Edward "Ed" Boon (born February 22, 1964)[1] is an American video game programmer, voice actor, and director. Boon was employed for over 15 years at Midway Games. Since 2011, he has worked for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for one of its Subsidiaries, NetherRealm Studios.
Ed Boon | |
|---|---|
 Boon in 2023 | |
| Born | February 22, 1964 |
| Occupation(s) | Game programmer, director, philanthropist, voice actor and producer |
| Years active | 1987–present |
Boon is best known for the widely popular Mortal Kombat series, which he created with John Tobias, and the Injustice series. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.[2]
Life and career
editBoon graduated from high school at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. Boon is of Hispanic descent, from the Dominican Republic. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[3][4]
After graduation, he was employed by Williams Entertainment in their pinball department, working on approximately 20 pinball games over the next two years.[5] During this time, he was called the Mortal Master, an early indicator towards a future creation.
He is the co-creator of the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, along with John Tobias,[6] and served as the series' lead programmer, with Tobias the lead designer, until their partnership dissolved with Tobias' departure from Midway in 2000. Boon named series characters Sonya and Tanya after his sisters Sonia and Tania,[7] while another character, Noob Saibot, was named after Boon and Tobias' reversed surnames. This is also elaborated in their Twitter handles, @noobde and @therealsaibot.[8][9] Programmer Mike Boon is Ed's younger brother, and has been in his team since Mortal Kombat 4.[4] The Boons are Hispanic and Dominican by ethnicity.[10][11]
Boon was ranked #100 in IGN's 2009 list of "Top 100 Game Creators" for his involvement in the Mortal Kombat series.[12] He continues to be directly involved with the MK franchise and its multimedia side projects, and has also provided voice acting and motion capture work for the games, most notably providing the voice for the "Come here!" and "Get over here!" catchphrases uttered by Scorpion in every installment of the series as well as the first two feature films Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat Annihilation. The 2008 edition of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition consequently awarded him a world record for the "longest-serving video game voice actor."[13]
In 2018 Mortal Kombat was exhibited in an arcade cabinet at the Chicago New Media 1973–1992 exhibition, curated by jonCates.[14]
Works
editVideo games
edit| Year | Title | Role(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | High Impact Football | — |
| 1991 | Super High Impact | — |
| 1992 | Total Carnage | Voice of General Akhboob |
| 1992 | Mortal Kombat | Designer, programmer, voice of Scorpion, Reptile, Shang Tsung (announcer) |
| 1993 | Mortal Kombat II | Designer, programmer, voice of Scorpion, Smoke, Noob Saibot, Liu Kang, and Jax |
| 1995 | Mortal Kombat 3 | Designer, programmer, voice of Smoke, Liu Kang and Jax |
| 1995 | Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 | Executive producer, designer, programmer, voice of Scorpion |
| 1996 | Mortal Kombat Trilogy | Designer, programmer |
| 1997 | Mortal Kombat 4 | Designer, programmer, voice of Johnny Cage, Raiden, Kai, Scorpion and Jax |
| 1999 | Mortal Kombat Gold | Project lead, voice of Cyrax |
| 2001 | The Grid | — |
| 2002 | Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance | Team lead, game design, programming, voice of Scorpion |
| 2004 | Mortal Kombat: Deception | Project lead, game design, programming, voice of Scorpion, Reiko, Sub-Zero and Noob Saibot |
| 2005 | Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks | Executive producer, voice of Scorpion |
| 2006 | Mortal Kombat: Armageddon | Creative director |
| 2008 | Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe | Creative director, team leader |
| 2011 | Mortal Kombat | Team leader, creative director, additional voices |
| 2011 | Batman: Arkham City Lockdown | Creative director |
| 2013 | Injustice: Gods Among Us | Creative director, team leader |
| 2013 | Batman: Arkham Origins | — |
| 2015 | Mortal Kombat X | Creative director, team leader |
| 2017 | Injustice 2 | Creative director, team leader |
| 2019 | Mortal Kombat 11 | Creative director, team leader |
| 2023 | Mortal Kombat 1 | Creative director, team leader |
Pinball
edit| Year | Title | Role(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 | F-14 Tomcat | effects |
| 1987 | Space Station: Pinball Rendezvous | software and effects |
| 1988 | Banzai Run | effects |
| 1988 | Taxi | software and effects |
| 1989 | Black Knight 2000 | software and effects |
| 1990 | FunHouse | voice of Rudy[15] |
Media
edit| Year | Title | Role(s) | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Mortal Kombat | Scorpion (voice) | [15] |
| 1997 | Mortal Kombat Annihilation | ||
| 2006 | Drawn Together | Episode: "The One Wherein There Is a Big Twist: Part 2" | |
| 2011 | Mortal Kombat: Legacy | Ed Goodman | cameo appearance in first-season episode "Johnny Cage" |
References
edit- ^ Birthday references:
- ed boon [@noobde] (February 22, 2016). "Thanks for all the Birthday wishes everyone! Very much appreciated! Smoke the dog bones! Who catches a bad cough on their birthday? This guy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" (Tweet). Retrieved November 16, 2016 – via Twitter.
- mortalkombatonline.com (February 22, 1964). "Ed Boon's Birthday". Archived from the original on August 15, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
- ^ "IGN - 100. Ed Boon". IGN. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
- ^ "Universities of Missouri, Illinois hailed as tech's powerful colleges". St. Louis Business Journal. May 3, 2010. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
- ^ a b Borrelli, Christopher (May 1, 2013). "'Mortal Kombat' creator Ed Boon back with DC superhero game". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on November 5, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
- ^ "Mortal's Master: Programmer Ed Boon". GamePro. No. 86. IDG. November 1995. pp. 38–40.
- ^ Barton, Steve (June 10, 2010). "E3 2010: Mortal Kombat Returns! See the New Trailer!". Dread Central. Archived from the original on August 6, 2022. Retrieved June 10, 2010.
- ^ "Mortal Kombat X gets the Xenomorph, Leatherface, and a few old favourites". GamesRadar+. December 4, 2015. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
- ^ "Ed Boon's Twitter". Archived from the original on May 15, 2022. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
- ^ "John Tobias' Twitter". Archived from the original on October 25, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Boon, Ed [@noobde] (June 24, 2013). "@MK_CDjr All in good fun my fellow Dominican! We know U R a great player & are listening to U. But we can't react immediately. U know that" (Tweet). Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2021 – via Twitter.
- ^ Boon, Ed [@noobde] (September 23, 2021). "Even better…. Mortal Kombat co-creator @therealsaibot is also Hispanic so we should celebrate for 2 months 👍🏻😀 https://t.co/ViuD9RE7CW" (Tweet). Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2021 – via Twitter.
- ^ IGN Games (February 23, 2009). "Top 100 Game Creators". IGN. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
- ^ Glenday, Craig (2008). Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition. Guinness World Records. p. 79. ISBN 978-1904994206.
- ^ Cates, Jon (2018). Chicago New Media, 1973-1992. Illinois, US: University of Illinois. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-252-08407-2.
- ^ a b "Ed Boon | Behind The Voice Actors". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on July 27, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2019. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources.
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