YouTube series by the same name, was eventually noticed for his uncanny impression of Darth Vader and eventually landed a role as Darth Vader himself in various video game spinoffs of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' franchise, specifically ''[[The Force Unleashed]]'', the ''[[Empire At War]]'' expansion, and Vader's [[Guest Fighter]] appearance in ''[[Soul Series|Soulcalibur IV]]''. And later having Vader act as the Banker (albeit staying visible) in a ''[[Deal or No Deal]]'' special.
* After making ''Troops'', Kevin Rubio went on to write ''Star Wars'' comics, and now is working on episodes of ''[[Star Wars:
* Steve Sansweet, who has the largest personal collection of ''Star Wars'' related material in the world, was eventually hired by Lucasfilm itself to be their Director of Content Management and Head of Fan Relations, a position he held from 1996 until 2011.
* Hayden Christensen always was interested in Darth Vader in his childhood. In ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'' the original intention was to have a large stuntman in the Vader suit but Christensen convinced them to build the suit for him and use various camera tricks to make him appear to be the 6'8" David Prowse size. When he strolled onto the set clad in Vader armor, the crew cheered.
* In 2005-2008, Star Wars fan club members competed to write databank entries for obscure characters that weren't covered previously, or covered very slightly. The winning writers of the entries were then rewarded with having their ideas be a part of Star Wars canon.
** And it got even better for some. As of June 2009, three of those authors were later hired by the company to write short fiction stories for the website.
* In 2003 a fan named Ara Roselani [https://web.archive.org/web/20130716053217/http://public.fotki.com/Kait/star_wars/tim_zahn_booksigning/thrawntim.html met] [[Timothy Zahn]] at a convention. She was cosplaying as the Chiss Admiral Thrawn in his white uniform, and they became friends. When Zahn wrote [[Outbound Flight]] he included the character [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ar%27alani Ar'alani], a female Chiss admiral in a white uniform.
* It's no secret that [[Seth Green]] is a big fan (prime evidence: ''[[Robot Chicken]]''). He recently voiced a one-off character in season two of ''[[Star Wars:
** His character has reappeared twice in season three, despite being killed in his original appearance, due to the non-linear nature of many of season three's episodes, and his character being the sidekick to [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] Cad Bane.
* Most, if not all, of the [[Star Wars:
* Curtis Saxton, physics PhD and writer of the infamous ''Star Wars'' Technical Commentaries, a ''very'' extensive site meant to figure out how the physics of the universe worked, was hired as a technical advisor for the prequels and eventually wrote some of the various ''Incredible Cross-Sections'' books, giving the ''Star Wars'' fans a '''massive''' edge in the [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny|Star Wars vs. Star Trek debates]] in the process.
** They have come under fire, however. Particularly when Gary Sarli, [[Star Wars]] RPG writer and fellow scientist and ''Star Wars'' aficionado, pointed out the huge inconsistencies that went into making the books, specifically how Saxton's calculations for the Base Delta Zero command underestimated the number of ships involved by at least an order of magnitude, the amount of time required by at least an order of magnitude, and overestimated the thoroughness of the attack by about 3 orders of magnitude. Then he used these massively inflated numbers for the basis for almost everything else.
* Modi is the pseudonym for a Hungarian fan who had been making unofficial maps of the Star Wars galaxy for years. When Lucasfilm decided to publish ''The Essential Atlas'', they hired him to make some draft maps that professional artists would finish. His work ended up being such high quality that they scrapped the "professional artists" plan and just used his maps as is.
* [[
=== ''[[Doctor Who]]'' ===▼
{{quote|
▲== [[Doctor Who]] ==
* Matthew Waterhouse had been a ''[[
▲{{quote| Since ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' has been running since 1963 (hiatus not withstanding), there's an entire ''generation'' of people who loved the show enough to be considered fans and work their way into the industry and onto the staff. Some of the more recent fans were even born after the show had started running. Though some of them also ended up [[Running the Asylum]].}}
* [[David Tennant]]. He has said that it was because of ''[[
▲* Matthew Waterhouse had been a ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' fan before he got the role of [[The Scrappy|Adric]] and had a letter published in an early issue of ''[[Doctor Who Magazine (Magazine)|Doctor Who Magazine]]'' (before getting the part).
▲* [[David Tennant]]. He has said that it was because of ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' and particularly, [[Peter Davison]]'s performance as the Fifth Doctor that he wanted to ''be'' the Doctor. He even got into acting specifically to play the Doctor. In 2007, Tennant appeared as the Tenth Doctor and in the special episode "[[Doctor Who (TV)/2007 Ci NS Time Crash/Recap|Time Crash]]", [[Peter Davison]] guest starred as the Fifth Doctor, with the Tenth Doctor met his earlier self. Promoted Fanboy in the extreme!
** Indeed, that special is really little more than an excuse for David Tennant to gush at how much he loves Peter Davison, while they're both in character. At one point, the 5th Doctor takes a close look at the 10th and laments "Oh no. You're a ''fan''!" Near the end, the 10th tells the 5th that he "was [his] Doctor."
** And now that Tennant has married Georgia Moffett -- [[Peter Davison]]'s daughter, who also had a role as the Tenth Doctor's "daughter" in one
** Tennant, like everyone else, loved Sarah Jane Smith. Not only did he get to work with [[Elisabeth Sladen]] during "School Reunion," but he got to be the one to give her the heart-melting "Goodbye, my Sarah Jane," that Sarah Jane waited decades for.
*** Building off of Tennant's promotion? The Fifth Doctor, [[Peter Davison]] himself, was ''also'' this - having been a massive fan of the Second Doctor's run on the series. That's right, the Second Doctor crafted the Fifth Doctor, who in turn crafted the Tenth Doctor. Expect another Doctor in about 20 to 30 years based on Tennant...
*** Sixth Doctor [[Colin Baker]] is ''also'' a big fan of ''Doctor Who'' before and after his run - and ''still watches the show'' to this day.. He still is, and has gone on record saying that ''[[Doctor Who
*** Inverted with [[Matt Smith]], who became a hardcore fan '''while''' playing the role. Watching the Second Doctor influenced his costume choice (particularly the bowtie), and he apparently wrote a fanfic where the Doctor meets [[Albert Einstein]]. He also apparently called up Steven Moffat in the middle of the night to rave about "[[Doctor Who
* [[John Barrowman]] was also a big fan and also describes himself as an [[Otaku]].
* [[Russell T. Davies]], the ex-lead writer and ex-producer of the new series, was also a tremendous fan and had actually sent in scripts during the show's original run. For years he'd stated that the only reason he would return to working for [[The BBC]] was if they were to start up ''Doctor Who'' again and let him run it. He also seems to have a knack for pulling in other ''Who'' fans to work on the revived series.
* [[Douglas Adams]] was a huge ''[[
* There's a reason there's a [[Steven Moffat]] quote at the top of this page.
* Many of the people writing for the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] and the revival television series had an involvement with the AudioVisuals fan audios series starring Nicholas Briggs as his version of the Doctor. One of the more prominent AudioVisuals creators, Gary Russell (who had auditioned by the part of Adric), has script edited for the [[Whoniverse]] shows and Briggs has voiced the Daleks, Cybermen and sundry other monsters (in both the new series and [[Big Finish Doctor Who]], the latter of which he is also the executive producer of) and appeared in person in ''[[
* [[Neil Gaiman]] described writing "[[Doctor Who
* [[Mark Gatiss]] is the only person to have the distinction of having written for every "New Who" Doctor ''and'' having appeared on the show as an actor twice. If you count Big Finish audios, he has written for seven Doctors, and he's also the only person to play both the Doctor and the Master.
* [[Derek Jacobi]], who, when he played the Master in the episode "Utopia", announced being in ''Doctor Who'' was one of his two unfulfilled ambitions. (The other was being in ''[[Coronation Street]]''.)
=== ''[[Transformers]]'' ===▼
▲== [[Transformers]] ==
* [[Brad Swaile]], who voiced Kicker in ''[[Transformers Energon]]'', is a fan of ''[[Transformers]]'' and was eager to get a role on the series. [[Creator's Pet|Tough luck, Brad]].
* In something between this and [[Running the Asylum]]: Derrick J. Wyatt, the lead ''character designer'' of ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', is also a huge ''Transformers'' fan.
* Random sector locations in ''[[
* There's also Hirofumi Ichikawa, who started off writing [[Fanfic|doujinshi]] and was particularly influential in introducing Japanese fans to the original portrayals of the ''[[
* David Willis, author of the ''[[Walkyverse]]'' [[Web Comic|web comics]], is another long-time ''Transformers'' fan, who has been hired by Hasbro to produce convention art. He also got to create [[Transformers: Shattered Glass|Shattered Glass]] Ravage, who has become a canon character.
* Matt Tieger, the director of the ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron]]'' series, is a big Transformers fan, in particular of the Dinobot Grimlock. So strong is his admiration for the character that [https://web.archive.org/web/20121022165329/http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/4/24/2962458/grimlock-high-moon-dinobots-transformers-cybertron-activision he convinced Hasbro to not scrap the Grimlock so he could include him in the upcoming ''Fall of Cybertron''].
