In his own words, David-Matthew Barnes describes himself as "a playwright, poet, novelist, filmmaker, actor, dancer, choreographer, teacher, former model and ex-cheerleader...for life."

To date, David-Matthew’s stage plays have been performed in three languages in eight countries including numerous productions in Chicago and New York. His work has been featured at over twenty-five theatre festivals around the world.

He wrote and directed the feature film Frozen Stars, a Latin flavored coming-of-age drama, which received worldwide distribution from Liberty International Entertainment. He recently directed Why So Fly?, a feature length documentary that celebrates the musical talents of the female hip hop trio Northern State.  Filmmaker Sam Wagner recently adapted David-Matthew's one-act play Just Before The Drop into a provocative short film that has been selected to be screened at film festivals around the world.

David-Matthew’s literary work has been featured in over one hundred publications including 60 Seconds To Shine (Smith & Kraus), A&U: America’s AIDS Magazine, Audition Arsenal (Smith & Kraus), The Best Stage Scenes (Smith & Kraus), The Best Men's Stage Monologues (Smith & Kraus), The Best Women's Stage Monologues (Smith & Kraus), The California Quarterly, The Comstock Review, Men of Mystery: Homoerotic Tales of Intrigue and Suspense (Haworth Press; Lambda Literary Award nominee), Rite of Passage: Tales of Backpacking ‘Round Europe (Lonely Planet), Small Town Gay: Essays on Family Life Beyond the Big City (Kerlak Publishing; Lambda Literary Award nominee), The SoMa Literary Review, Velvet Mafia and Young Women’s Monologues From Contemporary Plays (Meriwether Publishing). 

He is the author of over forty stage plays that are available in print from Brooklyn Publishers, Diva D Publishing, JAC Publishing and Playscripts. His signature plays include Are You All Right In There?, Better Places To Go, Hour Glass, Johnny Ramirez Really Wants To Kiss Me, Number 76, Pensacola, Sky Lines, Sloe Gin Fizz, We Never Made It To Paris and the critically-acclaimed Threnody.

Sins of the Flesh, a chapbook of David-Matthew's poetry, was published in 2002 by Word Riot Press. His first book length collection of poems, Roadside Attractions, was just completed. His forthcoming fiction debut, The Common Bond, is a literary suspense novel that explores the dangerous possibilities of fate. Since 2006, David-Matthew has been a literary reviewer for the Charlotte-based magazine Main Street Rag.

David-Matthew has directed theatrical productions of Eric Lane's Dancing On Checkers' Grave, John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Cherie Vogelstein's Date with a Stranger, Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-Soeurs, Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias, Patricia Joudry's Teach Me How To Cry and more.

As an actor, he has performed in over twenty-five theatrical productions including roles in Once a Catholic at the Julia Morgan Theatre in Berkeley, The Furthest Room at the Stella Adler Theatre in Los Angeles and in the west coast premiere of Sam Schwartz’s Vito on the Beach. He recently starred as Piero in a Penn State college production of Charles L. Mee's Big Love, directed by Robin Reese. This production received a considerable amount of award recognition from the American College Theatre Festival, including a performance of the show at the Merriam Theatre in Philadelphia.

In 2008, David-Matthew won the World AIDS Day Writing Contest, earning double awards for poetry and playwriting, and the 2008 Slam Boston Award for Best Play. He received national awards in the 2008 Split This Rock Poetry Contest and the 2007 New Works for Young Women playwriting competition. In 2007, he also received the Carrie McCray Literary Award in recognition of his two-woman play Bracelets and Boyfriends. He has received two Elly Awards for Best Original Script from the Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance and additional awards from Writer’s Digest and the Florida Freelance Writers Association.

David-Matthew's ten-minute play Number 76 was selected for the Mid-America Dramatists Lab at the 2009 Mid-America Theatre Conference in Chicago. His ten-minute play Johnny Ramirez Really Wants To Kiss Me was selected for the Playwright's Slam at the 2009 American Alliance for Theatre Education and Association for Theatre in Higher Education (AATE/ATHE) conference in New York. David-Matthew is also a frequent panel moderator and featured reader at the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans.

David-Matthew graduated magna cum laude from Oglethorpe University with a degree in communications and English. He received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina, where he studied under the mentorship of Brighde Mullins, Elissa Schappell, Cathy Smith Bowers, Ashley Warlick, Kym Ragusa and Rebecca McClanahan.

In 2007, David-Matthew was nationally selected to study his craft in private workshop with Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman (‘night, Mother, The Color Purple, The Secret Garden) at the Southampton Writers Conference in New York. David-Matthew has also attended master classes instructed by Dorothy Allison, Michelle Tea and Academy Award winner Faye Dunaway.

David-Matthew is a member of the Academy of American Poets, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), the Dramatists Guild of America, the Lambda Literary Foundation and the Theatre Communications Group. David-Matthew is a regional respondent and workshop instructor for the National Playwriting Program, a component of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. He has also served as a regional judge for the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest.

David-Matthew is a California native and grew up in the Bay Area where he attended Berkeley High School and starred on the Saturday morning television show Dance Floor.

David-Matthew was nationally selected to be the 2008 Emerging Writer in Residence at Penn State where he currently teaches in the English program.