Edward Boon (born February 22, 1964) is an American video game programmer, voice actor, and director. Boon was employed for over 15 years at

Midway Games Midway Games Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known simply as Midway) was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (franchise), Ra ...

. Since 2011, he has worked for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for one of its subsidiaries,

NetherRealm Studios NetherRealm Studios is an American video game developer based in Chicago and owned by Warner Bros. Games. Led by video game industry veteran and ''Mortal Kombat'' co-creator Ed Boon, the studio is in charge of developing the ''Mortal Kombat'' ...

. Boon is best known for the widely popular ''

Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The original ''Mortal Kombat (1992 video game), Mortal Kombat'' arcade game spawned Lis ...

'' series, which he created with

John Tobias John Tobias is an American Comic book creator, comic book artist, graphic designer, video game designer and writer. Tobias is best known for co-creating the ''Mortal Kombat'' series along with Ed Boon, to whom he pitched the game concept. Tobia ...

, and the ''

Injustice Injustice is a quality relating to unfairness or undeserved outcomes. The term may be applied in reference to a particular event or situation, or to a larger status quo. In Western philosophy and jurisprudence, injustice is very commonly—but ...

'' series. In 2009, he was chosen by

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.

Life and career

Boon graduated from high school at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. Boon is of Hispanic descent, from the Dominican Republic. He earned 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

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

from the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. After graduation, he was employed by Williams Entertainment in their

pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

department, working on approximately 20 pinball games over the next two years. During this time, he was called the Mortal Master, an early indicator towards a future creation. He is the co-creator of the ''

fighting game The fighting game video game genre, genre involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappling, counter- ...

series, along with

, and served as the series' lead programmer, with Tobias as 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, while another character,

Noob Saibot This is a list of Player character, playable and boss (video games), boss characters from the ''Mortal Kombat'' fighting game franchise and the games in which they appear. Created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, the series depicts conflicts between ...

, was named after Boon and Tobias' reversed surnames. Programmer Mike Boon is Ed's younger brother and has been a part of his team since '' Mortal Kombat 4''. The Boons are

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

and Dominican by ethnicity. Boon was featured in

's 2009 list of "Top 100 Game Creators" for his involvement in the ''Mortal Kombat'' series. He continues to be directly involved with the ''MK'' franchise and its multimedia side projects and has also provided

voice acting Voice acting is the art of performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animated, off-stage, off-sc ...

and

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...

work for the games, most notably providing the voice for the "Come here!" and "Get over here!" catchphrases by

Scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...

in several games of the series as well as the first two feature films ''

'' 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." In 2018, ''Mortal Kombat'' was exhibited in an arcade cabinet at the Chicago New Media 1973–1992 exhibition, curated by jonCates.

Works

Video games

Pinball

Media

References

External links

Ed Boon
on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boon, Ed Living people American male video game actors American male voice actors American people of Dominican Republic descent American people of Dutch descent American people of English descent Pinball game designers University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni American video game directors American video game programmers Loyola Academy alumni 1964 births