* Josh Nizzi produced a [[Transformers (
* [http://www.bwtf.com/ Benson Yee], a [[Big Name Fan]] in the community, was approached on usenet by the ''[[
** He was also name-dropped (by his internet handle) in at least one episode.
{{quote|
* Shane McCarthy, a [[Small Name, Big Ego|small name writer]] and another asylum runner was hired by IDW publishing to take over the ''Transformers'' comic series from veteran Simon Furman. However, he did not have Wyatt's popularity, mostly due to his writing and the attitude he shows when someone critiques his work. [[Your Mileage May Vary|YMMV]], though especially if you have a [[Nostalgia Filter]] or you like [[Darker and Edgier]] stuff since his story is essentially a grimmer, [[Decompressed Comic]] version of the [[The Transformers (
* Nick Roche and James Roberts are a pair of UK ''Transformers'' fans who became co-writers (with Roche also doing art) for IDW's ''Transformers'' comics. Their latest collaboration, ''[[Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers]]'', has been very well received, especially since they have much more fan-friendly [[Running the Asylum|asylum-running]] tendencies than McCarthy.
* Brazilian voice actor Guilherme Briggs was a ''Transformers'' fan in his childhood, and later dubbed Optimus Primal in ''[[
* During the Dreamwave Comics period, a lot of Transformers fan-artists were hired to work on the comics, apparently [[Made a Slave|out of love]] for the series. That didn't go [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&col=1&old=1&column=litg&article=2102 quite well]. Most [[Doing It for
* Joe Hahn, turntablist and music video director for [[Linkin Park]], is well known to be a fan of the series - Transformers can be found Hahn's DJ booths on stage and even some of the band's cover art. [[
=== ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' ===▼
▲== [[Kamen Rider]] ==
* Masahiro Inoue, the lead actor in ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'', is a long-time ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' fan, especially ''[[Kamen Rider Black|Black]]'' and ''[[Kamen Rider Black RX|Black RX]]'' (Hell, he's even part of the franchise's [[Periphery Demographic]] both before and after ''Decade''). When Decade's journey took him to Black RX's World, Inoue made a blog post in which he effectively geeked out over the entire situation.
** Inoue's co-star Ryouta Murai got this quite literally. As a child he was a huge fan of ''[[Kamen Rider Kuuga]]''; jump ahead nine years, and he gets to '''be''' Kuuga (well, an [[Alternate Universe]] incarnation of the character) in ''Decade''.
*** ''Decade'' promoted another long-time fan, pop musician [[Gackt]], by giving him the role of [[Badass Normal]] [[Kamen Rider V 3|Joji Yuki, AKA Riderman]] in ''All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker''; he even appears in-character in the music video for the film's theme song, "The Next Decade".
* [[Yoko Honna]], better known as the [[Bottle Fairy]] [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00
* Steve Wang and his brother Mike Wang are avid ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' fans, particularly of the Showa era television series. Then in 2009 they became the co-executive producers, writers, and directors of ''[[Kamen Rider Dragon Knight]]''. Steve himself stated in an interview that producing ''Kamen Rider Dragon Knight'' was a dream come true for him.
* Renn Kiriyama, the lead actor in ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'', is like his predecessors a huge ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' fan. Specifically, he's a fan of ''[[Kamen Rider Black|Black]]'', {{spoiler|which might explain why Kamen Rider Joker, his character's solo Rider form, performs poses and finishing moves just like Black.}}
* Keisuke Kato was also this, he is a big Kamen Rider fan and landed the role of Kamen Rider IXA in [[Kamen Rider Kiva]] as [[The Danza|Keisuke Nago]].
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* Many, possibly the majority, of well-known mangaka got their start writing doujinshi; typically starting with fan-fic before moving on to original work. Notable examples below.
* CLAMP, creators of ''[[
* [[Azuma Koyohiko]], creator of ''[[
* Eiichiro Oda, author of ''[[One Piece]]'', was a massive ''[[
* Shiori Teshirogi, the author who writes the ''[[Saint Seiya]]: The Lost Canvas'' manga, is actually a [[Shoujo]] author who once met Kurumada. ''Saint Seiya'' was always her favorite series and she jumped at the chance of making a new story when Kurumada pitched the idea to her, and what was originally thought to end up being a rather brief series has exploded in popularity. To put it simply, she is writing a non-canon doujin, getting ''paid'' for it, ''and'' getting an OVA deal for it. Not bad for someone's first [[Shonen]] story.
* [[Shoji Kawamori]] was an aeronautical engineer who had a family member on ''[[Macross]]'' production crew. Apparently he has an addiction to those little wooden Mensa puzzles that are all about compressing multiple components into objects with much smaller external surface areas. When toy companies realized he "had a gift" most designers still can't do elegantly today (IE: transformations tuck limbs against the body and end up looking blocky), he was making more selling transforming robot designs than he was in the very dry aerospace business. Needless to say, he works as a [[Humongous Mecha]] designer now.
* Some actors in anime dubbing were [[Anime]] fans before getting work as [[Voice Actors]], including [[Greg Ayres]], [[Caitlin Glass]], and [[Crispin Freeman]].
** Hell, [[ADV Films]] was ''founded'' by anime fans who promoted ''themselves''.
** These days, fandub [[Big Name Fan|BNFs]] like [[Cristina Valenzuela]] are part of anime dubbing casts - sometimes [[
** And talking on fandub, it also has happened on [[Latin Land|Latin America]], most especially in Chile.
*** ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'' anyone? Dubbed by fandubbers-gone-pro!
*** ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''? Hey, that one too!
*** ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''? The same girl fan-dubbed the opening (and of course [[No Export for You|it hasn't been broadcasted officially]], but...)
** Rather subverted by good ol' [[Vic Mignogna]] (alias the number-one fan of [[Fullmetal Alchemist|Ed Elric]]). [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Don't ever dare to call him "shorty"]].
*** Though he plays the trope straight in a different
** Ultra-famous seiyuu [[Takehito Koyasu]] is a long-time ''[[
*** Likewise, [[Kei Shindou]] was a [[Cosplay Otaku Girl]] before she became a seiyuu.
* After holding panels at some conventions and posting some essays on the Internet, ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' fanboy Sean McCoy was invited by [[ADV Films]] to record some of the commentaries for the Platinum release of the series, giving him three full episodes and two special feature segments to share his [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|incredibly elaborate theories]] (some might say [[Fan Wank|ridiculously]] [[Epileptic Trees|elaborate]]) about the meaning behind the show's abstract symbolism alongside ADV honcho and English dub director [[Matt Greenfield]]. Strangely, after this "promotion", he has barely been heard from again.
** Along similar lines, self-proclaimed "Eva Monkey" Taliesin Jaffe co-recorded commentaries for ''Death & Rebirth'' and ''The End of Evangelion'' alongside dub director, writer and voice actress [[Amanda Winn
** [[Mike McFarland]], ADR director for the English dubs of the ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'' films, was a fan of the series for the better part of a decade before he had a chance to actually work on it.
* The HeartGold/SoulSilver miniarc in ''[[Pokémon (
* Mark Simmons and Keith Rhee, two [[Big Name Fan
* [[Studio Gainax]], who got their start by producing a well-known pair of independent anime shorts (the DAICON III and IV Opening Animations) for a Japanese science fiction convention in 1981 and 1983.
* Lianne Sentar had been writing over 3,000 stories of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' [[Fan Fiction]] since she was 13. She was hired to write the [[Tokyo Pop]] novel adaptations distributed in North America for only this reason.
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* [[Gackt]] (already mentioned under ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' above) is also a huge ''[[Gundam]]'' fan, having contributed the theme song to the long-dead theme park attraction "Gundam the Ride: A Baoa Qu", recording a remix of "Ai Senshi" from the original series, and even [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|getting a concert audience to chant "Sieg Zeon!" by delivering Garma Zabi's funeral speech from memory]]. In 2010 he finally got to join the ''Gundam'' universe proper by voicing ex-, the [[Original Generation]] [[Final Boss]] of ''[[Gundam vs. Series|Gundam Extreme Vs.]]''
== Audio Dramas ==▼
* Simon Pegg is a big fan of the ''[[Strontium Dog]]'' comics, and got to voice Johnny in the CD adaptations.▼
==
* [[Nicolas Cage]] is a HUGE ''[[Ghost Rider]]'' fan, who's always wanted to portray the character (he even has him tattooed on his arm). [[Ghost Rider (
** [[Squick
* [[Kevin Smith]] is probably the best known promoted fanboy on the planet. The sheer amount of knowledge he has about comics (and in turn how many he's written) is evidence enough.
* Ian "Potto" Flynn. Current writer for the [[Sonic the Hedgehog (
* Mark Gruenwald. He was a lifetime ''[[Justice League]]'' fanboy who spent his whole career at Marvel. Though he didn't create the Justice League [[Captain Ersatz|analogue]] ''[[Squadron Supreme]]'', he did write their highly-acclaimed limited series.
