David Silverman

Emmy Award-winning Animation Producer, Director, and Animation Supervisor, David Silverman, was always interested in drawing, animation, and comedy. Born in New York City and raised in Maryland, Silverman became interested in animation at the age of six. He later spent time with his friends making animated and live-action movies on Super 8 film. In high school he won several awards for animation, including three from Eastman Kodak.

Silverman went on to study animation and filmmaking at UCLA while doing freelance cartoon illustrations on the side. After receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree from UCLA in 1983, he worked as an assistant character designer for a couple Saturday morning shows, TURBO TEAM and THE ADVENTURES OF MR. T for Ruby-Spears. (Surprisingly, he still admits to this.) At Laser Media, he served as a director. Eventually he went to work on ONE CRAZY SUMMER, a Savage Steve Holland live-action feature film, which included ten minutes of animation.

Fellow animator-friend Wes Archer, who worked with Silverman on ONE CRAZY SUMMER, had previously worked at Klasky-Csupo, the animation house that received the contract for THE SIMPSONS shorts for THE TRACEY ULLMAN SHOW. In March of 1987, both Silverman and Archer began drawing the 30-second animated spots featuring Matt Groening’s characters: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie Simpson, Grampa, Krusty the Clown, and Itchy & Scratchy.

In January 1990, THE SIMPSONS premiered on FOX with their own primetime show. During the first season, Silverman directed the main titles and five of the thirteen episodes, including the Christmas special, “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire” and the premiere episode, “Bart The Genius.” He later went on to Supervising Director and in 1992 was made producer.

Silverman’s efforts, in collaboration with the multitude of other widely talented people, helped the show to go on and win 14 Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, four Environmental Media Awards and a host of other awards and accolades. It is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as “the longest running primetime animated show in television history,“ has surpassed 200 episodes, and is in production on the tenth season.

Additionally, Silverman has worked at DreamWorks, directing sequences for THE ROAD TO EL DORADO. He is proud to have been co-director on Pixar’s MONSTER’S, INC., directed by Pete Docter. Also, he has been a story consultant for Blue Sky Studios on ICE AGE.