David Howard Thornton  is an American actor. He is known for his role as Art the Clown from the Terrifier franchise, a role in which he appeared in Terrifier (2016), Mistress Peace Theatre (2020), Terrifier 2 (2022), Bupkis (2023), and Terrifier 3 (2024). He has had other various roles in film, television, and video games, including Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress (2011), Ride to Hell: Retribution (2013), Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom (2013), Gotham (2017), The Bravest Knight (2019), The Exigency (2019), Alma's Way (2021), and starring as the titular character in The Mean One (2022).

Early and personal life

Thornton grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, where as a child he first appeared on stage in a production by the local drama company Fantasy Playhouse Children’s Theatre. He graduated from Huntsville's Grissom High School and received a degree in elementary education from the central Alabama liberal arts college the University of Montevallo. In a 2023 interview, Thornton spoke about discovering he is autistic as an adult.

Early work

Thornton has lent his voice to various characters in film, anime, television and in video games. In 2011, he voiced Malvic, Volran and Tengo in Two Worlds Pirates of the Flying Fortress. He later provided voices in 2013 as Anvil, Dr. Blotter and Baggy Miner in Ride to Hell: Retribution and as Shizoku, Metal Mutt and Toxitoad in Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom. In 2015, he provided additional voices for Miss Hokusai. From 2016 to 2017, he appeared as the Joker in the fan-made webseries Nightwing: Escalation and later went on to appear in Gotham, both projects that included characters by DC Comics.