SungWon_Cho

SungWon Cho

SungWon Cho

American YouTuber and voice actor

SungWon Cho[3] (/ˈsʌŋwʌn/ SUNG-wun;[4] Korean: 조성원; RR: Jo Seong-won; born December 9, 1990), also known by his internet pseudonym ProZD, is an American YouTuber and voice actor. On his YouTube channel, Cho produces short comedy skits, unboxing videos, and reviews of board games and snack foods. He is also known for his many voice acting roles, including FL4K from Borderlands 3, Holst Sigiswald Goneril from Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes and Ratatoskr from God of War Ragnarök. His live-action roles include Detective Joe Furuya in Anime Crimes Division and Richie Cheung in BlackBerry.

In this Korean name, the family name is Cho.
Quick Facts Born, Other names ...

Early life

Cho was born to Korean parents in Minnesota on December 9, 1990,[5][6] and later moved to DeWitt, Michigan.[7] He started voice acting in high school when he voiced different characters on a friend's radio plays.[8] He attended Michigan State University, where he frequently acted in live performances and graduated in 2012 with a degree in Media Information and Technology.[8][9][10] In 2012, after graduating, he described himself as being "in a creative rut" and taught English as a second language to Korean immigrant students.[11]

Career

Cho presenting at his panel at SMASH 2023 in Sydney, Australia

In October 2012, Cho began daily posting voice content to Tumblr, building an audience and eventually going viral with a video of him singing "Let It Go" from Frozen while approximating the voice of Goofy.[11] His first foray into professional voice acting occurred when voice director Deven Mack saw one of his YouTube videos and had him audition for Apotheon, where he ended up securing the role of the main villain Zeus.[12] He remained active on Vine until the 2016 announcement of their shutdown and was also a finalist for the 9th Shorty Awards for Vine of the Year.[13][14] Cho shifted his focus to his YouTube channel, his audience following from Vine and having his work often appear on the frontpage of Reddit.[15][16]

In 2017 Cho starred in his first live action role as the main character, Detective Joe Furuya, in Crunchyroll's Anime Crimes Division, for which he was nominated for Best Acting in a Comedy for the 8th Streamy Awards.[17][18] In mid-2018 Creative Artists Agency reached out and signed him coinciding with an already planned move to Los Angeles to continue his career as a voice actor.[19][20] Soon after he was cast in the multi-ethnic Rooster Teeth series Gen:Lock and told NewsWeek's Phillip Martinez, "Voice acting gives me a lot more freedom because I'm not limited by my physical appearance. I can voice all different sorts of characters."[21]

Cho's presence on YouTube grew throughout this time with his channel exceeding 3.75 million subscribers and most of his income between voice acting work coming from sponsorships and ad revenue.[22] His videos are intentionally low-budget and often feature recurring universes with their own casts of characters, including an anime parody ("The Tomoko Chairem Anime Canon") and a role-playing game parody ("King Dragon"), through which he pokes fun at common gaming and anime cliches and tropes.[22] He continued to expand these existing storylines that had originally started on Vine, as well as creating a Let's Play channel Press Buttons n Talk with his friend Alex Mankin.[22][23] In 2019, Cho voiced the character FL4K in the popular video game Borderlands 3.[24] He has been a fan favorite in the anime community being a frequent guest at conventions and presenting for the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.[25][26]

In 2023, Cho made his live-action Hollywood debut, playing a supporting role in BlackBerry.

Personal life

In October 2015, Cho became engaged to Anne Marie Salter, a professional illustrator he met through an online Super Mario fan fiction community.[11] They married on May 28, 2016.[27] They have two cats named Effie and Sophie, who are often seen in Cho's videos.[28]

Cho came up with the username "ProZD" in elementary school, and said that he would not disclose what it means as "it's so embarrassing that even my wife doesn't know."[29] On April 26, 2022, Cho tweeted that he had finally revealed the meaning of the username to his wife after being together for fourteen years.[30]

Filmography

Film

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Television

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Web series

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Video games

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Awards and nominations

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References

  1. [1]
    "About ProZD". YouTube.
  2. [2]
    Cho, SungWon [@ProZD] (December 12, 2017). "one million subscribers on youtube, this is real surreal, this is a number that if you had asked me last year, i would've dismissed as an impossibility, thank you to anyone who's enjoyed my stuff" (Tweet). Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Twitter.
  3. [3]
    Cho, SungWon [@ProZD] (June 28, 2019). "dear anyone who contacts me for any reason ever, it's SungWon. not Sung, not Sung Won, not Sungwon, not Sung-Won, not Sung-won, not Sung won. SungWon, no fuckin space, capital-ass W thanks, SungWon" (Tweet). Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Twitter.
  4. [4]
    Cho, SungWon (October 12, 2017). "having a non-white name". YouTube. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  5. [5]
    Cho, SungWon (April 26, 2013). "Frequently Asked Questions". ProZD Likes to Voice Act. Tumblr. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  6. [6]
    Cho, SungWon [@ProZD] (October 6, 2018). "korea was a place i'd always been a little intimidated to visit, i speak korean pretty poorly and i'd only been once when i was 3, but i'm so glad i came. my family here is wonderful and made me feel so welcome, i truly felt at home. i can't wait to come back" (Tweet). Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Twitter.
  7. [7]
    Cho, SungWon [@ProZD] (May 25, 2020). "i've been informed i now have a wikipedia page, now i don't want to edit it myself, but to help out as a source (being myself), i will say i specifically grew up in DeWitt, Michigan as opposed to Lansing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SungWon_Cho" (Tweet). Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Twitter.
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  30. [30]
    @ProZD (April 27, 2022). "i have been married to @cherrizard for six years, we've been together for 14 years, and i've known her for even longer before that only tonight did she finally learn what ProZD stands for she is the only person who will ever know this dark secret" (Tweet). Retrieved August 30, 2022 – via Twitter.
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