Famous ETHS Grads: Where Are They Now?

A slew of Hollywood actors, professional athetes and other famous folks have graduated from Evanston Township High School.

Where are they now?

Zach Gilford (2000): As Matt Saracen in NBC’s critically-acclaimed TV drama, Friday Night Lights, Zach Gilford played a back-up high school quarterback who gets bumped to first string only after a nationally-ranked starter suffers a career-ending injury. However, back when he played Wildkit football, it was an injury suffered by ETHS- alum Gilford (2000) that first lead to his interest in theater, according to a 2006 Chicago Tribune blog post. Since leaving the show, Gilford has played supporting roles in a few low-budget films, acted in a couple short-lived television dramas and, most recently, landed a role in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest film, The Last Stand. An ETHS alumni association representative said Gilford’s mother taught in the high school’s special education department for nearly two decades. Gilford returned to ETHS a few years back to perform the opening coin toss at the first Friday-night game played under the stadium’s then-newly-installed lights.

Michael Madsen (1976): For those who have seen it, they’ll never forget it. Criminal psychopath Mr. Blonde, dancing to Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with You”, toying with a bound-and-gagged policeman before severing the officer’s ear with a straight razor in the goriest moment from Quentin Tarantino’s blood-soaked 1992 directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. The standout scene and critically-acclaimed role helped solidify ETHS-alum Michael Madsen’s budding film career. After graduating from ETHS in 1976, Madsen began acting at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, according his The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) biography, where he studied under John Malkovich. He has acted in the films Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, Kill Bill, Die Another Day and Sin City, and has written and published eight books of poetry. He is currently filming a Sin City sequel, according to IMDB.

Cecil Martin (1994): During his senior year at ETHS, Cecil Martin lead the Wildkit football team to the playoffs, was named a second-team all-state linebacker, and, for a short time, lived in a homeless shelter with his family, according to the Chicago Tribune. But Martin battled through hardship, and after graduating in 1994, he attended the University of Wisconsin, where he started for four years at fullback. In 1999, Martin was drafted in the sixth round of the NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, where he played for four seasons. Martin has given back off the field, reportedly regularly visiting children’s hospitals while in Wisconsin, frequently volunteering at the Eagle’s nonprofit program and speaking to incoming ETHS freshman. “He’s been wonderfully involved in the football program over the years and has served as a mentor for student athletes,” said Fran Caan, executive director of the ETHS Educational Foundation. “I see him on campus all the time.” In 2009, Martin was inducted to the ETHS Athletic Hall of Fame.

Jeremy Piven (1983): Best known for his role as cantankerous Hollywood agent Ari Gold on HBO’s hit show Entourage, ETHS-alum Jeremy Piven (1983) first developed his acting chops at the Evanston-based theater school founded by his parents, The Noyes Cultural Arts Center’s Piven Theater Workshop. As the son of stage actors Byrne and Joyce Piven, Jeremy is a member of what Stagebill has called “Chicago’s first family of acting”, according to the Piven Theater website. Piven was recently nominated for an ETHS Distinguished Alumni Award, and, though he was not chosen during last year’s selection process, he will remain on the ballot for an additional three years. Piven is currently in the process of filming Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, according to IMDB.

Gordon Segal (1956): To go to the nearest Crate & Barrel, Evanston must drive into Skokie, but the retail chain wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for an ETHS alum. Gordon Segal and his wife, Carole, opened the first Crate & Barrel in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood in 1962, only six years after Gordon graduated from ETHS. Through ups and downs, Gordon slowly expanded the business, first to Wilmette, then to Boston, then beyond, according to a 2012 CNN interview. Though Gordon stepped down as CEO in May 2008, the retailer reportedly had 115 stores and $1.4 billion in annual sales at the end of 2011. Gordon Segal is currently CEO of Prairie Management Group LLC, a Northbook-based private investment firm. He was one of five presented the ETHS Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003.

Emery Moorehead (1972): As a tight end for the Super Bowl XX-champion Chicago Bears, Emery Moorehead might be the only ETHS alum to ever win a professional sports’ championship. After graduating in 1972, Moorehead earned a scholarship to play football at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he helped lead the team to an Orange Bowl victory during his senior year. Moorehead played three seasons with the New York Giants and one with the Denver Broncos before being traded to the Bears. While, Moorehead spoke fondly of his time as an NFL player as recently as 2009, in 2012 he became one of nearly 3,000 former NFL players to sue the league, accusing the league of suppressing information that linked football-related injuries to brain damage, according to a Sept. 28 CBS Chicago article.

Moorhead was elected to the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the ETHS Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000. “Emery has been quite involved with ETHS over the years,” said ETHS’s Fran Caan. “He was very instrumental in helping secure a $200,000 grant from the NFL for building the new turf football field in 2008.”

His son, Aaron Moorehead, also won an NFL championship as a member of the 2006-07 Indianapolis Colts, making the duo one of just two first father-and-son pairs to win a Super Bowl. Moorehead is currently a real estate agent at Koenig & Strey Real Living in Lake Forest and a director at The North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors.

Ajay Naidu (1990): Remember Peter’s friend in Office Space, Samir Naga-Naga-Naga not gonna work here anymore? Well, the memorable character from Mike Judge’s 1999 cult comedy was portrayed by Indian-American actor and ETHS-alum Ajay Naidu, who graduated from the high school in 1990. Since portraying this recognizable role, Naidu has racked up acting credits in the films The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream, Bad Santa, Hannibal and K-Pax, and had appeared on the televisions shows The Sopranos, The West Wing, 30 Rock, Monk and Bored to Death, according to The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Most recently, Naidu wrote and directed the 2010 independent film Ashes, about a young Indian-American struggling to support himself and resist temptation in New York City. He is set to act in the upcoming film, Gods Behaving Badly, about Greek gods living in modern-day NYC.

Ezra Furman (2004): After graduating from ETHS in 2004, Ezra Furman attended Tufts University, where he became the eponymous lead-singer of the four-piece rock band Ezra Furman & the Harpoons. The band self-released its first album, Beat Beat Beat, in 2006, and was signed shortly afterward. Since then, the Harpoons have toured around the U.S. and released three studio albums. After 2011’s Mysterious Power, Furman went solo and released The Year of No Returning in 2012. Furman performed at Evanston’s S.P.A.C.E. music venue as recently as December 29, and shortly afterward, announced on his Twitter page that he planned to release a new solo album in 2013.