What Happened to Austin St. John? Meeting Fans at Cons in 2026

If you were a kid in 1993, you did not just watch the Red Ranger — you were the Red Ranger, at least in your backyard. Austin St. John’s Jason Lee Scott was the leader, the black belt, the guy who called “It’s Morphin Time!” And then, midway through season two, he was simply gone, replaced without much explanation. What followed was one of the strangest post-fame arcs in nineties television: a decade as a paramedic, four years as a medic overseas, and a federal courtroom in Texas. Here’s where Austin St. John actually is in 2026.

01Profile

Full name

Jason Lawrence Geiger (professionally: Austin St. John)

Born

September 17, 1974 (51 years old)

Birthplace

Roswell, New Mexico, USA

Occupation

Actor, martial artist, former paramedic, convention guest

Best known for

Jason Lee Scott, the Red Ranger, in "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" (1993)

Martial arts

Black belts in Taekwondo, Judo and Kenpo; training since age five

Education

Degree from Concordia University

That birthplace is a fun one — the original Red Ranger was born in Roswell, New Mexico, which is either a coincidence or the single most on-brand detail in kids’ television history. The stage name has a story too: per his Wikipedia entry, “Austin” was borrowed from Steve Austin of “The Six Million Dollar Man.”

02The Rise: A Black Belt Becomes the Red Ranger

Cast at 17

St. John had been doing martial arts since he was five years old, moving from town to town as the son of a Marine. By his teens he held multiple black belts, and that — more than any acting résumé — is what got him the job. When Saban went looking for young performers who could actually throw a kick on camera, a 17-year-old martial artist with a background in Taekwondo, Judo and Kenpo was exactly the brief.

“Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” premiered on Fox Kids in 1993 and became an immediate, borderline unmanageable phenomenon. The show layered American teen-drama footage over Japanese “Super Sentai” action sequences, and the result hit kids in a way almost nothing else that decade did. Toys sold out. Playgrounds became battle zones. Five actors went from unknown to internationally famous inside a single television season.

The leader of the pack

Of the five, Jason had a particular weight. He was the leader — the one Zordon addressed first, the one who got the Tyrannosaurus Zord and the Power Sword. St. John’s real martial arts training showed up on screen in a way that made the character credible to kids who were themselves taking karate classes at the strip mall. For a lot of nineties viewers, he was the first action hero who looked like he could genuinely do it.

And then, roughly halfway through season two, Jason handed off the Red Ranger powers to a character named Rocky and disappeared from the show.

03Walking Away From the Morphin Grid

The exit was not a storyline decision. St. John, along with co-stars Walter Emanuel Jones (the Black Ranger) and Thuy Trang (the Yellow Ranger), left the series during season two over a contract and pay dispute. It’s one of the most-discussed behind-the-scenes stories in the franchise’s history: three of the five original leads walked off a global merchandising juggernaut over their compensation.

• 1993"Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" debuts on Fox Kids; St. John, cast at 17, becomes internationally famous as the Red Ranger.
• 1994St. John, Walter Emanuel Jones and Thuy Trang exit mid-season-two amid a contract dispute.
• 1996Returns to the franchise in "Power Rangers Zeo" as the Gold Ranger, after producer Shuki Levy approaches him.
• 1997Appears in "Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie."
• Late 1990s–2010sSteps back from Hollywood almost entirely. Works in emergency medicine, including as a paramedic, and spends four years as a medic in the Middle East.
• 2002 / 2020Makes franchise return appearances in "Power Rangers Wild Force" and "Power Rangers Beast Morphers."

The two-year gap ended in 1996 when Shuki Levy pitched him on coming back for “Power Rangers Zeo” — not as the Red Ranger, but as the Gold Ranger, a character built up as the most powerful the show had produced. He took it, appeared in “Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie” the following year, and then, for the better part of two decades, more or less left the entertainment industry behind.

Twenty years out of the spotlight

This is the part of the story that surprises people. St. John did not spend the 2000s chasing auditions. He went into emergency medicine. By his own account on his official site, he spent roughly twenty years away from entertainment — working with a fire department, serving four years as a medic in the Middle East, and raising three children. Reporting on the period has consistently described him working as a paramedic in the Washington, D.C. area.

