George Romero is one of the top names in the modern horror film business, thanks to his 1968 cult classic Night of the Living Dead. Romero grew up in New York and attended the Carnegie-Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began his filmmaking career producing industrial films and television commercials. Night of the Living Dead was his first feature film, a low-budget black and white movie about zombies on the attack. Although Romero has written and directed several other films for the big screen and television, he will always be associated with his zombie movies, including the sequels Dawn of the Dead (1979) and Day of the Dead (1985). His other films include Creepshow (1982), Monkey Shines (1988) and The Dark Half (1993, based on the Stephen King novel). In 1990 Romero oversaw the remake of Night of the Living Dead, but he was not involved in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.

Extra credit: Some sources list his birth year as 1940; the official site for his movie Diamond Dead, managed by his son, Cameron, lists his birth year as 1939... Another famous offbeat student from Carnegie-Mellon: Andy Warhol.