* Jim Shooter started writing ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' when he was 13. He's been in the industry ever since, including becoming Marvel's editor-in-chief.
* [[Don Rosa]]. Like so many people of his age he was a big fan of "[[Carl Barks|The Good Duck Artist]]". While he didn't get any education in art or narration, he wrote and painted [[Donald Duck]] series for various fanzines, as well as several LTE:s. He even corresponded to Carl Barks himself from time to time. After a new publishing company got the license to make Donald Duck comics, Don Rosa applied for the job as an artist by sending in a mail. He wrote that he was born to make new Donald Duck stories in the spirit of the old Carl Barks comics. He got the job, added some massive [[Continuity Porn]] to the series (against Barks' wishes) and dedicated all his stories to Carl Barks.
* E. Nelson Bridwell of pre-''[[
* Mark Waid. [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=9076 This is his studio.]
** Gruenwald, Bridwell and Shooter are some of Waid's major influences.
* [[Geoff Johns]] first suggested to DC that Superboy should be a clone of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor [http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/3055/geoffjohnslu2.png in a fan letter as a kid]. Now he's basically DC's #1 writer and the man behind some of their most successful books and events as well as the company's Chief Creative Officer.
* Tristan Huw Jones was a huge fan of the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage
* Dave Gibbons was a fan of ''[[Dan Dare]]'' as a child. When ''Dan Dare'' was [[Revival|revived]] by ''[[
* And of course, the fathers of the superhero genre, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were reportedly huge, stereotypical nerds in love with science fiction, and with their creation, they ushered in that subgenre of sci-fi/fantasy.
* [[Joss Whedon]] was a fan of ''[[Runaways]]'' long before he got to write his own arc, and was rather vocally upset at the idea of it ending at 18 issues: the letter he sent was included in the first TPB.
{{quote|
* Gerard Way (of [[My Chemical Romance]] and ''[[The Umbrella Academy]]'') interned at DC before he was in a band, and used to see [[Grant Morrison]] come into the offices on occasion (and [[Word of God|marveled at how he dressed like]] [[The Invisibles|King Mob]]). Several years later, Morrison is name-dropping "The Black Parade" and playing the villian in the band's music videos.
* Matt Frank, an artist who was known for his popular [[Godzilla]] Neo fanart, is now doing writing and artwork for offical Godzilla comics.
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* Andrew Garfield is a lifelong ''Spider-man'' fan and credits the character with being his inspiration. His co-star in ''The Amazing Spider-man'' Rhys Ifans also describes himself as an "Obsessive fan".
* Unlike the previous actors who played the role, [[Superman Returns|Brandon Routh]] is a huge fan of Superman. He even dressed as Superman for halloween a year before and had Superman bed sheets as a child.
* Several people involved in the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] qualify, but [[Samuel L. Jackson]] stands out for the way he got the part of [[Nick Fury]]. Marvel approached him to ask for his likeness rights for the [[Ultimate Marvel]] reimagining of Fury, and Jackson said yes - on the condition that he got first chance to play Fury in a movie.
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* [[Peter Jackson]] started to experiment with special effects as a teenager, inspired by such artists as Willis O'Brien, got all the way to making his own high-budget version of [[King Kong]].
* [[Quentin Tarantino]] - the video store clerk who watched every single movie ever, and then started directing his own [[Shout
* So did [[Robert Rodriguez]], who started with no-budget efforts such as ''Bedhead'' to draw attention, that would help him in making bigger things.
* So did [[Sam Raimi]].
* [[Christopher Lee]] apparently re-
* Tracie Thoms was a [[Rent]][[Fan Community Nickname|head]] in her younger years, and ended up cast as Joanne in the feature film.
* ''[[The
* Famed aviator and industrialist [[Howard Hughes]] was a big fan of movies. So big, in fact, that he bought the film studio RKO Radio Pictures in 1948. Unfortunately for RKO, [[Executive Meddling|love for cinema doesn't necessarily equal being a good studio head]]. Hughes ran RKO into the ground during his seven-year run, firing 75% of the staff in his first few weeks and shutting down production for six months in 1949 in order to [[Red Scare|investigate the politics]] of the remaining 25%. Hughes left RKO in 1955, and the studio went out of business two years later.▼
* As a child, [[Brian Blessed]] used to play ''[[Flash Gordon (
▲* Famed aviator and industrialist Howard Hughes was a big fan of movies. So big, in fact, that he bought the film studio RKO Radio Pictures in 1948. Unfortunately for RKO, [[Executive Meddling|love for cinema doesn't necessarily equal being a good studio head]]. Hughes ran RKO into the ground during his seven-year run, firing 75% of the staff in his first few weeks and shutting down production for six months in 1949 in order to [[Red Scare|investigate the politics]] of the remaining 25%. Hughes left RKO in 1955, and the studio went out of business two years later.
* [[Jim Carrey]] was a [[Batman]] fanboy as a child. In [[The Nineties]], he got to play The Riddler in ''[[Batman Forever]]''.
▲* As a child, [[Brian Blessed]] used to play ''[[Flash Gordon (Comic Strip)|Flash Gordon]]'' with his brother, and used to actually pretend to be Vultan. Then he got to play Vultan in [[Flash Gordon (Film)|the movie]].
**
** United States Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is an avowed fan of Batman, and has since had [[The Cameo|cameos]] in ''[[Batman and Robin (
▲** United States Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is an avowed fan of Batman, and has since had [[The Cameo|cameos]] in ''[[Batman and Robin (Film)|Batman and Robin]]'' and ''[[The Dark Knight]]'': the former as an extra, and the latter as a guest at Bruce Wayne's party who stands up to the Joker. Since he could have been playing himself or an [[Expy]] thereof in ''The Dark Knight'', also counts as [[Politician Guest Star]].
* Noomi Rapace is an admitted fan of the films of Ridley Scott and credited him as an inspiration for her acting career. She would then get the lead role in his film ''Prometheus''.
* AJ LoCascio has been a huge fan of the ''[[Back to The Future]]'' films from when he was a kid. He now gets to voice Marty McFly in the Telltale
* [[Evanna Lynch]] grew up as one of the biggest fans of the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series, even going so far as to name her cats after characters in the books. When she was selected to play Luna Lovegood in
* In November
== Internet ==▼
* The user Avan on the [http://forums.furtopia.org Furtopia forums] - who is also mentioned under the video game folder in the [[Transcendence]] entry - is the likely, and only mentioned, candidate to join the staff in the proposition of taking over the free web-hosting services with his own server, with the only other option being to shut down the web-hosting services.▼
* Jakayrta became Cornova's beta/co-writer after he left a deep review on the first chapter of ''[[Poke Wars]]: The Incipience''.▼
* The Internet is full of this: if you're a fan of a long-standing website, you might be surprised at how many of the administrators and/or writers were once lowly commenters on the same site.▼
== [[Literature]] ==
* Famous author [[Isaac Asimov]] became interested in the [[Science Fiction]] pulp magazines sold in his family's candy stores when he was a child. He began writing when he was eleven, and managed to get published when he was nineteen ("Marooned Off Vesta", 1939).
* [[Michael Moorcock]] became editor of the small UK-based pulp magazine Tarzan Adventures when he was just 16
* [[Brandon Sanderson]] was a huge fanboy of ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', and was picked to finish the series after Robert Jordan's death.
* [[Robert Bloch]], author of ''[[Psycho]],'' started his career with [[
* [[Abigail Breslin]], fan of the [[American Girls Collection]], played the main role in the movie about Kit Kittredge.
* A fair number of Sherlock Holmes fans have gone on to write canonical (or as close to as is possible when the guy who owns the fandom is dead) material that have been published, performed on TV or radio or had some other decent stamp of approval. Working out who was a fan and wasn't is tough since there's a [
* Kingsley Amis was a noted fan of James Bond, writing a number of books on the subject, and finally was asked to write a canon novel for the series. Similarly, Raymond Benson had been fond enough of the series to write unofficial works before approached to write in canon, and eventually contributed six original novels. Notably, Benson ignored much of the earlier continuity.
* Michelle Trachtenberg guest starred in the the episode of ''[[House MD]]'', "Safe". She revealed on the December 22, 2006, episode of ''Late Night With [[Conan O
* Andy Mientus was known for being the creator and maintainer of the first ''[[Spring Awakening]]'' group on Facebook, which had been granted official status. Several years later he was cast in the touring production of the show as Hanschen.▼
* In a recent documentary on [[Little Britain|Matt Lucas]], he mentioned how he had been a lifelong fan of musicals and of [[Les Misérables (Theatre)|Les Miserables]] in particular, and had always wanted to have a part. He was cast as Thenardier for the 25th anniversary concert.▼
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
▲* Michelle Trachtenberg guest starred in the the episode of ''[[House MD]]'', "Safe". She revealed on the December 22, 2006, episode of ''Late Night With [[Conan O Brien]]'' that ''House'' is her favorite show, she is friends with one of the producers and she asked to be a guest star. Trachtenberg also said she has a crush on [[Hugh Laurie]], and during the scene in the elevator in which House searches her genital area for a tick, Trachtenberg said she played a joke on Laurie by putting a note between her legs that read "I Love You."
