Keith David is an American film, television and voice actor as well as a singer. Born Keith David Williams on June 4, 1956 in Harlem, New York, he was raised in Queens, New York, USA. His first acting performance was in a school production of The Wizard of Oz, where he played the Cowardly Lion. He later attended the School of Performing Arts in Manhattan, and later the Juilliard School’s Drama Division, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1979.

David is best known for his roles in films such as Crash, There’s Something About Mary, Barbershop, and Men at Work. He has been part of cult favorite films, including John Carpenter’s films The Thing, They Live, Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, Armageddon, Oliver Stone’s Platoon, and Requiem for a Dream.

A well-known voice actor, Keith David earned most of his Emmy Awards as the narrator of several Ken Burns films, including The War. He was the voice of Goliath on the Disney series Gargoyles, Spawn/Al Simmons on Todd McFarlane’s Spawn on HBO, the Arbiter in Halo 2 and Halo 3, David Anderson in the Mass Effect series, the Deception Barricade in Transformers: The Game, Julius Little in Saints Row and Saints Row 2, Himself as Saints Row IV, Sgt. Foley in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, the Flame King in Adventure Time, and Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.

David is also known for his voice-overs on United States Navy commercials, and as the person picked to replace the late Paul Winfield as the narrator of the City Confidential documentary television crime series. As a stage actor, he received a 1992 Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his role in the Broadway play Jelly’s Last Jam.