Whatever else is true about him, the guy who played the Red Ranger spent a large chunk of his adult life doing an unglamorous, genuinely difficult job, at a point when he could have coasted on nostalgia bookings instead.

04The Federal Fraud Case

There’s no way to tell the 2020s chapter of this story without the court case, so here it is, plainly and factually.

In May 2022, St. John — charged under his legal name, Jason Lawrence Geiger — was indicted in the Eastern District of Texas as one of 18 people accused in a scheme to fraudulently obtain Paycheck Protection Program loans, the federal COVID-19 relief program for small businesses. According to the Justice Department and contemporaneous reporting from CNN and NBC News, the group was accused of obtaining 16 loans totaling at least $3.5 million. Prosecutors alleged the applicants misrepresented the nature of their businesses, employee counts and payroll figures, then spent the money on personal purchases rather than salaries or benefits. The indictment described the scheme as being led by two other men, Michael Hill and Andrew Moran. Court documents reported at the time alleged St. John obtained more than $400,000 in PPP funds.

On April 22, 2024, St. John pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

He was sentenced on May 1, 2025, by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle. Per Courthouse News Service, which covered the hearing, he received five years of probation and was ordered to pay more than $225,000 in restitution — avoiding federal prison. Notably, prosecutors themselves asked the court to spare him incarceration, citing his cooperation: reporting on the sentencing noted he met with the government multiple times before trial and testified truthfully at trial.

This court will never see me again. I will go back to my good works. — Austin St. John, addressing Judge Jeremy Kernodle at his sentencing, as reported by Courthouse News Service, May 2025

He also characterized the conduct as “a one-off thing” in court, according to the same reporting. The case is resolved: he pleaded guilty, was sentenced, and is serving a probationary term.

One related note for fans who wondered: St. John did not appear in the 2023 Netflix reunion special “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always,” where Steve Cardenas’ Rocky filled the Red Ranger role. No official reason for his absence was ever given, though the special was filmed in late 2022, while his case was pending.

05What He Is Doing Now

Back on the convention circuit

The most visible thing St. John does in 2026 is meet fans. He is a regular fixture on the comic con and fan convention circuit, with a 2026 calendar that runs from Lexington Comic & Toy Convention in March through GalaxyCon Nashville in May, Tampa Bay Comic Convention in September and GalaxyCon St. Louis in October, among others. For a certain generation of attendee, shaking hands with the original Red Ranger is still a genuine event, and by all appearances he leans into it warmly.

The merchandise business and REDempt1on

He also runs a direct-to-fan operation, St. John Enterprises, selling signed memorabilia and Power Rangers merchandise through his own site. In 2022 he launched a post-apocalyptic comic book series called “REDempt1on,” which his official site describes as being inspired by his years as a medic in the Middle East. Reporting around his 2025 sentencing indicated he hoped to develop the property further, including toward animated and live-action versions — though as of now, nothing beyond the comic has been publicly confirmed as in production.

Not everything he’s launched has landed cleanly. In 2024, a “warrior”-themed clothing line of his drew public criticism from original co-star Amy Jo Johnson over quotes it featured from controversial historical figures.

Acting, selectively

His post-2010s screen credits are modest and independent — the series “Fireball Run: Big Country” and films including “Monsters at Large,” “A Walk with Grace” and “Tres Leches.” He is not pursuing a Hollywood second act so much as maintaining a working relationship with the fandom that made him famous.

06Summary

Austin St. John’s story resists the usual child-star template. He didn’t burn out, and he didn’t quietly vanish — he left a hit show over money, came back on his own terms, then spent twenty years in emergency medicine before a federal case put his legal name in headlines that had nothing to do with spandex.

What comes next is genuinely open. He told a federal judge he intends to go back to his good works, and the practical version of that in 2026 looks like convention tables, a comic book, and a fanbase that has largely stayed with him. For a franchise built on the idea that people can transform into something better, that’s a story still being written.