SungWon Cho ( ; ; born December 9, 1990), also known as ProZD, is an American YouTuber and actor. On his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel, Cho produces short comedy skits, unboxing videos, and reviews of

board games A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

and snack foods. He is also known for his many voice acting roles, including FL4K from ''

Borderlands 3 ''Borderlands 3'' is a 2019 action role-playing first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K. It is a sequel to 2012's '' Borderlands 2'', and the fourth entry in the main ''Borderlands'' series. ''Borderla ...

'', Holst Sigiswald Goneril from '' Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes'', and

Ratatoskr In Norse mythology, Ratatoskr (Old Norse, generally considered to mean "drill-tooth"Orchard (1997:129), Simek (2007:261), and Byock (2005:173). or "bore-tooth"Lindow (2001:259).) is a squirrel who runs up and down the world tree Yggdrasil to carr ...

from ''

God of War Ragnarök ''God of War Ragnarök'' is a 2022 action-adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was released worldwide on November 9, 2022, for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, marking the ...

''. His live-action roles include Detective Joe Furuya in ''Anime Crimes Division'' and Ritchie Cheung in ''

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

''.

Early life

Cho was born to South Korean parents in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

on December 9, 1990, and later moved to

DeWitt, Michigan DeWitt is a city in Clinton County, Michigan, Clinton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,776 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is located north of Interstate 69 in Michigan, Interstate 69 and west of ...

. He started voice acting in high school when he voiced different characters on a friend's

radio plays Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

. He attended

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

, where he frequently acted in live performances and graduated in 2012 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in Media Information and Technology. In 2012, after graduating, he described himself as being "in a creative rut" and taught

English as a second language English as a second or foreign language refers to the use of English by individuals whose native language is different, commonly among students learning to speak and write English. Variably known as English as a foreign language (EFL), Engli ...

to Korean immigrant students.

Career

In October 2012, Cho began daily posting voice content to

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, building an audience and eventually going viral with a video of him singing "

Let It Go "Let It Go" is a song from Disney's 2013 computer-animated feature film '' Frozen'', whose music and lyrics were composed by husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The song was performed in its original show ...

" from '' Frozen'' while approximating the voice of

Goofy Goofy is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled fe ...

. His first foray into professional voice acting occurred when voice director Deven Mack saw one of his YouTube videos and had him audition for '' Apotheon'', where he ended up securing the role of the main villain Zeus. He remained active on Vine until the 2016 announcement of their shutdown and was also a finalist for the 9th Shorty Awards for Vine of the Year. Cho shifted his focus to his

channel, his audience following from Vine and having his work often appear on the frontpage of

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. In 2017 Cho starred in his first live action role as the main character, Detective Joe Furuya, in

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

's ''Anime Crimes Division'', for which he was nominated for Best Acting in a Comedy for the

8th Streamy Awards The 8th Annual Streamy Awards was the eighth installment of the Streamy Awards honoring the best in American streaming television series and their creators. The ceremony was broadcast live on YouTube on October 22, 2018, from The Beverly Hilton i ...

. In mid-2018

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reached out and signed him coinciding with an already planned move to Los Angeles to continue his career as a voice actor. Soon after he was cast in the multi-ethnic

Rooster Teeth Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC was an American entertainment company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth was a subsidiary o ...

series '' Gen:Lock'' and told NewsWeek's Phillip Martinez, "Voice acting gives me a lot more freedom because I'm not limited by my physical appearance. I can voice all different sorts of characters." Cho's presence on YouTube grew throughout this time with his channel exceeding 3.75 million subscribers and most of his income between voice acting work coming from sponsorships and ad revenue. His videos are intentionally low-budget and often feature recurring universes with their own casts of characters, including an anime parody ("The Tomoko Chairem Anime Canon") and a role-playing game parody ("King Dragon"), through which he pokes fun at common gaming and anime cliches and tropes. He continued to expand these existing storylines that had originally started on Vine, as well as creating a

Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...

channel ''Press Buttons n Talk'' with his friend Alex Mankin. In 2019, Cho voiced the character FL4K in the video game ''

''. He is a frequent guest at conventions and presenting for the

Crunchyroll Anime Awards The Crunchyroll Anime Awards, also known simply as The Anime Awards, are awards given annually by the anime streaming service Crunchyroll to recognize the best anime of the previous year. Announced in December 2016, the awards were first prese ...

. In 2021, Cho began a new Let's Play channel ''ProZD Plays Games'' with his friend and video editor, Jay Choi. The channel has now reached over 100,000 subscribers and Choi has transitioned as full-time editor for both of Cho's YouTube channels while being succeeded as co-host by their friend, Steve Yurko. In 2023, Cho made his live-action Hollywood debut, playing a supporting role in ''

''.

Personal life

In October 2015, Cho became engaged to Anne Marie Salter, a professional illustrator he met through an online ''

Super Mario (also known as and is a platform game series created by Nintendo starring their mascot, Mario. It is the central series of the greater Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise. At least one ''Super Mario'' game has been released for every ma ...

'' fan fiction community. They married on May 28, 2016. They have two cats named Effie and Sophie, who are often seen in Cho's videos. Cho came up with the username "ProZD" in elementary school, and said that he would not disclose what it means as "it's so embarrassing that even my wife doesn't know." On April 26, 2022, Cho tweeted that he had finally revealed the meaning of the username to his wife after being together for fourteen years.

Filmography

Film

Television

Web series

Video games

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cho, SungWon 1990 births Living people American gaming YouTubers American male actors of Korean descent American male video game actors American male voice actors American Twitch (service) streamers American Vine (service) celebrities English-language YouTube channels Male actors from Los Angeles Male actors from Saint Paul, Minnesota Michigan State University alumni YouTubers from Los Angeles YouTubers from Minnesota 21st-century American male actors