David Emerson Toney is a playwright, screenwriter and actor. He is an assistant professor of Theatre and teaches acting, directing, and playwrighting.

Toney's acting career spans thirty-two years, including movies, television and Broadway. His film and TV credits include Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, The Cosby Show, The Thomas Crown Affair and Dr. Marquay on All My Children.

His stage credits include A Free Man of Color directed by George C. Wolfe, and Julie Taymor’s Broadway and WorldTour production of Juan Darién. Off-Broadway, he has performed as Clarence in Richard III at the Pearl Theatre Company and Once on this Island at Playwrights Horizons. Regionally, he has appeared as Lucio in Measure for Measure and Alonso in The Tempest at the Folger Theatre, Army in The Persians at The Shakespeare Theatre, and Othello at The Shakespeare Theatre, Virginia Stage Company and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. He has also portrayed Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing at The Shakespeare Theatre, and as Doaker in Arena Stage’s production of The Piano Lesson.

He was the recipient of the Helen Hayes award for Outstanding Actor in a Resident Play for the role of Holloway in African Continuum Theatre Company’s production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running. He has also received The James MacArthur Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Resident Play.