** She also claims to have been a huge fan of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' before joining the cast as Dawn Summers, and was even quoted gushing to [[Joss Whedon]]: "There was never a ''Buffy'' episode that sucked. I love you!" Joss's response: "So, next season, more Michelle, less Nick..."
* In the 2008 ''[[American Gladiators]]'', promotion to Gladiator in the second season was one of the grand prizes.
* Kristen Bell (of ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' fame) was a big ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' fan and friends with co-stars [[Zachary Quinto]] (Sylar) and [[Hayden Panettiere]] (Claire) before appearing as [[Psycho Electro|Elle Bishop]] in season two.
* Actor/comedian/author ''[[John Hodgman]]'', a ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' fan who wrote a ''New York Times Magazine'' article about the franchise in 2005, got a cameo as a neurosurgeon on the show's final season.
* Almost the half of the Muppeters from ''[[
** [[Neil Patrick Harris]], who guest starred an episode, is also a big [[The Muppets|Muppet]] fan.
** [[Jason Segel]], a huge Muppet fan (and NPH's co-star on ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'') was selected to write and star in [[The Muppets (
* [[J. Michael Straczynski]], once a science fiction fanboy extrordinaire, became a major science-fiction pioneer with ''[[Babylon
* A graphic artist and ''[[Mad Men]]'' fan who goes by the moniker "Dyna Moe" created cartoon illustrations of the show, including a Christmas card for her friend Rich Sommer, a member of the supporting cast. She posted many of her other ''Mad Men''-inspired pieces online. In advance of the third season, AMC gave Dyna the opportunity to use her fan-art in promotions for the show, particularly an online avatar-generator.
* This worked both ways with Amy Ryan's recurring role on ''[[The Office]]''. Ryan was a big fan of the show and the people behind the show were all big fans of ''[[The Wire]]'', even throwing a [[Shout
** And then we get Stringer Bell showing up.
* Hamish Blake and Andy Lee were fans of ''Rove Live'' in high school. Today they are [[Ensemble Darkhorse|probably the best reason to watch the show]].
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* Richard Hammond was a devoted follower of the original ''[[Top Gear]]'' when he went to audition for the revival with Jeremy Clarkson. He claims that he finished the audition thinking what a great job it would be and fiercely envying whatever lucky sod finally got it (he did).
* [[Elizabeth Taylor]] was a fan of ''[[General Hospital]]'', so in 1981, she called the executive producer and asked for a cameo role. She got the role of Helena Cassadine.
* [[Demi Lovato]] guest-starred on ''[[
** [[Taylor Swift]], another big fan of ''Grey's'', had her song "White Horse" featured in one of the episodes.
* Junya Ikeda, who portrays Gai Ikari/GokaiSilver in ''[[
** Inverted with Nao Nagasawa (Nanami/Hurricane Blue in ''[[Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger]]''), who became a devoted fan of the ''Super Sentai'' franchise '''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131104160054/http://diversejapan.com/2012/02/05/exclusive-interview-nao-nagasawa-actress-singer-and-idol-super-sentai-and-kamen-rider-heroine/ while]''' playing the role.
* Rich Koz, the current [[Svengoolie]], who applied for a writing position and became the show's star in both [[The Revival|revivals]] when the original Svengoolie, Jerry G. Bishop, decided he didn't want the job back and gave Koz his blessing.
* [[Kevin Smith]] spent the early '90s watching ''[[Degrassi Junior High]]'' and ''[[Degrassi High]]'' on [[PBS]] at work, and is a huge fan of the franchise, giving it several [[Shout
* The [[Big Creepy
* Missie Good was a ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' fan. She wrote some [[Expanded Universe]] novels and two episodes of the actual series (season six's "Coming Home" and "Legacy").
* Rod Roddy, the announcer on ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' from 1986 to 2003, had previously attended a taping of the show in its early years to seek advice from original announcer Johnny Olson on how to find work as a television announcer.
** The same thing happened with Rod's successor, Rich Fields, who took over in 2004. Rich attended a taping when he was 18, and during a commercial break, he asked Johnny how he could get an announcing job.
* Mandel Ilagan was the founder of the newsgroup alt.tv.game-shows and a contestant on the 1998 revival of ''[[Match Game]]''. By 2000, he'd become a writer for ''[[Greed (TV series)|Greed]]'', and later worked as a producer for [[Fremantle Media]] (while there, he created one of ''Price'''s pricing games) and then Fox Reality Channel.
* [[Joss Whedon]] is a fan of ''[[Glee]]'', and is particularly fond of the character Brittany. When he finally got to direct an episode, he couldn't help but gush about how much he loved the character to actress Heather Morris.
** This is the entire purpose of ''The Glee Project'': to find a brand new actor and character (and maybe more than one) for at least a guest arc on Season 3.
* As a kid, John Kassir read and collected ''[[EC Comics|Tales From The Crypt]]'' comics, which became one of his all-time favorites. Years later after becoming a professional actor, Kassir was called in to audition for and then cast to voice [[Tales
* [[Daniella Monet]] grew up a ''huge'' Nickelodeon fan and said in an interview that getting to work on the hit Nick show ''[[Victorious]]'' is like a dream come true for her and she sometimes has to pinch herself just to make sure she's not dreaming.
== [[Music]] ==▼
▲== Music ==
* [[Nirvana]]'s Kurt Cobain was a huge fan of indie rock music and his journals were filled with lists of his favorite bands and albums. After he became famous, made sure to never go an interview without gushing over some obscure twee pop or punk band that he adored. In fact, his love of bands like The Raincoats, [[Beat Happening]], The Meat Puppets, [[Shonen Knife]], Young Marble Giants, Melvins, Scratch Acid, Gang of Four and Millions of Dead Cops gained these bands (many of them long broken up) [[Colbert Bump|a major resurgence and increased album sales]]. His favorite band of all time, Scottish twee pop act the Vaselines, were signed to Sub Pop several years after they broke up for the release of a greatest hits album that was created solely from consumer interest spurred by Cobain's constant praise of the band. He even named his daughter after their guitarist Frances Mckee.
** Cobain also ''averted'' this trope by auditioning to play bass for the Melvins before Nirvana was formed. He was so nervous that he forgot all their songs and ended up settling for being a sometimes roadie for them until his own success. Cobain later co-produced The Melvins' only major label album, ''Houdini'', in 1993.
** Apparently, [[Courtney Love]] managed to convince [[Sonic Youth|Kim Gordon]] to produce the first [[Hole]] album by sending her a letter about how much they admired her work and in particular "the SST album"
** Dave Grohl. And he still somehow manages to convey a "Gee! How lucky am I?" rock geek persona after winning numerous Grammy awards and playing to sold out stadiums (including Wembley!) with [[
*** The whole concept of Grohl's Probot project was working with the metal vocalists he idolized as a teenager (such as [[Sepultura|Max Cavalera]], [[King Diamond]], and again, Lemmy). He also got to play on Killing Joke's 2003 [[Self-Titled Album]] after being a longtime fan
* Russian keyboard player and [[Yes]] fan Igor Khoroshev got to do session work, and then became a full-time member of [[Yes]] (1997 - 2002) as a result of sending them a demo tape. Come to that, the Buggles (vocalist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes) were both Yes fans (they also shared a manager), were both pleased when they were asked to contribute to the group, and both stunned to find out that they were to replace the departed Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman.
** Benoît David He became the lead vocalist of a Yes tribute band called Close To The Edge in 1994. In 2008, he was selected by members of the group Yes to stand in for an ailing Jon Anderson
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** Keith Moon is almost an example himself: he was in the audience at one of the Who's early gigs, marched up onto the stage after their set finished, and announced that he could drum better than their (soon to be fired, as it turned out) drummer could. He was invited to prove it, and did.
*** And then he collapsed at a concert and The Who got a fan from the audience to be the drummer for the rest of the show.
* Mark Webber, the secretary for the fan club of British alternative rock band [[Pulp (
* The ultimate promoted fanboy in music is probably Tim "Ripper" Owens (AKA, [[Fan Nickname|The Man of a Thousand Bands]]) of [[
** Later, after being fired from Judas Priest to make room for Halford, he joined Iced Earth, another band he is apparently a fan of. He was then fired from Iced Earth to make room for his Iced Earth predecessor. Later, he lampshaded his tendencies to get fired from bands in an interview with [[That Metal Show]] by joking that he started his solo project so he could have a band he couldn't get fired from.
*** Which was then further lampshaded by another member of the band, who said "Actually, we were gonna fire him after the festival"
* Quite possibly surpassing Ripper Owens is [[Henry Rollins]]. Rollins was a [[Black Flag]] fan who, while watching a show, was invited to go up onstage and sing "Clocked In." Eventually, he was offered an opportunity to be the band's fourth singer and he accepted. Rollins was the longest-serving and the most well known [[Black Flag]] vocalist.
