Walter Emanuel Jones

Walter Emanuel Jones (born November 30, 1970) is an American actor, martial artist, and dancer, known for playing the role of Zack Taylor, the Black Ranger on the hit television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

He also appeared in successful television shows including Family Matters, Step by Step, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Moesha, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Early Edition, NYPD Blue, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Off Centre and The Shield.

He played in movies including Backyard Dogs (2000), House of the Dead 2 (2005), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) and recently in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016).

He gave his voice talent to movies as Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Primeval (2007), Post Grad (2009), Warrior (2011), Chronicle (2012) and animated movies including Open Season 2 (2008) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013).

Life and career
Jones was born in Detroit, Michigan. He began his career by an uncredited role in the successful TV show Beverly Hills, 90210. In 1992, he took part in the Malcolm X movie.

Jones played the character of Zack Taylor, the original "Black Power Ranger" in the Power Rangers series. He was written out of the series midway through the second season, after a contract and pay dispute, and was replaced by Johnny Yong Bosch. Jones returned to Power Rangers in the Lost Galaxy season (1999) where he played the voice of Hexuba's Nightmare Monster in the episode "Dream Battle"; he also acted in an episode of Power Rangers: Wild Force (2002) entitled Forever Red in which many previous Red Rangers teamed up. Again, he did not appear as his original character, Zack, but rather provided the voice for one of the antagonists, a general in the Machine Empire named Gerrok. He was also one of the special commentators, along with fellow co-star Amy Jo Johnson, on the "1993" episode of I Love the '90s. He also reunited with Austin St. John (with whom he formed a close friendship during their time together on the show) as co-host for a special airing of the original pilot episode of Power Rangers called "The Lost Episode".

Jones was the very first actor to do voicework for any character other than a Ranger (mainly for monsters or villains) on a Power Rangers show after having a role as a Ranger himself. Other former Rangers who would do voicework after Jones included Archie Kao, Catherine Sutherland, Jason Faunt, Valerie Vernon, Sean Cw Johnson and Johnny Yong Bosch.

Jones was a lead character in the teen drama Malibu Shores playing "Mouse". Jones also had major roles in the independent movie The Dogwalker. He has appeared in other well-known productions, including a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the season 4 episode "Fear, Itself" and the Disney Channel Original Movie, Brink!. He also appeared as Harlan Band in the Nickelodeon series Space Cases, his second role as a main character and as a teenager. He guest starred in an episode of Family Matters as Kissel, and portrayed a supporting character in the first season of The Shield named Rondell Robinson, a drug dealer. He had a small role in the film Suckers in which he played a character named Clay. He also appeared in many successful TV shows including Family Matters, Step by Step, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Moesha, Early Edition, NYPD Blue, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Off Centre. Additionally, he played a small role in the film House of the Dead 2 as "locker zombie". Jones also had a cameo appearance in the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Jones also had a major role in the backyard wrestling movie Backyard Dogs, which spent time as the lowest-rated movie on the Internet Movie Database. As of July 2007, it is no longer on the list as it was straight-to-video. Jones provided the voice of "The Kid", the main character in the video game Freedom Fighters. He also voiced characters in the successful animated movies Open Season 2 (2008) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013).

He appeared briefly as a salsa dance instructor on Age of Love. He also appeared in Mighty Med and as a poet in an episode of Disney XD's Pair of Kings. Additionally Jones has also been featured in a PetSmart commercial and a Bank of America commercial as well. In 2002, he appeared in the movie Love and a Bullet. In 2016, he appeared in the movie Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and the short movie Star Trek : Captain Pike.

In 2017, he will star in an upcoming short movie The Order alongside : Austin St. John, Catherine Sutherland, David Yost, Johnny Yong Bosch, Paul Schrier, Karan Ashley, Steve Cardenas, Erin Cahill, Blake Foster, Nakia Burrise, Hilary Shepard Turner, Dan Southworth, Alyson Sullivan, Deborah Estelle Phillips and Azim Rizk.