Keith David

Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor and producer. He is known for his work as King in Platoon and Childs in The Thing. He has acted in mainstream films, such as Dead Presidents, Crash, There’s Something About Mary, Barbershop, and Men at Work.

David has had memorable roles in numerous cult favorites, including Frank in They Live, Goliath in the TV show Gargoyles, and Big Tim in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. He starred as Elroy Patashnik in the sixth season of the NBC series Community.[1] In 2016, he began starring as Bishop James Greenleaf in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama Greenleaf.

His Emmy-winning voice-over career includes work as the narrator of Ken Burns films such as The War and Muhammad Ali. Characters that he has voiced include the Arbiter in the Halo series, Goliath on Gargoyles, Al Simmons / Spawn on Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, a role he reprised in the fighting game Mortal Kombat 11, David Anderson in the Mass Effect series, Julius Little and himself in the Saints Row series, Sergeant Foley in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and 012, the Flame King in Adventure Time, Solovar in The Flash, the Cat in Coraline, King Andrias in Amphibia, the President in Rick and Morty, and Dr. Kane in Archer.

David was born in Harlem, New York City, and raised in Corona, Queens. His mother, Dolores (née Dickenson), was a manager at New York Telephone, and his father, Lester Williams, worked as a director of payroll operations.[2][3]

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)[4] where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1979.[5]