Keith David

Keith David has ongoing careers in music, acting and voiceover. Recently, his narration of the “A Necessary War” segment of Ken Burns’ miniseries The War brought him an Emmy Award; Mr. David additionally narrated all other segments of the epic documentary. He had earlier won an Emmy Award for his narration of another epic Ken Burns documentary, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson; and was an Emmy nominee for narrating the filmmaker’s miniseries Jazz.

His dozens of on-screen feature film roles include ones in Oliver Stone’s Academy Award-winning Platoon; Clint Eastwood’s Bird; Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s There’s Something About Mary; Michael Bay’s Armageddon; David Twohy’s Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick; Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream; Doug Liman’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith; Tim Story’s Barbershop; Paul Haggis’ Academy Award-winning Crash; and the title role in Rockmond Dunbar’s upcoming Pastor Brown.

On television, Mr. David’s numerous acting credits include guest arcs on ER and 7th Heaven; appearances on such shows as Law & Order and CSI; and LeVar Burton’s telefilm The Tiger Woods Story, for which he was a Daytime Emmy Award nominee.

He was also nominated for the latter award for his voice work as Goliath in the animated series Gargoyles. Among his many other voiceover credits are narrating the cable series City Confidential; starring as the title character in the animated cable series Spawn; speaking for the U.S. Navy in television commercials; and the upcoming Ron Clements and John Musker animated feature The Princess and the Frog.

A native New Yorker, Mr. David has extensive stage experience there, from Shakespeare in the Park to Broadway. On the latter, he was a Tony Award nominee for George C. Wolfe’s Jelly’s Last Jam; other credits include Sarah Pia Anderson’s revival of Hedda Gabler and Lloyd Richards’ original Broadway staging of the late August Wilson’s Seven Guitars.

An accomplished singer/songwriter who fronts his own band, he will soon have a debut album out. The album will feature both a traditional jazz form and his own personalized jazz/hip-hop hybrid.

Mr. David was one of the hosts at the United Nations event recognizing the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery.