."Edward John Boon (born February 22, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American video game programmer and game director. Along with designer and fellow Chicagoan John Tobias, Boon is arguably best known as the creator of the Mortal Kombat franchise from Midway Games and later NetherRealm Studios, published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. At Netherrealm, he currently serves as the Creative Director for the current line of Mortal Kombat titles and the Injustice series from DC Comics.
A native of Chicago, Illinois, Boon holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After graduation, Boon was employed at Williams Electronics in their pinball department where he got to know the pinball wizard himself Steve Ritchie. While working on a number of twenty pinball games for two years straight, he later transferred to Midway Games for a period of almost twenty years until Midway's bankruptcy issues.
In addition to creating Mortal Kombat as a whole, Boon himself provided the voice of the franchise's mascot, Scorpion. His signature attack cries is legendary and has been ingrained in video game culture because of Boon's energetic and brutal sound byte. In June 2010, he was awarded the Guinness Book of World Records Longest Serving Video Game Voice Actor for voicing Scorpion in a span of seventeen years and eight months.
Video game credits:
- High Impact Football (1990)
- Super High Impact (1991)
- Mortal Kombat (1992)
- Mortal Kombat II (1993)
- Mortal Kombat 3 (1995)
- Ultimate Mortal Kombat III (1995)
- Mortal Kombat Trilogy (1996)
- Mortal Kombat 4 (1997)
- Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (1997)
- Mortal Kombat Gold (1999)
- Mortal Kombat: Special Forces (2000)
- The Grid (2001)
- Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002)
- Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004)
- Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005)
- Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006)
- Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008)
- Mortal Kombat (2011)
- Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013)
- Mortal Kombat X (2015)
- Injustice 2 (2017)
- Mortal Kombat 11 (2019)
- Mortal Kombat 1 (2023)
Pinball credits:
- F-14 Tomcat (1987)
- Space Station: Pinball Rendezvous (1988)
- Banzai Run (1988)
- Taxi (1989)
- Black Knight 2000 (1990)
Voice acting credits:
- FunHouse - Rudy the Dummy (1990)
- Total Carnage - General Akhboob (1992)
- Mortal Kombat series
- Mortal Kombat - Scorpion (Spear taunts only) (1992-Present)
- Mortal Kombat II - Jax ("GOTCHA!" only) (1993-Present), Liu Kang (1993)
- Mortal Kombat 4 - Kai, Raiden, Johnny Cage, Cyrax, Jax, Scorpion (1997)
- Mortal Kombat: Deception - Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Noob Saibot, Reiko (2004)
- Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks - Scorpion (2005)
- Mortal Kombat 11 - Movie Director (2019)
- Mortal Kombat: The Movie - Scorpion (1995)
- Mortal Kombat: Annihilation - Scorpion (1997)
- Drawn Together - Scorpion (2005) (FATALITY!)
Tropes relating to Ed Boon:
- Best Friend: He's kept in touch with John Tobias over the years, even after Tobias left Midway during 1999-2000. A prime example of their partnership enhanced more in 2008 when Tobias got asked by Boon himself to work on the Comic Book tie in to Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. Tobias himself, later said yes.
- Creator Cameo:
- In the third episode of Mortal Kombat: Legacy called "Johnny Cage", Ed Boon makes a cameo as a producer name "Ed Goodman". (Corny gag isn't it?)
- He also got to voice the Movie Director in Johnny Cage's "Who hired this guy?" Fatality in Mortal Kombat 11.
- Guilty Pleasures: Ed Boon revealed in late 2009 that he voiced Jax in Mortal Kombat 4 after finding the character's ladder ending where he delieved the most infamous line in all of Mortal Kombat, twelve years after the game's release. And he loves it. It never went unnoticed about a decade later where his credit for Jax in Mortal Kombat 4 went public after twenty-two years since the game was originally released.
- Large Ham: The result of Scorpion's iconic yells originated were caused by him doing a hoarse voice.
- Nice Guy: In real life, Ed Boon is one of the most humblest nicest people on the planet.
- Uncredited Role: On the same week Mortal Kombat 11 came out, Ed Boon revealed he provided the voices for Liu Kang & Jax in Mortal Kombat II in addition to Scorpion. While Scorpion and Jax were just battle quotes, Liu Kang was just hilarious chicken noises.
- Word of St. Paul: Ed Boon describes Mortal Kombat 4 as just "The Quan Chi Show".
