Ed Boon

Ed Boon
Ed Boon (right) at E3 2013
Born	Edward John Boon (1964-02-22) February 22, 1964 (age 52) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Occupation	Game programmer, director, actor and producer
Years active	1989 – present

Edward John "Ed" Boon (born February 22, 1964) is an American video game programmer and director who had been employed for over 15 years at Midway Games and since 2011 works for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in its subsidiary company NetherRealm Studios. Boon is best known for the widely popular Mortal Kombat series, which he created with John Tobias.

Boon was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and graduated 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.

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.