* Arnel Pineda was asked to join the hard rock band [[Journey (
* A lot of modern pop-rock bands stem from this. A major example is the group [[
* Wisconsin musician Sean Carey joined Justin Vernon's solo project [[Bon Iver]] after approaching Vernon during Bon Iver's first show. Carey had "learned all of the drum parts and all of the harmonies," and ended up touring with Vernon for over two years.
* One can only imagine how awesome Lim Jeong-hyun, a.k.a. Funtwo (of "Canon Rock" fame, the dude in the Youtube video simply titled "guitar" and arguably the first Youtube celebrity) must have felt when he got to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBHfb2sVWV4 play a live concert] with '''[[Joe Satriani]]'''.
* The members of [[
* Not exactly a literal example, but it still fits: [[The Beatles]] were working on the song "Across the Universe", but Lennon wasn't satisfied with how it was turning out. McCartney suggested they bring in two female fans loitering around Abbey Road Studios, Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease, to do backing vocals. While their backing vocals did end up on the original version of "Across the Universe", Lennon wasn't satisfied with this development. Phil Spector later erased the backing vocals for the version that ended up on ''Let It Be'', replacing them with a choir.
** A slightly better, though still-not-quite-right example: [
** [[Ringo Starr]] joining the band in the first place was both an example and an inversion of this. Starr was a fan of the Beatles in their prefame days and sometimes filled in for [[Pete Best]] (their original drummer); but at the same time, Paul and George saw
** Mark Lewisohn went from winning a [[The Beatles|Beatles]] trivia contest, to writing the officially-sanctioned book ''The Beatles Recording Sessions'', to writing liner notes for Beatles CDs, to working directly for Paul McCartney.
* [[Dan Aykroyd]] was a ''huge'' fan of Chicago blues music, and ended up introducing his friend [[John Belushi]] to the genre (Belushi's previous musical interest tended toward heavy metal and southern rock). The two ended up forming the ''[[Blues Brothers]]'' band as a sideline, and as a result revitalized interest in the blues as a musical form when [[The Movie
* Brian Nelson became a fan of [[
* Jon Stewart is a huge [[Bruce Springsteen]] fan, was overjoyed to have the chance to interview him on ''[[The Daily Show]]'' in 2009. Later that year, Stewart gave the presentation speech for Springsteen at the Kennedy Center Honors.
* Carlos "Indio" Solari, better known in Argentina as the lead singer of the band Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, is a self confessed fan of [[Andres Calamaro]], to the point of even recording a [[Cover Version]] of one of his songs in a [[Cover Album]]. Also Calamaro himself also loves Solari's work on both his solo career and with his former band. He was invited by Solari to sing on his own album, and then to sing said song, the [[Cover Version]] and other songs in a pair of gigs.
* Zakk Wylde was an enormous [[
* Helen Love is a bubblegum pop-punk band that writes about almost nothing but the lead singer's crush on [[The Ramones|Joey Ramone]]. Joey Ramone did guest vocals on their song Punk Boy.
* Ron Wood has stated that when he first saw [[The Rolling Stones]], he said to himself that he wanted to be in that band someday. Years later, he became their lead guitarist.
* Rob Sheridan, current art director for [[Nine Inch Nails]], was lucky enough to be spotted and hired by Trent Reznor [
** Speaking of Reznor, he's a big fan of [[David Bowie]], and was influenced by the album ''Low'' when recording ''The Downward Spiral''. NIN would later tour with Bowie in 1995, and Reznor himself would feature in the video for "I'm Afraid of Americans", which was based around one of his remixes.
* Ed Crawford was a fan of [[The Minutemen]] who heard a false rumor that the band were looking for a new guitarist and vocalist after D. Boon's death, found Mike Watt's phone number, and called to express his interest in trying out. In fact surviving members Watt and George Hurley were still too despondent over Boon's death to even consider continuing to make music. However, Crawford and Mike Watt kept in contact with each other through mail, and Crawford's persistence in wanting the two to keep making music eventually paid off in a big way: He made an unannounced trip from Ohio to California and convinced Watt to let him "audition". He then became the guitarist and vocalist of fIREHOSE, Watt and Hurley's next project.
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* Frank Iero of [[My Chemical Romance]]. When MCR started, he was in his own band (Pencey Prep), but was such a fan of MCR that he sold merch for them, shared a practice space with them, helped book their first shows, shared his band's van...and eventually he became their second guitarist (and he still claims to be MCR's biggest fan).
* [[Da Yoopers]], a Michigan-based comedy band, frequently lets local musicians get guest parts on their albums. One of them, "Cowboy" Dan Collins, was promoted to an official member for a few years.
* [[Stalker
* NRBQ fan and hobby drummer Tom Ardolino sent a fan letter to the band, which led to a lengthy correspondence with keyboardist/singer/songwriter Terry Adams. When the band's then-drummer Tom Staley elected to sit out the encore at a show that Ardolino attended, Adams invited Ardolino to fill in. When Staley quit in 1974, the others invited Ardolino to replace him full-time, and Ardolino stuck with them for the next three decades.
* Current Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg Puciato and drummer Billy Rymer were both originally fans of the band before being invited to join.
* Jane Wiedlin was a fan of [[Sparks]] as a teenager, and supposedly was even president of an unofficial Sparks fan club. Once she became well-known in her own right as part of [[
* Jeremy Deller collaborated with the Williams Fairey Brass Band to create the album ''Acid Brass'', consisting of brass band covers of classic acid house and techno songs. One of the songs they covered was [[The KLF]]'s "What Time Is Love". When Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty of the KLF heard the acid brass version of their song at a live performance, they liked it so much that they contacted Jeremy Deller so they could incorporate it into their satirical comeback performance "Fuck the Millennium". Then when they released the "***k the Millennium" CD single, the acid brass version of "What Time Is Love" was included as a b-side.
== [[Pinball]] ==
* The [[Pinball]] industry has Lyman F. Sheats, Jr., who was one of the best pinball players during his time, and, after a stint of programming games at Data East Pinball, he went to Williams/Midway to program Brian Eddy's ''Attack from Mars'' and ''Medieval Madness''. Currently, he works as a programmer at Stern Pinball, the last remaining pinball company in the U.S.▼
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* Count 'em, just count 'em. [[Mick Foley]] watching Jimmy Snuka jump off the top of the cage, [[Edge]] being in the crowd to watch [[Hulk Hogan]] and the [[Ultimate Warrior]] battle at ''Wrestlemania VI'', [[Shawn Michaels]] and his "Boyhood Dream", every single thing [[John Cena]] says these days... it might be easier to count the wrestlers who ''aren't''
* Rob Naylor was a fairly well known name in the internet wrestling community for quite a while before getting gigs doing commentary for various indy promotions. At one point he was namedropped during an episode of Raw by [[CM Punk]] and not long afterwards was officially hired by the WWE. He currently works as the ring announcer for their developmental promotion Florida Championship Wrestling.
== Sports ==
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* Many of the people involved in running the Scripps National Spelling Bee were winners when they were kids.
* In a rather odd example, Chilean economist and politician Jaime Estevez was a big fan of the Universidad Catolica soccer club. Guess who is the current executive president of the club?
* [[Keith Olbermann]] has one of the largest collections of baseball cards in the world (over 35,000) and had his first baseball book published when he was 14. He's now a consultant for Topps and writes an official blog for MLB (oh, and does [[Countdown
* F1 champ Lewis Hamilton started angling for his hero Ayrton Senna's seat at by age 9, copying the Brazilian's helmet design and approaching team owner Ron Dennis. And then there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tQCXE7DDuc this video.]
* Suk Hyun-Jun of AFC Ajax. He essentially showed up at Ajax's practice fields with a pair cleats and repeatedly asked to join the team. After being allowed to practice with the teams reserve squad the trainers were impressed enough to offer him a 1 year contract.
* Jon Miller, radio announcer for the San Francisco Giants and former longtime voice of ESPN's ''Sunday Night Baseball'', grew up idolizing announcers like Russ Hodges and Vin Scully and pretending to "call" the simulated baseball games he played on Strat-o-matic as a kid.
== [[Theatre]] ==
▲* Andy Mientus was known for being the creator and maintainer of the first ''[[Spring Awakening]]'' group on Facebook, which had been granted official status. Several years later he was cast in the touring production of the show as Hanschen.
▲* In a recent documentary on [[Little Britain|Matt Lucas]], he mentioned how he had been a lifelong fan of musicals and of [[Les Misérables (
== Toys ==
* Kelly McKiernan, once an administrator/webmaster for the ''[[Bionicle]]'' fansite and forum [[BZ Power]], was temporarily hired by [[LEGO]] (the makers of ''[[Bionicle]]'') in 2007 to serve as webmaster for the official ''Bionicle'' while the then-current webmaster was on maternity leave. Even after the main webmaster returned to work in 2009, he stayed on at [[LEGO]] as the toy line's co-webmaster.
