Antonio David Lyons was born on December 20th in Hollywood, Florida, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Book of Negroes (2015), American History X (1998), Hotel Rwanda (2004) and The Sum of All Fears (2002).
His artistic universe straddles the globe with one foot planted firmly in both South Africa and the USA. He holds an MA in Applied Theatre from the City University of New York (CUNY) and manages to maintain a thriving career as a professional artist in tandem with his activist and scholarly pursuits. His career continues to evolve with the added dimension of poetic house artist and lyricist. In 2007 he released his first solo project Human Jewels and We Dance We Pray in 2011. He is the author of three plays: Celebration, Beautiful Struggle and We Are Here. He has also been a Fulbright Awardee, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival Producing Fellow and a Scholar in Residence at University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). We Are Here (WAH) has grown into a social activism initiative that has implemented programming in South Africa, New York, Detroit, and Ann Arbor. This project is designed to foster an environment where the arts can impact social conditions, attitudes, perceptions and structures amongst men and boys.
