Ed Boon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ed Boon
Boon in 2023
Born	Edward Boon (1964-02-22) February 22, 1964 (age 61) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Game programmer, creative director, philanthropist, voice actor and producer
Years active	1987–present

Edward "Ed" Boon (born February 22, 1964) is an American video game programmer, voice actor, and director. He is famous for co-creating the popular Mortal Kombat fighting game series. He also helped create the Injustice series. Ed Boon worked at Midway Games for over 15 years. Since 2011, he has been working for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment at NetherRealm Studios. In 2009, he was recognized by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.

Ed Boon's Early Life and Career

Ed Boon grew up in Wilmette and went to Loyola Academy for high school. He is of Hispanic background, with family from the Dominican Republic. He studied mathematics and computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Starting in Pinball Games

After college, Ed Boon started working at Williams Entertainment in their pinball game department. For about two years, he helped create around 20 different pinball games. During this time, people sometimes called him the "Mortal Master," which was a hint at his future success with Mortal Kombat.

Creating Mortal Kombat

Ed Boon is the co-creator of the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. He worked with John Tobias to bring this famous game to life. Ed Boon was the main programmer for the series, while John Tobias was the lead designer. Their partnership continued until John Tobias left Midway in 2000.

Ed Boon named some characters in the game after his family members. For example, the characters Sonya and Tanya are named after his sisters, Sonia and Tania. Another character, Noob Saibot, has a name made by spelling Boon and Tobias's last names backward. Ed's younger brother, Mike Boon, is also a programmer and has been part of his team since Mortal Kombat 4.

Voice Acting and Recognition

Ed Boon is still very involved with the Mortal Kombat games and other projects related to the series. He has also done voice acting and motion capture work for the games. He is especially known for providing the famous catchphrases "Come here!" and "Get over here!" for the character Scorpion in many games and the first two Mortal Kombat movies.

Because of his long history of voice acting in video games, the 2008 edition of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition gave him a world record for being the "longest-serving video game voice actor." In 2018, an original Mortal Kombat arcade game was shown at an exhibition in Chicago, celebrating its history.

Games Ed Boon Worked On

Video Games

Pinball Games

Other Media

See also

In Spanish: Ed Boon para niños