Favorite famous nerd

[rmb1983]

Dallas Green and Kylie "Prevail" Hendricks.

Both musicians, sure, but with good reason. Dallas Green tends to be fairly dorky, and his general image is that of the stereotypical nerd; which is contrasted by the sheer amount of ink he has.
Prevail, on the other hand, is a huge "word-nerd". Whether you've a taste for his act (Swollen Members) or not, anyone taking part in this thread owes it to themselves to listen to some of his lyrics, especially from their second, third and fourth albums; he makes some pretty surprising references.

Rivers Cuomo takes the cake, though. Weezer was "the band that made nerds cool" -- hell, I was introduced to the band by their Buddy Holly music video on the Windows 95 CD. I did have to show love to the Canadians first, though, especially since those two in particular are a little bit more obscure, despite their mainstream appeal.

Although honorable Mentions to Vin Diesel and Nicholas Cage for being the best "stealth nerds" (although questionable with Cage, i mean, he named himself after a freakin' comic book character!)

I'd say Vin, especially. He was one of the last people on the planet I expected to not only be a former tabletop player, but someone so passionate about it.

 

[WhiteandNeardy99]

Not sure if it counts as I have no idea if they are nerds in RL, but I'm going to say the guys who play Lenard and Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory.

 

[Artina89]

I am going to go for Voltaire. He is a huge Star wars and Star trek nerd, and has written songs about both franchises.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Both these songs have fairly explicit language, just thought I would warn you.

 

[A Raging Emo]

I suppose either Nathan Fillion, or Simon Pegg take this cake. You all know why.

 

[matrix guardian]

Simon Pegg. You can tell in his movies and TV series that he actually genuinely enjoys the geeky stuff: comics, sci fi, etc. I can imagine him going to all the nerdy websites, reading xkcd, and wasting an afternoon on TV Tropes.

Thank you. Basically all of his bigger jobs were nerdy in it's own way:
Shaun of the Dead
Hot Fuzz
Star Trek
Paul
The upcoming TinTin movie
among others like Fable 3.

And he is funny! And handsome! ^^

If you want to see Simon Peg's nerd-ness really shine through, you should watch the TV series "Spaced." Even if not, watch it anyway, its a great show. But yeah, in that show (which was written by Simon) he plays a guy who works for a comic book shop, and plays video games and makes all kinds of jokes/references to other nerdy sources. There is an episode where he binge-plays Resident Evil, and then gets so sleep deprived that he hallucinates that other people are zombies. At the beginning of season 2, he goes into something of a depression because of Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace.

Anyway, my point is go find the DVD of Spaced and watch it. You'll be happy.

 

[Nudu]

Einstein. Love Einstein.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Thought Simon Pegg, Charlie Brooker or Dara o Brien would win this easily. Well Simon has the advantage that Americans have actually heard of him. And spaced is awesome.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

So who represents the nerddom the best? Johnathan Coulton? Vin Diesel? Felicia Day? J.J. Abrams? Seth Rogen?

Personally I'm a big fan of Steve Jobs and John Lasseter. They both lead big, hip, stylish empires (and know each other personally and have worked together for many years). It's something nice about how one day they're nerds, and the next all the "cool kids" are paying them billions for their stuff (iPods and PIXAR-films respectively). Their entire lives is a "f*** you I'm awesome" to the entire world.

Bill Gates. How the fuck hasn't anyone said this yet?

I was just thinking that when I got to your post. He may not be the most stylish or have the most personality of all the figures of the nerd-sphere, but think of where nerds (and hell, humanity in general) would be right now if Bill Gates had never happened. He's up there with Einstein and Hawking people!

 

[docSpitfire]

SNIP

What does everyone here think a nerd is?

Nerd is a term that refers to an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit.

Or something else?

I think most use the terms "nerd" and "geek" interchangeably... to the point where I've met people who insist there's a difference and flip their definitions from what I have been led to believe they mean.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Geek = Likes math + Knows a lot about how computers work
Nerd = Likes Sci-fi

Thats the difference

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

Toss up between Simon Pegg and Zachary Levi. Since I'm at this very moment rewatching Spaced for the dozenth time, I'm leaning toward Pegg.

 

[General BrEeZy]

Lisa Foiles baby aaaaaaah yeeeaah. X)