In a career that spans more than 400 roles in theater, television, film and video games, Keith David has played everyone from a wily infantryman in Oliver Stone’s Vietnam War epic Platoon to Ava Coleman’s father on the hit ABC comedy Abbott Elementary.
But when creator Sterlin Harjo asked him to join the cast of The Lowdown, David saw a chance to play a character he’d always dreamed of inhabiting.
"One of the things I always wanted was my chance to be Columbo … or to be Richard Diamond," David says, referencing David Janssen’s stylish character on Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957–60). On The Lowdown, an eight-episode drama premiering September 23 on FX, David channels some of Diamond’s cool. He plays Marty, a suave P.I. who befriends Ethan Hawke’s Lee Raybon, a citizen journalist busy tracking down corruption in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"I have a line in there that says, 'There’s nothing more dangerous than a white boy with a cause,'" David says with a laugh. "Because Lee is not only a concerned citizen — he’s one of those human beings that really cares about the truth and the right thing. He calls himself a 'truthstorian,' which is a term that I just love."
The Lowdown is Harjo’s first creation after his Emmy-nominated FX series, Reservation Dogs. "I love the way Sterlin understands the world and then reflects it back on itself," David says. "He’s not telling you what to think, but he presents something so you can draw your own conclusions. He allows you to see the world as he sees it."
David’s own world is busy this year: Besides The Lowdown and Abbott Elementary, he also appeared as a gangster in the Max series Duster. He’s notched roles on Grey’s Anatomy, Justified: City Primeval and Family Guy, while documentary fans may recognize his narration in Ken Burns’s Jazz. (David has won three Emmy Awards for narration or voice-over performance.) His films include The Thing and Armageddon, while video game players have heard him voice characters in Halo and Call of Duty.
Ask how he manages to stay busy after 45-plus years in the business — that distinctive, deep voice must help — and David talks about attitude. "There are definitely small parts, but only small actors don’t make something of those parts," he says. "Sometimes, in a microcosmic way, for the soldier walking across the stage with no lines, well, it is a scene about him. And even the lead role needs support. How do I know that you’re the lead? It’s the way other people react to you."
And there’s the eternal question, which often comes up in interviews: “They ask, 'What do you like doing more — video games or TV?'" David says with a chuckle. "And I say, 'I like working.'"
The Lowdown is streaming now on Hulu.
This article originally appeared in emmy Magazine, issue #9, 2025, under the title "Voice Recognition."
