David L. Snyder became hooked on show business at Technical High School in his home town of Buffalo, New York. Along with classmates Lance Sherman, Michael DiFiglia (who would soon become Michael Bennett), Grover Washington, Jr. & company, he mounted the 1959 edition of the "Tech High Musical Revue."After nearly two decades of stumbling through life as a rock 'n' roll drummer, architectural designer, toy designer and theatre designer he began his Hollywood career as the assistant art director of the 50th Annual Academy Awards. Following a year in 'live' television David was recruited by Universal Studios and spent a year and a half art directing science fiction television series such as "Galactica 1980","Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" and "The Incredible Hulk". After designing Taylor Hackford's directorial debut, "The Idolmaker" he returned to science fiction as the art director on Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future-noir "Blade Runner". David received an Academy Award nomination he shared with Lawrence G. Paull the film's production designer. "Blade Runner" was also awarded the British Academy (BAFTA) Award for Best Production Design. Since that time he has designed more than 25 feature films including "The One", "The Whole Nine Yards", "Demolition Man", "Super Mario Bros." and Tim Burton's "Pee-wee's Big Adventure". He also designed and executive-produced "Rainbow", the first live-action digital feature film starring and directed by Bob Hoskins. In television he designed Jessica Simpson's hit MTV music video "The Sweetest Sin", and has designed projects for Mark Burnett Productions (NBC) and DreamWorks (ABC). David lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Terry Finn who is most noted for creating the role of Gussie Carnegie in the original Broadway cast of the Stephen Sondheim / Harold Prince musical-comedy "Merrily We Roll Along". Their son Finn Henry is 8 years old and made his acting debut in "The Safe Side", from the creators of "Baby Einstein". David's daughter is motion picture make-up artist Amy L. Taylor and his son David M. Snyder is a marketing executive with The Milwaukee Bucks NBA basketball team. David has appeared as a guest speaker on the subject of motion picture production design at The Tokyo International Film Festival, The American Film Institute, The University of California at Los Angeles & UC San Diego and Ryerson Institute of Technology, Toronto, Ontario,Canada. Industry society memberships include The Directors Guild of America, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and The Art Directors Guild.
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