It's not really on the same level, but a guy I went to high school with competed on the "Top Shot" reality show. And say what you will about reality shows, but the fact that he mostly taught himself how to do those things as a civilian without military training is awesome.

BTW, dude was doing awesome things like that all the time when I knew him. He was also first trumpet and drum major and in all the nerdy Advanced Placement classes.

Not so much an accomplishment, but a somewhat dopey looking guy with a unibrow has become quite handsome, bearing a strong resemblance to Robert Pattinson.

I went to high school with someone who married an actor who got famous on a show I never watched.

I went to school with one of the kids on PBS's "Ghost Writer" program. He hasn't done anything of note since.

I married someone whose college roommate won several oscars.

He's not famous but my stoner/artist creative writing major sophomore roommate is now a very high ranking officer in a branch of the US military. Oddly he's still the same goof-ball when you hang out with him (and very liberal too).

I went to school with Edward Norton, the actor. He was soft-spoken and always involved in school theater productions. His grandfather founded our hometown.

I was good friends with Dave Sitek of the band, TV on the Radio. We used to hang out in the basement while his dad tuned in random Eastern Bloc stations on his big old shortwave radio cabinet. I was surprised and delighted to see him on magazine covers, but he always had a band, so I guess it figures.

I also went to high school with Greg Saunier, the drummer from Deerhoof. I was not surprised to learn that he made a career playing some pretty out-there music. He and his brother were musical kids, remote, yet full of light.

I went to high school with a girl who was an extremely driven student. Not brilliant, just incredibly hard working. She got married at 20 to the guy she'd been dating since they were fourteen, dropped out of university when she became pregnant, had six children, homeschooled them all.... and became a New York Times bestselling author and columnist for a number of Christian periodicals. You won't have heard of her because it's a devotional-style book.

This is not necessarily the same, but...

I had a semi-friend in high school who was basically a graffiti tagger and into rave/techno music. Pretty decent guy, but it looked like he was getting into some issues later in high school.

At our 10-year reunion, he looked pretty similar (sans the ubiquitous giant headphones) and mentioned that he lived in San Francisco. He made some vague reference to working in a computery or programming field.

"Oh, that's cool," I said. "You know, I have these friends who started an independent game company in SoMA, and they're always looking for programmers or coders. You should look them up." He smiled politely.

I looked him up on Facebook. He was Adobe's lead for Flash. He's since been poached by Microsoft and moved cross-country twice.

In that same vein, he and I had a friend who was also in that sort of raver/semi-druggie/not-doing-much phase at the end of high school. I could have sworn that the last I'd seen of him was an article about how he (or a guy with his name) had been jailed for a fairly major drug bust when he was 20, and/or died.

Aaaaaand... he's the lead pastry guy at Blackbird, after a year at the French Laundry, and got nominated for a James Beard Award.

I mean, I was on Jeopardy, but everybody KNOWS I'm a nerd.

Oh yeah, Jeopardy! A guy from my Boy Scout troop, Jim Scott, won huge on Jeopardy, won five in a row, and then won the 1991 Tournament of Champions. I forgot about that. He was a smart kid. I think he was an Eagle scout. One of his service projects was to turn a local park into an arboretum, with nice signs describing the different trees.

Also, he's in the movie, Groundhog Day. That's him on TV in the Jeopardy scenes.

Orange Swan, I want to know who you're talking about!

Barry and Byron Sanders; graduating classes before and after me in high school; both quiet and reserved. And gads, Barry's son is now playing for Stanford. Tic-toc-time flys.

My college friend dated Weird Al Yankovic. (I actually talked to him on the phone once!) But then she broke up with him, because he was too...weird. To this day I keep telling her, you should have put up with the weirdness.

I used to wonder whether she should have introduced him to me, but then I realize that he wouldn't have been NEARLY as brilliant if I was around to influence him.

Just thought of this: my other sophomore roommate has a son who is one of the most famous and highly ranked young surfers in the world.

In my youth, I knew several people who were talented, smart or personable enough that I expected them to do big things, but the only one with an IMDB listing is a high-school classmate of mine, Leslie Greif (who got more grief for being named "Less Grief"). We were two of the smartest non-Catholic students in my class at the Catholic high-school; he had a nepotistic leg-up in show biz because his father was an established Hollywood Agent, and though he didn't want to get into the business, he did. But he used his connections to get into the more "creative" side, and I use "quotes" because his biggest credit was as co-creator of "Walker, Texas Ranger". Yep, this Jewish nebbish from L.A. worked with Chuck Norris. (He also produced an unsuccessful variety show that was Arsenio Hall's first break, a bad Rodney Dangerfield movie "Meet Wally Sparks" and Gene Simmons' cringeworthy reality show.) I haven't spoken to him since graduation, but the next time he Googles himself, he'll probably send Chuck over to roundhouse kick me.

Oh, and my best friend was on college Jeopardy. By Final Jeopardy she was leading by a comfortable, but not guaranteed, amount. And she lost. :(

My high school's claim to fame is Plaxico Burress. I ran with the nerds and he did not, so I'm pretty sure we didn't have any interactions. And while I was quite impressed with his performance during that one Superbowl game, I was not at all surprised by the shooting incident and his arrest.

My cousin is one of the original second-tier Google guys. Cashed out for many millions when the stock went public. I helped him with his English homework when he was in high school. He didn't invite me to his wedding, the fink. He also owns Weather Underground, which he helped start while at the Univ. of Michigan (my alma mater, too, dammit). He was always a smart kid.

I went to school with (and math tutored) a girl whose speaking voice was ear-shreddingly awful. Not in a 'bully her for something' sense but in that nasal, high, excessive modulation/volume way.

She taught herself to sing (in an American accent) and now heads a reasonably successful rock band. And her voice is far less grating, going by her appearances on TV and interviews.

Not particularly ordinary in high school - he currently holds the position of chair of the Department of Anthropology at Harvard.

I went to high school with Jim from the american version of The Office and Ryan the temp.
In school, John was really sweet and smart and we ran cross country together. BJ was smart but kind of creepy and always hitting on the freshmen girls as a senior.

A guy I knew in high school, and shortly thereafter, surfaced at the Oscar-nominated art director of The Artist. He, alone among the people on this movie, did not win, but it was something to see him on the stage, at the end.

Then there was this woman I dated when in my 20's. She dumped me for this woman named Maria. Maria dumped her for Laura Nyro.