In our new Golden Age of Geek, it is probably not too hard to rattle off ten well known and famous nerds, but that is not what this list is about. For the list below I have compiled ten names of mainstream (normie) culture celebrities that you might be surprised have nerd tendencies or are even full blown geeks in their own right. This means you will not find the names of nerd celebrities, such as Felicia Day or Whil Wheton, nor obvious celebrity nerds such as Nathan Fillion and Steven Colbert. I have also disqualified those who are actively engaged in creating and fostering nerd culture whether though their acting or producing skills, such as Kevin Smith, Joss Whedon, and Seth Green.
This list was harder to compile than I thought as the Internet seems to think that if Oprah Winfrey talks about "Googling" something, or if John Mayer buys an iPhone that automatically makes them a nerd. Or that anyone who picks up a Wii remote is a gamer. Instead I have tried to limit the list to celebrities that have or are currently pursuing true nerd extra-curricular activities.
10. Aisha Tyler
I have talked about Tyler before in the context of her nerdiness, but I think her name bears repeating in this list. Actress, comedian, and author, she is as beautiful as she is talented. Most geeks may know her best for her voice work on Archer as Lana Kane. What you may or may not know is that Tyler is a huge gamer, and a classic gamer as well. She was getting high scores on Atari before half the people playing Call of Duty on the Playstation Network were even a twinkle in their parent's eye. Rest assured though, she is still as much of gamer now as back then, kicking ass in games such as Far Cry and Gears of War. She has even presented at the 2012 E3 conference, and then blasted the trolls who thought she wasn't enough of a gamer. She has also written a few articles on the state of nerdhood.
9. Ke$ha
When you think of the musical artist known as Kesha you probably draw the image of a trashy 20-something who does nothing but sing about partying before going to the club to get blitzed harder than Lindsey Lohan at a German disco. The truth however is surprising. Kesha Rose Sebert is in fact not much of a partier, but is in fact a nerd in the purest academic sense. Despite appearances (which is her carefully crafted public persona,) Kesha enjoys studying Cold War history, math, and physics. She scored a 1500 on her SAT's (back when that was out of 1600 total,) and one of her favorite past times is attending history lectures. It's also worth noting that unlike several of her peer artists Kesha writes her own songs and plays piano and guitar. She is also an ordained minister and has been known to perform homosexual marriages, which is actually pretty badass.
8. Nicholas Cage
Say what you will about the manic Cage and the many (like 2) personas he shows when acting in movies, but Cage is a nerd through and through. Since childhood the A-list celebrity has been a comic fan for a long time, with Superman his apparent favorite. How do we know this? Well he named his son after Superman. No he didn't chose the name Clark or even Kent (as those would be way too obvious and normal,) instead he named his son, Kal-El... which for the uninitiated is Supe's Kryptonian name. It has also been well know that Cage very much wanted to play a superhero in a Hollywood movie, getting his chance to do so with the mediocre, "why is he yelling?" Ghost Rider franchise. Say what you will about Cage's acting ability, but he is a geek.
7. Mila Kunis
Kunis who started her career on That 70's Show "opposite the guy who ruined Venom," and the only role that Ashton Kutcher should have ever been allowed to play, continued onto starring in movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Black Swan. She is best known to nerds as the voice of Meg Griffin on Family Guy and has lent her voice to several episodes of Seth Green's Robot Chicken. However, what you may not know is that Kunis was once addicted to World of Warcraft. Though her character name was never known, we do know that she played as an Alliance Mage, was in at least two guilds, and frequently fought as part of raid-groups. She has also hinted that she has been keeping track of the new expansions, perhaps while fighting that old addiction. She had to quit cold turkey, as the game was beginning to interfere with her life, and anyone who has lost years to WoW can sympathize. I know I can.
6. Daniel Craig
Yes, that Daniel Craig, who is best known to the world as the newest and 007'est James Bond to hit the big screen. It turns out Britain's newest man of mystery is also a big gamer, having been quoted as saying, "I play games. Hands up. I’m quite into ones that have a big fat story line." He also revealed that Halo is among one of his favorite. In interviews he has said to that the best way for him to unwind is turn off his phone and spend a few hours gaming his cares away. Unfortunately, he has also revealed that his girlfriend disapproves of his gaming habits, which only goes to show, even James Bond has to sometimes hide the Xbox when the woman comes over.
