Walter E. Jones
From dancer and martial artist to the Black Ranger who gave the team its rhythm — actor, voice artist, and pure positive energy.
01
The Beginning
There's a version of the 1990s that doesn't move the same without Walter E. Jones. When Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted in 1993, nobody had a roadmap for what it would become — least of all the people making it. Zack Taylor, the original Black Ranger, brought something the screen had never quite seen: pure, infectious energy and a style all his own — equal parts martial artist and dancer.
The character worked because the person behind it had something real to offer. Walter brought a presence to Zack grounded in genuine training, genuine rhythm, and a charisma you simply can't fake. The fans felt it. A generation of kids decided what cool, kind, and confident looked like based on what they saw on that screen, and it stayed with them.
Zack didn't just round out the team. He was the spark that made it fun to watch.
02
The Discipline
The moves were never just choreography. Walter was a dancer long before he was a Ranger, and he fused that rhythm with martial arts into something the show named after his style: Hip Hop Kido. Every time Zack moved, it landed differently than the rest — and audiences noticed, even if they couldn't say why.
That energy extended far beyond the set. The same instinct that made him magnetic on screen shaped how he approached every craft he touched — dance, acting, voice work — and how he treated the people around him. It was never about showing off. It was about lifting the room.
He has kept moving, performing, and creating ever since. The craft never stopped mattering to him — it just kept finding new stages long after the cameras moved on.
1993
First Appearance
65K+
Members
30+
Years in the Franchise
1-of-1
Hip Hop Kido Style
03
The Full Picture
Walter never let one role become the whole story. He built a career as a working actor and a sought-after voice artist, lending his energy to animation, games, and film for decades. The decision to keep creating was consistent with the person — restless, curious, and always in motion.
The years between major franchise moments were never empty. They were the years in which Walter became the fullest version of himself — a performer, a teacher of movement, and a man whose default setting is bringing good energy wherever he goes.
The Black Ranger was one chapter. The energy was the whole book.
04
The Community
Walter has never pretended the role didn't shape part of his life, and the fans have never pretended it didn't shape part of theirs. That mutual honesty is the reason the Hip Hop Kido community exists. It's not a transaction dressed up as a community — it's a community that happens to involve a transaction.
He shows up. At conventions, in direct messages, in the live meet-and-greets that members get access to throughout the year. He remembers that the reason he gets to have this relationship with his fans is because those fans decided — often very young — to care about something he was part of. He doesn't take that lightly.
Fanward exists, in part, because of that belief: that fans deserve a direct line to the people they admire, built on something more durable than an algorithm deciding what they get to see.
The fans kept the energy alive for thirty years. That deserves more than a repost.
Ready to Go Deeper?
Bi-weekly exclusive videos, private community access, live meet-and-greets, and a direct line to Walter — all inside the Hip Hop Kido membership.