The most well-known perl hacker (outside the programming world) must be Dan Kogai in Japan.
A piece on him in the Mainichi Shinbun last week starts:
As first shot in a planned series of articles on blogging where we get A-list bloggers to discuss their thoughts and ideas, Dan Kogai, network engineer. Kogai (38), the operator of '404 Blog Not Found', which stands out with its more than a million hits a month, the former CTO of On the Edge, the predecessor of LiveDoor, and in 2005 the recipient of the Alpha Blogger Award, was thrust into the limelight as TV commentator on the occasion of the LiveDoor scandal. "The fact the media has been increasingly contacting me for my views as a blogger (unconnected with the LiveDoor scandal) recently has made me really happy," says Kogai.
