Keith David

Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor.

He is known for his deep voice and screen presence in over 300 roles across film, stage, television, and interactive media.

David was born June 4, 1956, in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, and raised in Corona, Queens, New York City.

His mother, Dolores (née Dickenson), was a manager at New York Telephone, and his father, Lester Williams, worked as a director of payroll operations.

He initially intended to become an actor after playing the Cowardly Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz and went on to study at Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts.

He attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division (1975–1979, Group 8) where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1979.

In 1980–81, David toured the country with John Houseman's The Acting Company in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Less than two years later, he went on to star as Childs, opposite Kurt Russell in John Carpenter's The Thing, starting his lengthy on-screen career.

In the 1980s run of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, he portrayed Keith the Southwood Carpenter in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe segments.

He also played Keith, the game coin collector in an episode where Rogers and a small child learn to play the arcade game Donkey Kong.

He went on to appear in films such as Platoon, They Live, Men at Work, Marked for Death, and Stars and Bars.

He has also appeared extensively in television productions since the 1980s and as a regular character Lieutenant Williams on the short-lived television series The Job.

He has starred in such films as The Thing (1982), Platoon (1986), They Live (1988), Dead Presidents (1995), Armageddon (1998), There's Something About Mary (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), Pitch Black (2000), Barbershop (2002), Crash (2004), The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), Cloud Atlas (2012), The Nice Guys (2016), and Nope (2022).

On television, he portrayed Goliath on Gargoyles (1994–1997), Al Simmons / Spawn on Todd McFarlane's Spawn (1997–1999), The Flame King on Adventure Time (2012–2017), Andre Curtis / The President on Rick and Morty (2015–), King Andrias on Amphibia (2020–2022), Dr. Tenma on Pluto (2023), and Husk on Hazbin Hotel (2024–).

He played Kirby in the 1995 film Dead Presidents, and he appeared in the 1995 Spike Lee film Clockers.

Roles in other films followed, in Volcano,There's Something About Mary, Pitch Black, Barbershop, Agent Cody Banks, Head of State, Hollywood Homicide, Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, The Chronicles of Riddick, Crash, ATL, Delta Farce and First Sunday.

He portrayed "Father" in the romantic comedy action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

At the same time, he has appeared in numerous independent films including the critically acclaimed Requiem for a Dream, playing the role of Big Tim.

Video game roles include the Arbiter Thel 'Vadamee in the Halo franchise (2004–2015), Julius Little and himself in the Saints Row series (2006–2017), Admiral Anderson in the Mass Effect series (2007–2013), Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy (2008), Sergeant Foley in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) and Grimlock in Transformers: EarthSpark.

He was a regular on another shoot, The Big House, made for ABC in 2004.

He provided the voice of the Arbiter for the video game Halo 2, released in 2004; later, he reprised that role in the Xbox 360 follow-up Halo 3.

His Emmy-winning voice-over career includes work as the narrator of Ken Burns films such as The War (2007) and Muhammad Ali (2021).

In film, characters that he has voiced include Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog (2009) and the Cat in Coraline (2009).

David portrayed Detective Jim Crenshaw in the 2010 horror film Chain Letter.

In 2010, David was cast as Max Malini for the NBC television series The Cape.

On April 18, 2011, Keith appeared in the 21st episode of season one of Hawaii Five-0 as criminal tycoon Jimmy Cannon.

In 2012, he appeared in the horror film Smiley and the science-fiction drama Cloud Atlas.

In 2013, David appeared in the controversial drama Boiling Pot which is based on true events of racism.

In 2014, David portrayed Command Sergeant Major Donald Cody in the Fox comedy series Enlisted.

Later in 2014, David was cast as Elroy Patashnik in the sixth season of the sitcom Community.

He portrayed the character again in Halo: The Master Chief Collection and also in Halo 5: Guardians, released in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

He played the role of Captain David Anderson in BioWare's Mass Effect series.

David did voice work in the video game Saints Row and its sequel Saints Row II, playing gang leader of the 3rd Street Saints Julius Little, as well as voicing himself in Saints Row IV.

He starred as Elroy Patashnik in the sixth season of the NBC series Community (2015) and starred as Bishop James Greenleaf in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama Greenleaf (2016–2020).

In 2015, David was cast in the leading role alongside Lynn Whitfield in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series Greenleaf.

David also works extensively as a voice actor.

He was the voice of the Flame King in Adventure Time, King Andrias from Amphibia, Goliath from Gargoyles, the title character in the Spawn animated series, and Lemuel Kane in Archer.

In the English dub of Princess Mononoke, David played the narrator and Okkoto.

He played the role of Mama in the English dub of 3x3 Eyes.

He provided the voice for the character Decker in the role-playing video game Fallout and the voice for the character Vhailor in Planescape: Torment.