There is no doubt that the optical fiber has had a transformative impact on technology and photonics. The standard optical fiber, the lasing optical fiber, and the microstructured optical fiber have all spawned major industries and enabled new scientific and technological breakthroughs. There has been a drive to increase the functionality of the optical fiber and this talk will outline some of the key results in the development of the functionalized optical fiber. This will include the integration of semiconductors and low dimensional materials into the fiber geometry and how these can be exploited to produce optical fibers with new abilities.