Bio

After graduating from the Classical Animation program at Sheridan College, David kick-started his career with an invitation to join team “Angel” (main character and protagonist) as an inbetweener on Nelvana Studios incredibly courageous animated feature film Rock & Rule — and if you didn’t know about this madly ambitious masterpiece of outré animation featuring original compositions from Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Cheap Trick, Debby Harry, Melleny Brown and Earth Wind and Fire — you should.

Soon after, David was swept away to Europe for five formative years with Gaumont Film in Paris as an animation lead on Astérix et la Surprise De César, and Astérix Chez les Bretons. Wrapping those two films, David found himself with an expired French work visa… which quickly became of little consequence as… London was calling. There, David procured a UK ancestry work visa and found significant professional growth in directing three animated commercial spots for Carl Gover’s Animation Partnership while experiencing the creative verve of what was then considered “Animation Mecca” — the celebrated commercial and music video animation houses of 1980’s London’s Soho district.

That animation gypsy life eventually surrendered David to Southern California and a qualitative eighteen years with both Disney Television Animation and Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios. These years were plussed with freelance opportunities that included animating on a number of highly recognizable campaigns with top west coast animated commercial houses — Baer Animation, Duck Soup and Renegade Animation. As the industry and time progressed, with new and exciting expansion across the animation landscape and just the right set of circumstances, David continued to practice his craft with a succession of senior story artist roles on high-profile feature productions with Amblin, WB, Lucasfilm, Disneytoons, Paramount, Skydance and Netflix.

Career highlights include:

• Contributing to the early nineties “Animation Renaissance” as a story artist on Aladdin with John Musker and Ron Clements.
  
  
• On the set of Casper with Steven Spielberg, Director Brad Silberling and Dean Cundey A.S.C. digitally integrating ghost characters with Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Eric Idle, et al.
  
  
• Balancing Head of Story duties while teaching a weekly series of film structure and story seminars to over one hundred and fifty students at the University of Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
  
  
• Collaborating with industry giants John Lasseter, Nathan Greno and the amazing ensemble of talent at Skydance Animation on their soon to be released animated feature PooKoo.
  
  
• The absolute dream assignment of storyboarding two emblematically amazing Paul McCartney song sequences for the Netflix animated feature production of Sir Paul’s High in the Clouds.