About

David was born in Worcestershire, England in 1983. He was interested in acting and singing from an early age and after moving with his family to New Zealand in 1995 he was very involved in amateur theatre in Auckland throughout his formative years. This culminated in receiving a Northern Area Performing Theatre Awards (NAPTA) nomination for his performance as Huckleberry Finn in Auckland Music Theatre’s 2004 production of Big River.

    After spending some time in the UK and Europe on his OE, David returned to New Zealand and made his home in Wellington. In 2006 he graduated with distinction from the Wellington Performing Arts Centre with a Diploma in Performing Arts- Singing and made his professional debut in Paul Jenden’s and Gareth Farr’s Troy (the musical) at Circa Theatre. David spent most of 2007 touring all over New Zealand and to Australia in Songs of the Sea with Capital E National Theatre for Children.

    David has written a one man show entitled Chet Baker: Like Someone in Love based around the extraordinary life and sudden demise of jazz trumpeter, vocalist and heroin addict Chet Baker. This was first staged in Wellington’s 2007 Fringe Festival and has since had two return seasons in Wellington, at Blondini’s Jazz Bar and as part of the St James Theatre’s Cabaret season. It has toured to Dunedin, Auckland, Hastings and Nelson in New Zealand and most recently to Melbourne and Werribee in Australia.

    Some of David’s theatre highlights include playing a bright green imaginary monster in Gavin McGibbon’s Shipwrecked beneath the Stars, a selection of knights and messengers in David Lawrence’s King Lear, the archbishop of Canterbury in Henry V, a teenage Charlie Brown in DOG SEES GOD and a depressed Earthworm in James and the Giant Peach.

    David has experience in film also having appeared as a pilot in James Cameron’s Avatar, a soldier in Peter Jackson’s WW1 short film Crossing the Line, a member of the Blue Sqaud in Danny Mulheron’s Rage, a Lancaster Navigator in Peter Jackson’s Squeaky Wheels and in the background of the Gibson Group’s Aftershock, Tom Scott’s Truth about men, Gaylene Preston’s Home by Christmas and the Gibson Group’s Panic at Rock Island.

    David is represented in New Zealand by Tim Gordon at the Pro Actors. He is an active member of New Zealand Actors Equity and until recently was an elected member of the Board.

    David is also a trained cinema projectionist, having worked at The Embassy Theatre in Wellington for many years, and still relishes the opportunity to get his hands on a 35mm print now and then.