== [[Video Games]]
* Tigole and Furor, or Kaplan and Alex Afrasiabi respectively, were famous as elite ''[[
* Dave "Fargo" Kosak, artist of a ''[[World of Warcraft]]''-inspired webcomic, ''[[
* [[Valve]] likes to hire the makers of successful fan-made mods. Both the makers of ''Team Fortress'' and ''[[
** Another [[Valve]] example. ''[[Portal (
** Yet Another [[Valve]] example: [[Big Name Fan]] Makani designed her own version of the (then unseen) [http://fav.me/d1pbaup Administrator] from ''[[
** ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' fan and mapmaker Matthew Lourdelet impressed Valve so much with his map pack "Evil Eyes" that they officially hired him to create the "Cold Stream" campaign, and added it to their official rotation of online maps.
** IceFrog, a developer on ''[[Defense of the Ancients]]'', a ''[[
* Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, creator of ''[[Defense of the Ancients]]'', a very popular ''[[
* id Software, whose ranks consist of many developers who started out modding for ''[[
* [[Epic Games]], which is still one of the biggest examples about hiring people from their own community. Look at the ''[[Unreal]]'' page for the details. Another example would be Lusted, long time ''[[Total War]]'' modder and author of one of ''Medieval 2'''s largest mods, who was hired by Creative Assembly to work on their next TW game.
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' is all about its custom editor. [[
* Dominic Armato was a fan of the first two ''[[Monkey Island]]'' games, which may have given him his edge over the other guy when they were casting Guybrush Threepwood's voice actor.
* Wizards of the Coast held a contest in 2006 where the winner got a job designing for ''[[Magic:
** Earlier, and even more remarkable: A ''Magic'' player named Gregory Marques showed up at the sidelines of a major tournament in 2003 with his own custom-designed expansion set of ''Magic'' cards, cheerfully inviting fellow players to try his cards out and give him feedback. Rosewater was impressed with Marques' design ambitions, and he had Wizards of the Coast hire him to join the design team of an actual set (which ended up becoming ''Fifth Dawn'').
** Heck, Mark Rosewater himself was once a mere fanboy. Also, many other members of Wizards
* A few modders that worked on the Xtended Mod for ''[[X (
** And then some modders who worked on ''Xtended for Terran Conflict'' were picked up for ''X3: Albion Prelude''.
* The RPG industry is, by its nature, full of people who started out as customers and 'ascended' to become pro writers, usually by way of lots of unpaid work.
** [[Vin Diesel]] is a huge ''[[Dungeons
** The 3rd Edition version of D&D's [[Ravenloft]] setting, produced by Arthaus under license from WotC, was crafted almost entirely by
** The best ''[[Exalted]]'' freelance writers come from the forums; by 2011 it'd got to the point that the majority of the writing team and at least one of the developers had started on the forums.
** Aurora Nikolaeva made a complete [[Age of Aquarius]] career from a fan to a leading developer.
* ''[[Fallout]]'':
** The Unwashed Villagers, a group of Interplay's original ''Fallout'' forum goers who dealt with spammers and trolls, were included in a special encounter in ''[[Fallout 2]]'' where they battle a notorious troll of the forums.
** Roshambo, a then-moderator of No Mutants Allowed who was vocal of his criticisms of ''[[Fallout Tactics]]'' during production, was included in said game as a crazy old man and Brotherhood of Steel paladin who warned the Brotherhood of Steel elders that the storms would bring down the airships, which they did. His appearance in the game might as well be more of a [[Take That]] at his [[Fan Dumb
** Actor Matthew Perry has stated in interviews that he was a very big fan of Fallout 3 and played the game fanatically to the point his hands started aching. This led to him getting a role in [[Fallout: New Vegas]] as Benny, a major antagonist.
* ''[[Nintendo Power]]'' writer Steven Grimm gave ''[[Animal Crossing]]: Wild World'' an amazing 9.5 review and mentioned that he loved the game. Nearly three years later, you can spot his name in the credits of ''Animal Crossing: City Folk''.
* Falcoon used to draw fan art for fighting game series like ''[[Street Fighter]]'' and ''[[The King of Fighters]]''. Now he draws canon art for the latter.
** That was only in ''2003'', though (he, alongside several of [[SNK|SNKP]]'s other artists, also drew art for the [[Updated Rerelease
* The ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' Japanese-only novelizations have been stated by [[Word of God|Tetsuya Nomura]] to be non-canonical and simply, like the manga, an adaptation authorized by Square. However, the novel writer, Tomoco Kanamaki, became a promoted fangirl when she was brought on to write the scenario for ''Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days'' (however, in fears of any [[Running the Asylum]] happening, Nomura did actually edit and rewrite the whole thing himself after she was through).
* Several [[Fan Translation]] translators have moved onto actual game or anime translations, including Clyde Mandelin, aka Tomato (''[[
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has Dr. Aeon, the new developer in charge of the Mission Architect system, who was a longtime player and prolific author on that system.
** Before that, the developer Castle was just a normal player that managed to get into the development team and became a popular presence in the forum community. A few years after he joined the staff, the Castle character was created and appeared in one of the comics as well as being permanently added to the game as a trainer in Peregrine Island.
** The player Ascendant became popular in the community for appearing at tram stations at random times and doing elaborate sketches in which Ascendant dealt with cell phone calls to people such as his mother, his agent/uncle, and other people that vexed him. After some time, the devs acknowledged the popularity of the sketches with random NPC dialog that suggested people seeking Ascendant were calling the wrong number. In Issue 19 of the comic, Ascendant appeared (along with fellow
* [[Capcom]] enlisting the entire [[
** Lee Brotherton, who now goes by the stage name Bentley Jones, did video game music remixes on [[
** Same game: Actress Lacey Chabert had been a huge ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' fan for some time before landing a role in the English version: Princess Elise.
*** Considering the [[Obvious Beta|nature of the game they worked on]], Jones lucked out better in the fan reputation department (the game was bashed, but the soundtrack was praised).
** Several other [[
* Successful entrepreneurs sometimes succeed in the very themes they wanted to be in since childhood or work on what they've wanted since joining the workforce. Tycho and Gabe of ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' are gamers who now host an exposition for gamers and make games with Hothead Games.
* [[Jack Black]] loves ''[[
* [[Ben Croshaw]] AKA Yahtzee made, considered and ranted about games for years, and begged the industry at large for a job before coming up with [[
* Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of popular anime and manga such as ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', ''[[Buso Renkin]]'' and ''Gun Blaze West'', mentioned early in ''Rurouni Kenshin'' that he is hooked on the ''[[Samurai Shodown]]'' series and bought a Neo Geo CD just to play it. In 2003, SNK hired him to design new characters for ''Samurai Shodown V''.
* Reportedly, this is how Neversoft took over development of the ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' series: when [[Activision]] bought RedOctane but MTV bought Harmonix (the series' original developers), Activision was apparently wondering what to do with the ''Guitar Hero'' license, at which point Neversoft stood up and said "Hey, we're such big fans of ''Guitar Hero'' that we played it on breaks while we were working on ''[[Tony Hawks Pro Skater|Tony Hawk]]''! We can totally do it!" Reactions to their treatment of the series has been, well, [[Your Mileage May Vary|mixed]] (It didn't help that ''[[Rock Band]]'' was, and still is, looming over the horizon at the same time.) but [[Cash Cow Franchise|it worked out in Activision's favor big time]]... for a short term duration.
** They'd already done one big shoutout - Judy Nails (the indie chick from the first two games, not the [[Jiggle Physics|bouncy bosomed thing Neversoft turned her into]]) was an unlockable character in one of the ''[[Tony Hawk Pro Skater]]'' games.
* Video game designer Warren Spector is a long-time Disney geek; by his own admission though, he kept that a secret, mainly because of the [[Animation Age Ghetto]]. The fact that Disney managed to get a big fan like him on board [[Epic Mickey|a project that aims to make Mickey Mouse relevant in this present era]] was coincidental; they sought him for his resume alone (after all, he was responsible for ''[[
* Much like the ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix'' example above, a couple of old school ''[[Street Fighter]]'' players have gone on to bigger things:
** Joey Cuellar, a.k.a. Mr. Wizard, runs Shoryuken.com as well as the EVO Championship Series. The latter has gone on to become one of the biggest fighting game tournaments in the world.
** Tony Cannon, a.k.a. Ponder, developed the GGPO netcode to allow fans to play emulated fighting games online without lag time. The system was so successful that Capcom has licensed it and even had Ponder as a consultant for some of their games.
** David Sirlin was the lead designer for the afforementioned ''HD Remix''.
** Probably the biggest success is Seth "S-Kill" Killian who now works for Capcom as their Community Manager and runs their official blog/forum site, Capcom-Unity. The ([[SNK Boss]]) boss of ''[[
** In a similar (non-Capcom) vein, arcade stick fanatic Mark Julio, a.k.a. Markman, was hired by controller manufacturer MadCatz to work on their ''Street Fighter IV''-branded controllers. Julio's knowledge of arcade sticks and guidance made the company's FightSticks ''the'' premier American-manufactured arcade stick for fighting games.