5. Curt Schilling
Former Major League Baseball pitcher, Curt Schilling helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Boston Red Sox to the world series. His record would be impressive by an standards of your typical sports jock, but the shocking part is that Schilling is not your typical jock. The record setting pitcher is in fact nerd, to the core. While on the road it was said that he always had with him his board wargame, Advanced Squad Leader, published by Avalon Hill. He even financed his own ASL competition in Houston, Texas and joined up with a small gaming company, Multi-Man Publishing, in order to maintain the game and other Avalon Hill titles that were being neglected after AH was sold to Hasbro. Beyond that Schilling has played EverQuest and EverQuest II, World of Warcraft, and after retiring he started his own video game company, Studio 38. In 2012, the company put out the game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. He is currently working on an untitled MMORPG with fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, and comic creator Todd McFarlane. How is that for some nerd cred.
4. Rosario Dawson
Rosario Dawson is talented, beautiful, and has even gotten the privilege of touching the lips of god (Will Smith.) The actress has had numerous rolls both supporting and starring and has even been gracious enough to lend her voice to shows like Robot Chicken and video games like Syndicate. Nerds will know her best for her work on Clerks II and her upcoming role in the new Sin City movie. However what you may not know is that Dawson is a huge fan of comics and loves attending comic conventions. I am not talking about how all stars attend comic conventions, by being selected to be on a panel and getting the VIP treatment. I mean that Dawson herself has admitted to putting on a mask and just walking the floor of Comic Con like the rest of us. She has also created her own comic book series, The Occult Crime Taskforce.
3. Vin Diesel
When you think of Vin Diesel what image comes to mind? A muscular thug who probably likes nothing more than driving fast cars and beating up other people in between giving serious and threatening glares. The truth couldn't be farther from that. Vin Diesel does enjoy causing some hurt, but his weapon of choice usually tends to be a D20 instead of a fist or a gun. During the filming of XXX the tattoo on Diesel's stomach says "Melkor," which is actually the name of his half-drow Dungeons and Dragons character. Diesel grew up a geek, playing D&D for over twenty years. He even wrote the forward to the book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons. In 2002, he started his own video game company, Tigon Studios, and has since become a champion of the Riddick series. He has been a driving force behind the third film, set to come out this weekend, even going so far as to sacrifice his pay and leverage his house to see the movie completed, and why not? Who wouldn't risk it all just to get to play a badass light-blind merc who (now that I think about it,) may in fact be half-drow.
2. Megan Fox
I have to admit that among the celebrities that are easy targets to bash, even I have taken a few shots at Megan Fox. Outwardly she seems nothing more than a (very) pretty face, a stunning body, and a rather vapid personality, basically your typical Hollywood starlet. However, she is a nerd, or at least has nerdish tendencies. Among all on the list, this was probably the most shocking to me. Fox is a lover of comics and is known to nerds for her roles in the Transformers franchise and playing opposite to Josh Brolin in Jonah Hex. What is really surprising is her love of Lord of the Rings. according to Fox herself, she is an avid fan of Tolkein and his writings. She even admitted to being a frequenter of Lord of the Ring forums on the Internet. Part of me finds this hard to believe, but if she is faking it she has done her research on terminology. Maybe we all might have to rethink our image of Fox.
1. Robin Williams
Maybe this shouldn't be as surprising as it is, I mean after all the man has played everything from an alien to Peter Pan, but the fact that Robin Williams is a nerd is almost shocking. Williams of course is known for a litany of roles too numerous to list and for his off-the-cuff and near manic comedy style where he can launch from subject to subject like a hyped up 8-year old on a sugar rush. However, Williams has admitted that he has been a hardcore gamer for 30 years, and I am not kidding. The man assembles his own computers complete with state of the art graphics cards (He apparently prefers ATI cards,) for playing games like Warcraft III on the computer and the original Unreal Tournament. On the console side he has also admitted to playing Call of Duty, but his original love is Zelda. He loves the Nintendo franchise so much that he named his daughter Zelda after the titular princess of the game. That's love and nerdiness of the best kind.
So in conclusion, if you are ever playing Halo and happen to run across a character with charming 007-like accent, or if that guy on your COD team won't shut-up and keeps manically jumping from topic to topic, or if that girl in your WoW guild sounds suspiciously like Meg Griffin, or if that girl in the Catwoman mask standing next to you in the Comic Con line, or that person quoting the Similarion to defend her point on the LOTR forum you post on, all seem somehow familiar, maybe you had better take a closer look. The nerd next to you may be more surprising than you think.
No comments:
Post a Comment