Fon Davis (born July 16, 1970) is a Vietnamese-American director and visual effects artist who competed in Comedy Central BattleBots. and served as a guest judge during the 2016 season on ABC and returning for World Championship VII.
Born in Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, Fon Davis moved to the US while young, graduating high school and working at a local McDonald's in Oregon. He decided to quit his job, travel to San Francisco and set about his dream of working in special effects. This work inspired him to build combat robots in the late 1990s and he would later build Mouser Mecha-Catbot, which attracted a large fan following despite winning only 50% of its fights.
Fon Davis with Mouser Mecha-Catbot during Comedy Central BattleBots.
Davis was originally set to compete in the ABC reboot of BattleBots, but since he was unable to get sponsors to financially support a build, he became a celebrity judge instead. In 2021, Davis and fellow former BattleBots competitor turned guest judge Adam Savage reunited to discuss the show and even show off Mouser Mecha-Catbot in its current state as part of Adam Savage's Tested.[1] The pair collaborated on other videos too, unrelated to BattleBots, such as reminiscing their time working together at ILM and on certain films.[2]
Fon Davies (right) alongside Jessica Chobot and Adam Savage.
Fon Davis at the 2012 Combots Cup event.
Mouser Mecha-Catbot returned to Davis' ownership in late 2021, according to previous owner and Malice captain Bunny Liaw.
Following the departure of Jason Bardis from the BattleBots judging panel in 2022, Fon Davis returned ahead of World Championship VII on Discovery, joined by Derek Young and Lisa Winter. This was evidenced in an Instagram post by Lisa Winter and revealed in an image associated with Las Vegas Review Journal's announcement of BattleBots: Destruct-A-Thon.[3]
Outside BattleBots[]
In a career spanning over three decades, Fon Davis has worked on over 30 feature films. As a alumnus of the Industrial Light and Magic Model Shop, Fon has worked on features such as Star Wars, Pearl Harbor, Starship Troopers, Galaxy Quest, Terminator III, Mission Impossible III and the Matrix series.
In addition to his work in visual effects, Fon has also worked in Disney’s art departments as a concept designer/model-maker, and on several stop-motion animated movies including The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. More recently, Fon worked on Interstellar, Guardians of the Galaxy and Elysium, as well as various video games.
Fon Davies is a creative director at Fonco, guest host, an instructor for the Stan Winston School, writes and develops his own projects, frequently using his broad knowledge in entertainment and visual story telling. He specializes in overseeing complex or large creative projects in motion pictures, television and product development.