** 1UP.com's Neidel Crisan used to simply post his own articles on fighting games on sites like Shoryuken.com and iPlayWinner before being hired to do fighting game reviews for the aforementioned site. His reviews on 1UP.com are now considered to be the only ones worth reading when it comes to fighting games.
** A man currently living the fighting game fan's dream is Mike "MikeZ" Zaimont. Originally known for his expert play of [[
* [
** Although IIDX has still never seen an arcade release stateside, one of the most prominent composers who works on the series visited the Tokyo Game Action arcade in Rhode Island (back when it was still in business) on several occasions to put on a concert for the western fans who were lucky enough to be present. It has recently been discovered that this composer sampled some of the background chatter during this event, and inserted some distorted voice samples into [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSmL4Po29V4 a track called ICARUS] in a subsequent release. If you know what to listen for you can actually hear several US east coast community members get namedropped in the game itself. Which is, you know, ''pretty damn cool''.
* The ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' series is being rebooted by Jordan Weiseman, who started the (critically acclaimed) series '''himself''' and has bought back the license from Microsoft themselves.
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** [[Shizuka Ito]] follwed suit, working really damn hard to set herself a role in [[Super Robot Wars]], doing several roles in the [[Mecha]] genre before getting a role as an [[Original Character]] in [[Super Robot Wars NEO]]. Now if she wants a role in Gundam Generation, she will have to be voicing at least one role in Gundam (Only one voice actor of the original cast didn't had a ''Gundam'' related role. Everyone else did at least one major Gundam Role in their careers)
** [[Akeno Watanabe]] also got similar treatment, landing the role of [[Super Robot Wars Alpha|Ibis Douglas]]
▲* The [[Pinball]] industry has Lyman F. Sheats, Jr., who was one of the best pinball players during his time, and, after a stint of programming games at Data East Pinball, he went to Williams/Midway to program Brian Eddy's ''Attack from Mars'' and ''Medieval Madness''. Currently, he works as a programmer at Stern Pinball, the last remaining pinball company in the U.S.
* After the ''[[Halo]]'' IP was given to 343 Industries, the writers of the ''Halo''-related blog ''Ascendant Justice'' got hired to work on several articles on ''Halo Waypoint'' concerning ''Halo'' canon.
** Frank O'Connor, head of 343 Industries, is a specific example - he started off as a ''Halo'' fan, and is now practically in charge of the ''Halo'' canon, and was the general director for ''[[Halo Legends]]''.
* Nate Bihldorff quickly climbed the ranks from studying creative writing in college, to being a playtester for [[Nintendo]], to writing for ''[[Nintendo Power]]'', to working on localizing games for Nintendo, and today he is the head honcho of Nintendo of America's acclaimed localization department.
* Ever since he first started working at [[Konami]], Koji Igarashi was a big fan of the ''[[Castlevania]]'' series. He got his first opportunity to actually work on one of the games with ''[[
* After ''The Guild 2'' Venice stand alone pack was made, several German members of the Guild 2 Modding Forum (Jowood is a German Company) who worked on the major mods of the Guild 2 on The Guild 2 Renaissance which became an official addon approved by Jowood.
* [[Aliens]]: Colonial Marines done by Gearbox Software. This walkthrough has Randy Pitchford mention how they're a bunch of big Aliens nerds (as well as noting how many stole from it, as [[A Space Marine Is You]] mentions).
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* [[Phil Collins]] is a [[Word of God|huge]] [[One of Us|fan]] of video games, and actually appeared as himself as a non-playable character in [[Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories]]. He provided his voice, and his music was used throughout the game. At the end, his character [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm8q2mIRpeg performs a concert].
* The more recently added Gas Powered Games forum staff were selected from their community, as opposed to being hired to manage the forums as they originally were. One member, who was really only there because he loved the off-topic board was promoted to a moderator for that very board.
** Gas Powered Games have also hired a modder known in the community widely for his highly improved [[
* The [[Transcendence]] community's websites are run in pretty much the same manner, where the developer promotes members of the community to help out as staff on the sites, ranging from moderators to administrators.
** The aforementioned Supcom modder? He became one of the administrators of the forums for his work on an unofficial expansion, [[TX 2]] - now known as Transcendence: The Stars Beyond, and has helped develop the back story, balance, and planned content for various factions in the canon universe based off of his own [[Fanon]] work.
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** He then went on to begin development on his own game, while still actively fulfilling his duties in the [[Transcendence]] community.
* Arenanet often use the names of [[Guild Wars]] wiki contributors for newly-introduced non-player characters.
* [[Friends|Matthew Perry]] once went on Ellen and talked about his love of [[Fallout 3]]. He apparently played the games for hundreds of hours, and actually broke his hand from playing it too much. He ended the interview by giving Ellen an Xbox 360 and a copy of the game. He goes on to voice Benny, a major antagonist in [[Fallout: New Vegas]].
* [[Tsubasa Yonaga]] was a huge fan of the [[Tales
* Christian "The Taxman" Whitehead, a well-known member of Sonic Retro, created an physics engine that was faithful to the Genesis games, and once even created a tech demo of [[Sonic CD]] on the iPhone that proved it was possible to do an iPhone port that was faithful to the original. Now he has been hired by SEGA themselves and his Retro Sonic engine is being used to remake [[Sonic CD]] for everything except Nintendo consoles.
* Stephan "Lordus" Dittrich created a homebrew Sega Genesis emulator for the Nintendo DS. However, after no new releases of said emulator or contact with Lordus on the internet in a couple of years, the Sonic Classic Collection was announced for the DS, a port of the first 3 Sonic games to the platform. It is believed that Dittrich's emulator was used as the base of the Classic Collection, with him being credited as the lead developer.
* [[Kana Ueda]] is a big fan of ''[[Halo]]'' and other Western FPS. She gets the chance later to voice [[Halo 3: ODST|Saydy]] in the Japanese version and Alena Vorshevsky in ''Call of Duty [[Modern Warfare]] 3'' in Japan.
* IGN's Jessica Chobot has been a huge fan of the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' series from the beginning and she was recently cast in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' as Diana Allers, a reporter embedded with the Normandy.
** Also if Freddy Prinze Jr's enthusiasm is to be believed, he is also this having been cast as James Vega for ''[[Mass Effect 3]]''.
* In [[Academagia]], the developers have included many player-written Adventures and Events as part of [[
* ''[[Escape Velocity]]: Override'' began life as a [[Game Mod|total conversion]] for ''[[Escape Velocity]]'' before Ambrosia Software brought the developers on board and released it as a whole game with a few engine upgrades. Likewise, ''EV Nova'' was a TC for ''Override'' that ended up as a new game (and the first one to be ported to Windows).
* [[
* Randall "Frigidman" Shaw, who produced several network maps for ''[[Marathon]] 2'', as well as later contributing to the total conversion ''EVIL'', was hired to do the [[Brutal Bonus Level|Vidmaster's Challenge]] levels for ''Infinity'', along with some of its multiplayer maps.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* When the original artist for [[Erfworld]], Jamie Noguchi, left after the end of Book 1, then fan Xin Ye was hired as the new artist after she sent in [http://www.erfworld.com/summer-update-2009-archive/?px=/E022_elddonnemar_ZhopaBasket.png fanart] for one of the intermission updates.
* Andrew Hussie of [[MS Paint Adventures]] wrassled up a sound team consisting of the best composers from the MSPA forum for [[Homestuck]], who compose music for the flash animations. They now have their own indie record label under [https://web.archive.org/web/20130727025751/http://whatpumpkin.com/index.html "What Pumpkin"]. Later, to widen the variety of art found in flash animations, Hussie gathered an art team to draw various pieces found in animations and sometimes static pages, and they also sell [https://web.archive.org/web/20130727030758/http://whatpumpkin.com/prints.html art prints] (Ascended Fanart, basically.) of stuff the art team has done. All in all, Hussie's team almost entirely consists of fans with the exception of himself and Lexxie.
** Also, for each official song that is released a piece of specialized album art accompanies it. Originally all the songs just had the main album artwork, and then there were pictures from the comic itself, but now most of the artwork is drawn by fans.
* Jeffrey Wells wrote an extremely long and suprisingly good fanfic for the [[Narbonic]] comic. It was so good that author Shaenon Garrity not only featured it as filler during most of Narbonic's run but also wound up working with Jeff to write her later comic [[Skin Horse]]. Neither of them are exactly sure how, tho.
* One fan of [[Enjuhneer]] cosplayed one of the characters at an anime convention, ran into the creator of the comic, and was [http://www.enjuhneer.com/archives/484-seeing-double put into the comic] for being the first cosplayer that the creator had heard of.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[Its Just Some Random Guy]] is known on [[YouTube]] for his ''[[I'm a Marvel And
* The case of the almighty union of [[They Might Be Giants]] and the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' creators is an odd one. They're fanboys of ''each other'' and came together out of a mutual excitement for the other's work, with the result of the H* R creators doing music videos for TMBG, and TMBG writing and performing music for H* R.
