Ed Boon

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**Edward John Boon** (born February 22, 1964) is an American video game programmer, philanthropist, voice actor, and director who was employed for over 15 years at Midway Games and since 2011 has worked for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in its company NetherRealm Studios. Boon is best known for the widely popular *Mortal Kombat* series, which he created with John Tobias. Boon and Tobias' last names backwards are the basis for the name of the *Mortal Kombat* character Noob Saibot.

## Life and career

Boon was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and graduated from high school at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

After graduation, he was employed by Williams Entertainment in their pinball 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 *Mortal Kombat* fighting game series, along with John Tobias, 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 Blade and Tanya after his sisters Sonya and Tania, while another character, Noob Saibot, was named after Boon and Tobias' reversed surnames.

Boon was ranked #100 in IGN'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 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 both feature films. 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

### Pinball

* *F-14 Tomcat* (1987) - effects
* *Space Station: Pinball Rendezvous* (1987) - software and effects
* *Banzai Run* (1988) - effects
* *Taxi* (1988) - software and effects
* *Black Knight 2000* (1989) - software and effects
* *FunHouse* (1990) - voice of Rudy

### Media

 2011 | *Mortal Kombat: Legacy* | Ed Goodman | cameo appearance in first-season episode "Johnny Cage"

## References

1. ↑ Birthday references:

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	* Alex Fiegl (August 31, 2015). "Ed Boon presentation". https://prezi.com/r0pagdqkxxyn/ed-boon-presentation/. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
2. ↑ "Universities of Missouri, Illinois hailed as tech's powerful colleges". St. Louis Business Journal. 2010-05-03. http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2010/05/03/daily4.html. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
3. ↑ Template:Cite journal
4. ↑ "E3 2010: Mortal Kombat Returns! See the New Trailer!". DreadCentral. http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/37943/e3-2010-mortal-kombat-returns-see-new-trailer.
5. ↑ IGN Games (2009-02-23). "Top 100 Game Creators". Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. https://archive.is/20120710155725/http://games.ign.com/top-100-game-creators/100.html. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
6. ↑ Template:Cite book
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Ed Boon | Behind The Voice Actors". *Behind The Voice Actors*. https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Ed-Boon/. Retrieved July 27, 2019. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources.

## External links

* Ed Boon on Twitter
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