We all know the Miyamoto's, CliffyB's, Molyneaux's and so on, but who was the first celebrity developer that you remember playing and knowing the person attached to that game?  Note that this isn't necessarilly asking if you played Mario or Unreal Tournament first since you could play those and not realize Miyamoto or CliffyB had a hand in those.

The first celebrity developer I remember is Roberta Williams and Sierra.  I always remember she's the lady that did the King's Quest games and her picture was always featured with the boxes on pretty much all Sierra games.

For me hands down, John Carmack.

He was the only game developer that I knew by name until I found out about this site.

Hideo Kojima - Metal Gear Solid

Probably John Carmack and John Romero.

Mine was cliffy B or John Romero. Both shown by mate. In UT or Unreal 1 it was more obvious as it actually stated who created the level.

Twesterm - Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Adrian Chmielarz - I think he was the first well-known game developer in Poland. He even had his own column in a biggest video game magazine at that time. In mid to late '90 it was hard for a gamer to not know who he is ... in Poland :P
If you don't recognize the name, he is founder of People Can Fly (Bulletstorm).

Probably Miyamoto, realistically speaking. But Carmack and Kojima would have been up there as well. 

Hideo Kojima because of the MGS games.

Then I found out about Miyamoto and then I found out Tetsuya Nomura a few years later.

But yeah Kojima was the first one.