Photo by Donna-Lisa Healy

Originally from upstate New York, David studied drama at Syracuse University and lived in NYC for 10 years pursuing a life in the theater. He appeared in numerous off-off-Broadway productions, including the award-winning Solo for Two at the Direct Theatre. He studied with Jerzy Grotowki’s Teatre Laboratorium in Poland, and made his off-Broadway debut in The Passion of Dracula at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 1979. His final NYC role was an ever-so-brief appearance in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, which all too accurately portrayed his last years in the East Village.

David moved/fled from New Amsterdam to Old Amsterdam in May 1985. Unexpectedly, his theatrical aspirations took off again, and he worked as both actor and director for several small English-speaking companies. He got a ‘day job’ (involving many night-shifts) as a newsreader for Radio Netherlands, the Dutch International Service. He began reporting for various programs, and within a few years was working full-time as a culture and documentary writer/producer. His series Aural Tapestry was chosen as one of the Ten Best Shows on World Band Radio in 2003. He won numerous awards at festivals in New York, Croatia and China, as well as from the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association.

During this time David also co-hosted Alien, a live local LGBT radio show, and wrote for Amsterdam’s first gay weekly Trash in the Streets. During the 1998 Gay Games he reported for its newspaper The Daily Friendship.

Since retirement from radio in 2010, he has written his first novel Calvin’s Head, a psychological thriller set in Amsterdam. Published by Bold Strokes Books in September 2014, Calvin’s Head was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist (2015) in the category Gay Mystery.

His second novel Corpus Calvin was released in November 2022.