Johnny Yong Bosch (born January 6, 1976) is an American actor, musician, singer, and martial artist. His first major role was the portrayal of Adam Park, the second on screen Black Power Ranger and later, the Green Zeo Ranger and first Green Turbo Ranger in the Power Rangers franchise, which led to roles in some martial arts television and feature films. Bosch is located in Los Angeles and does most of his voice-over work at Bang Zoom! Entertainment, Animaze, New Generation Pictures, NYAV Post, Studiopolis and on some occasions travels to Dallas to record shows for Funimation. As a voice actor, some of his most notable roles were Vash the Stampede in Trigun, Ichigo Kurosaki in Bleach, Yu Narukami in Persona 4 and Lelouch Vi Britannia in Code Geass.
Early life
Bosch was born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in Garland, Texas, as John Jay Bosch. His father was a soldier in the Army and met his mother while stationed in South Korea. He was interested in martial arts at an early age, inspired by martial arts movies and Bruce Lee. He taught himself martial arts at first, mimicking moves from Lee as well as Jackie Chan. Bosch said he was ridiculed a lot when he was young and became a bully, but made a change for the better after studying kung fu. In addition to training in martial arts, in which he won several competitions, he also played soccer.
Career
Power Rangers and other projects
Bosch auditioned for the Power Rangers show in Dallas after being informed of the audition by his martial arts instructor. In 1994, he landed the role of Adam Park, the new Black Power Ranger, replacing Walter Emanuel Jones in the second season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Bosch said that when he got the part, he changed his middle name to Yong, which was part of his mother's given name, at the request of Saban who thought his credited name needed to be more Asian. For the feature film Power Rangers: The Movie, he did all of his stunts after his stuntman had broken his leg. He also noted that among all the different animal characters the Rangers got to be associated, his was associated to a frog. In Power Rangers Zeo, Bosch's character became a Green Ranger. His final regular stint in the franchise was in Power Rangers Turbo, where his character passes his Green Turbo Ranger powers to a new member. He played Adam in the second feature film Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. In looking back at his acting for the show, Bosch said that "Power Rangers was a lot of fun but it was a kid's show and very cheesy because of it, which made getting work after that really hard. Plus, I didn't know squat about acting then." His best friends on the set included Jason David Frank (who played Tommy Oliver), Jason Narvy (who played Skull) and Nakia Burrise (who played Tanya Sloan). At the request of Power Rangers director Koichi Sakamoto, he had a guest appearance in the Power Rangers Operation Overdrive episode "Once A Ranger" in 2007 for the franchise's 15th anniversary, where he mentioned he got to go to New Zealand. He and Narvy also starred in the film Wicked Game, also known as Extreme Heist, which was directed by Sakamoto and features several other Power Rangers alumni.
In July 2019, a crowdfunding campaign for the film Legend Of The White Dragon, including Jason David Frank, Bosch, Jason Faunt, Ciara Hanna, Yoshi Sudarso, Chrysti Ane and Jenna Frank, was launched on kickstarter.
In 2020, he directed his first film Ark Exitus starring Jason Narvy.
In 2023, Bosch reprised the role of Adam Park in a 30th-anniversary special, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, which was released on Netflix in 2023.
Voice acting
Bosch made his voice acting debut as Kaneda, who first appeared in the cult classic anime film Akira. In 2001, His other most famous voice over role was the main character Vash the Stampede in the anime Trigun, and later reprised the same role as Vash in the 2010 movie Trigun: Badlands Rumble as well as in the 2023 ongoing anime reboot called Trigun Stampede. He worked once again with Koichi Sakamoto on the film Broken Path. Also in 2001, Bosch was also cast as the lead role of Ichigo Kurosaki in the hit shonen anime Bleach. In 2007, Bosch co-starred alongside Ray Park in a comic-book style action film, Hellbinders. Among other works, Bosch also voiced Lelouch in Code Geass in 2008, and Izaya Orihara in Durarara in 2011. Johnny voiced Yun Arikawa in the 2021 Netflix kaiju anime series, Godzilla Singular Point.