David A. R. White

American all-rounder David A.R. White is one of the leading lights of Christian entertainment in the United States. An actor, writer, director, producer, and entrepreneur, he has built a huge following thanks to over 30 years of appearances in series such as Evening Shade, Hitting the Breaks, Malibu Dan the Family Man, and of course, appearances in films such as Jerusalem Countdown and Faith of our Fathers. He is, however, perhaps best known for playing Reverend Dave in the God’s Not Dead series of films, the first of which became one of the 100 highest-grossing films of 2014 in America. White himself has a huge audience, with over 700,000 Instagram followers and 76,000 Twitter followers. His YouTube channel, which features behind-the-scenes vlogs, also has 12,000 subscribers.

White was raised in a religious family near Dodge City. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s to pursue an acting career and was cast as Burt Reynolds character’s son in the family sitcom, Evening Shade, which ran for four years. Over the next 15 years, he established himself with roles in everything from teen sitcoms to supernatural horror films. From the late Noughties onwards, having formed his own film company, however, he became increasingly involved in Christian filmmaking, starring, for instance, in films such as In the Blink of an Eye.

White’s role as Reverend Dave in the God’s Not Dead series of films (all of which he also produced) saw him become a major voice for American Christianity. Lambasted by secular critics, the films have nevertheless been hugely popular with American Christian audiences.