Edward is the older of the two Elric brothers. At a very young age he showed promising talent in the art of alchemy, despite being self taught as a result of an absent father. The death of their mother early in their childhood fueled the determination of he and his brother, Alphonse, to become better alchemists in order to try and bring her back. Sadly, their attempt at human transmutation backfired, and Edward lost his left leg in the process and sacrificed his right arm to bind Al's soul to a nearby suit of armor with a complicated blood seal. As a result, Edward has been fitted with a mechanical arm and leg made of automail.

In order to learn even more about alchemy, The Philosopher's Stone in particular, he became the youngest person ever to become a certified State Alchemist in order to gain access to military documents and further his research into restoring he and his brother's bodies. Ed and Al burned their house to the ground before starting their journey to insure they would always need to move forward. The date is etched inside his state issued pocketwatch as a constant reminder of their goal.

Edward violently overreacts at any mention of his small stature and despises drinking his milk. His height may very well be a result of this aversion.

Romi Park is the voice actress for Edward in Japan. She is not, however, Japanese, but a third generation Korean who was raised in Tokyo. In 2004, she was voted the favorite seiyuu in a poll for Animage Magazine. In addition to playing everyone's favorite alchemist, she can be heard as Nana Oosaki in NANA (for which she won Best Main Character (female) in the first Seiyuu Awards), Temari in Naruto, and Alex Louis Armstrong's mother.

Vic Mignogna provides Edward's voice in the English release of the series. While he has voiced other popular characters, such as Broly from Dragonball Z and Hikaru Ichigo in the newely re-recorded Macross, Edward Elric has been his biggest role to date. When he's not voice acting, Vic records radio spots as well as produces and writes his own music. Vic's World