* Many of the contributors on [[That Guy With
* Many fashion bloggers, ie: Tavi Gevinson, Brian Boy.
* [[
** He's also making a short appearance in the upcoming remake of Plan Nine From Outer Space.
* [[
* Arglefumph, famous for his ''[[Nancy Drew (
* [[YouTube]] personality [[Tobuscus]] wrote the immensely popular ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' [[Big Name Fan]] Johanne Matte AKA Rufftoon became a storyboard artist for the show.
** Supposedly [[M. Night Shyamalan]] approached the people behind Avatar to create a live action movie because he was such a huge fan of the show. [[Adaptation Decay|Based on the outcome]], however, you could be forgiven for thinking he had a seething hatred for it.
** Janet Varney, who plays the voice of [[The Legend of Korra
* Raven Molisee's fanarts for [[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]] got the attention of AKA Cartoons and landed her a job as [http://ed.wikia.com/wiki/Raven_Molisee storyboard animator for the show].
* Fanartist Nina Matsumoto a.k.a. Spacecoyote drew a [http://spacecoyote.deviantart.com/art/The-Simpsonzu-46036660 manga-styled picture] of ''[[The Simpsons]]''' cast. The pic quickly became an internet sensation, to the point where it caught the eyes of someone at Bongo Comics (publishers of [[The Simpsons]]' comic books), leading to her drawing an entire story ("Bartomu") for Bongo's 2008 Free Comic Book Day special (and promises of more work to come).
** Including a ''[[
** She is currently writing ''Yokaidan'', a comic published through Del Ray Manga.
* As [https://web.archive.org/web/20190629040112/http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2006/03/28/godzilla-the-series/ this article] revealed, a lot of the people working behind ''[[Godzilla:
* Anika Noni Rose has stated that working for Disney, in any part at all, was her big dream. Then she is given the part of Tiana, main character of ''[[The Princess and
** Similarly, [[Chuck|Zachary Levi]] stated in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ia4UL2N8o this] making-of video for ''[[
*** Also from ''[[
** Also, [[Jon Cryer]] has stated that he has always wanted to play a role in a Disney movie, and was ecstatic when he landed the role of Dusty in ''[[
* Animator Katie Rice was a big fan of [[Ren and Stimpy]] growing up, she eventually got to animate for the Adult Party Cartoon version.
* The majority of the new voice actors for the [[Looney Tunes]] characters are big fans of the original theatrical shorts, Bob Bergen in particular went as far as to track down [[Mel Blanc]] himself for voice acting lessons.
* [[Jason Marsden]] is a big fan of Disney, he even named his pets after Disney characters, and he got to play Kovu in ''Lion King 2''. At the end of 'behind the microphone' type-thing, he was really jazzed about how he 'can't believe he gets to be in a Disney movie!'
** He also got to be Max Goof in ''[[A Goofy Movie]]'', a role that he continued in for years.
* An episode of ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'', "Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian", was written by Renee Carter, Sarah Creef, and Amy Crosby, who at the time were only 13. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140202092534/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,313220,00.html As this article from the time reveals], they had sent the script to the show on a lark and by sheer blind luck, the script was actually read and sent along to Steven Spielberg, who decided to run with it. The show called attention to it both within the script (including a gag where Buster argues with the girls about his fear of planes) and in the promotion leading up to it.
** The episode's [[Credits Gag]]: "[[One
* [[Lauren Faust]], who was a fan of ''[[My Little Pony]]'' toys as a child, was eventually hired to create a cartoon based on the toys, ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** This may explain the sheer number of [[Ascended Meme
** Before that, Lauren Faust was a big fan of ''[[
* Controversy arose around the Hungarian dub of ''[[South Park]]'', when the fans noticed that the dubbing script for one of Season 9's episodes matched the translations of a [[Fan Sub]] created (way earlier) by a fan called "vito" word-for-word. Unfortunately, as copyright laws don't quite tend to favor unofficial fan works, the dubbers got away with the deal. But ''something'' still happened, as beginning from Season 13, vito has been working on the ''real'' scripts for the show as its official translator. And he's also credited under that name.
* At various times on the bonus features of the ''[[
▲== Audio Dramas ==
▲* Simon Pegg is a big fan of the ''[[Strontium Dog]]'' comics, and got to voice Johnny in the CD adaptations.
▲== Internet ==
▲* The user Avan on the [http://forums.furtopia.org Furtopia forums] - who is also mentioned under the video game folder in the [[Transcendence]] entry - is the likely, and only mentioned, candidate to join the staff in the proposition of taking over the free web-hosting services with his own server, with the only other option being to shut down the web-hosting services.
▲* Jakayrta became Cornova's beta/co-writer after he left a deep review on the first chapter of ''[[Poke Wars]]: The Incipience''.
▲* The Internet is full of this: if you're a fan of a long-standing website, you might be surprised at how many of the administrators and/or writers were once lowly commenters on the same site.
== Other Media ==
* Ryan O'Connell used to drink lots of wine and read books about wine and, despite a total lack of formal training, he now operates [http://ovineyards.com/english/ascended-fanboy-tvtropes-winemaker/ O'Vineyards] in the south of France and runs a wine blog that allows him to hang out with all the famous winemakers and wine writers he admired from afar.
* In 2005, Steve Wade, a Tasmanian-based Saab fan, launched a blog about his favourite car. Six years, 5400 articles and 50,000 comments later, Saab formally credited [http://www.saabsunited.com SaabsUnited] with helping to save the company, and employed him in their newly-formed global social media marketing team (based in Melbourne, Australia).
** Unfortunately it didn't seem to last long or save the company.
* A list of them appear in ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s [http://www.cracked.com/article_19836_5-celebrities-who-got-famous-by-being-obsessed-fanboys.html
* Gossip journalist David "Spec" Mc Clure was fascinated by [[Audie Murphy]]'s [[Crazy Awesome|military career]] and arranged to meet him when Murphy was filming his first supporting role in a film. The two became good friends, with Mc Clure co-writing ''To Hell and Back'', both the book and the movie script, and acting as an informal press agent for Murphy. Murphy's second wife, Pamela, was also something of an Promoted Fangirl. She had been trying to meet him ever since she saw him on the cover of Life magazine in the mid-forties, and finally succeeded in the early fifties. They dated steadily while the divorce from his first wife was finalized, married shortly thereafter, and despite some rough periods remained married until his death.
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* Several of the characters of ''[[Genshiken]]'' are like this, though of the more down-to-earth variety. The lot of them are college otaku, obsessed with video games, doujinshi, anime, and manga. As the story runs down to the end, one gets a job as a game designer, another as an assistant editor for a manga magazine, and a third as a manga author and artist. They are all, also, quite [[Genre Savvy]].
** Don't forget that costume-making king Tanaka is going to design school after graduation.
* Laliari from ''[[
** Guy Fleegman, who played a [[Red Shirt]] in the show during its original run, is essentially this as well.
* On ''Las Vegas'', a fan of Wayne Newton who recently lost his job was invited to come up and sing along with him. He proved so adept at it, he was made a Wayne Newton cover singer in the same hotel.
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* Pretty much the basic premise of ''[[Sonny With a Chance]]''.
* In the fictional universe of the ''[[Tenacious D]]'' television series and movie, Lee is one of these. That may be the case in real life as well.
* Meer Campbell from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
* Mikey from ''[[Kappa Mikey]]'' is one of these. He won a contest or something, and moved to Japan to be part of that show.
* Grady in ''[[Tremors|Tremors 2]]'' is a fan-boy of Earl's, who talks his way into helping on that film's Graboid-hunt.
* ''[[The Life of Nob T. Mouse]]'' features a meta example where series writer/artist Zoe Robinson originally made ''The Life Of Nob T Mouse'' as a fanfiction comic for ''The Blobland Band'', before meeting the franchise's creator, Hubert Schlongson, and winning ownership off him in a game of poker.
* Tachimukai in ''[[Inazuma Eleven]]'' was originally a big fan of Endou, and even learned to be a goalkeeper by watching Endou on video repeatedly and mimicking him. He ends up as Endou's teammate and friend, and even gets to fill in for Endou as goalkeeper on several occasions.
* In "The Front", an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Bart and Lisa co-write a fan script for an ''Itchy & Scratchy'' episode (using Grandpa Simpson as an alias) and end up getting picked up as regular writers, at least until Grandpa grows wise to what kind of show ''Itchy & Scratchy'' really is and quits.
* Aine Yukimura from ''[[
* Ryusei Date of ''[[Super Robot Wars Alpha]]'' and ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]]'' was a big giant robot fan who ended up getting recruited by the [[The Federation]] after realizing his skills in the "Burning PT" video game greatly translated to mecha piloting. That, and his amazing Psychodriver powers.
* Ayumi Sakagame of ''[[Pretty Cure All Stars]] New Stage'' was a slight fan of the Pretty Cures when fate decided to decree that she would become, even temporary, a Cure herself.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Unisex Tropes]]
[[Category:Trivia Trope]]
[[Category:Show Business]]
[[Category:Fandom]]
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