Agent Zed

**Chief** **Zed** was one of the founding members of the Men in Black, and the former Chief/Head of the MiB in all media forms. He ran the entire operation, and everyone answered to him. He was usually shown in his office, which is high above the main floor of the MiB Headquarters. Zed is played by late Rip Torn in Men in Black and Men in Black II and was played by Kirk Larsen in Men in Black III, and is voiced by Charles Napier in the Animated Series.

### Affiliation

MIBUnited Federation of planetsDepartment of temporal investigations

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

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## Appearance

In the films, Zed is tall and mighty. He has black hair and a black goatee. However, in the animated series, he is older, little overweight and he has white hair, dark circles under his eyes, and has no goatee. Plus he has a different voice actor, so his voice is changed. In both he has a serious voice, however he jokes around a little in the films.

## History

### Comic Book Series Continuity

in the original comic book series, Zed is just a voice that indicates Jay and Kay their missions without having a physical appearance. Not even received a face in an episode where Jay tried to escape from MiB headquarters. It is not clear if Zed is a human or just a voice made by computer, but the only sure is the voice is male.

#### Before MiB

Zed chooses not to say much about his life before MiB. In fact, he once discouraged Jay from looking into Kay's past, then, with even more emphasis, told him never to ask him about *his* past. Its known he was born in the 1930s though.

There is evidence that before he took the role of overseeing MiB, Zed enjoyed fishing

##### Men In Black

In the first film, Zed is the Chief/Head of MiB. After Agent K brought NYPD officer, James Edwards (later Agent J) into a training course for recruiting MiB personnel, Zed is seen talking to the many highly ranked officers, until Edwards arrives late and Zed tells him to sit. All officers, including Edwards, have to answer a sheet while Zed and Kay watch from a 'mirror room,' where they cannot be seen. Zed explains that Edwards has a problem with authority but K responds that he does too, and also that Edwards earlier chased down an extremely fast alien on foot and that's got to be tough enough.

Zed then takes all the officers to a room for an "eye exam", except Edwards who goes with K. Zed neuralyzes the other officers in the room. The next day James Edwards arrives at MiB Headquarters and becomes the MiB's newest recruit, Agent J. Later, Zed talks with K and J in his office while giving them the task to question the alien Redgick as to why he is about to leave Earth. Zed even gives J the nickname "tiger".

###### Men In Black II

In Men in Black II, when Serleena (who apparently wishes she was Zed's girlfriend) arrives on Earth, Zed sends J to restore K's memory (which he erased after the fight with Edgar the Bug) so the Light of Zartha could be sent off the earth before it could be destroyed. When Serleena invaded MiB headquarters, Zed fought against her, and lost. He was later seen after MIB Agents K and J defeated Serleena, Zed along with Agent K was trying to console Agent J for the departure of Laura (the Light of Zartha), although his rather graphic description of his sex life ended up just disgusting J, to the extent that when demanding they not help him, he specifically could only tell Zed "Hell, no!" in response.

At one point in the film, Michael Jackson asked him if he could join the Men in Black as Agent M, to which Zed replied that he was "still working on the alien-affirmative action program". He later used Michael Jackson's phone number in an attempt to distract Serleena in a failed attempt at fighting back.

###### Men In Black III

At the beginning of *Men In Black III*, it is shown that Zed had died shortly before the events of the film (Showing life years 19XX-2012). He was succeded by Agent O.