co-founder Aardman Animations
DAVID SPROXTON is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Aardman. Together with co-founder Peter Lord, he has overseen the development of the company from a two-man partnership to one of the pre-eminent animation houses in the industry.
After graduating from Durham University in 1976, David decided to pursue filmmaking full-time. In1972, Sproxton and Lord formed Aardman and in 1976, moved to their permanent home in Bristol. Their first professional creation was the character Morph.
The duo also made two short animated films, Down and Out and Confessions of a Foyer Girl, using the ground-breaking technique of using recorded conversations of real people as the basis for the script. "Vox pop" was also utilized in Aardman’s Lip Synch series for Channel 4 which included Nick Park’s Oscar®winning short Creature Comforts.
In addition to Nick, the studio is known for discovering and nurturing new filmmakers including Steve Box who won a BAFTA Award for his direction of Stage Fright and co-directed The Curse of the Wererabbit with Nick Park; the Oscar®-nominated and BAFTA-winning Peter Peake the director of HumDrum and many commercials. Also, Richard Starzak who directed the Rex the Runt series for BBC 2 and the Creature Comforts series for ITV; Darren Walsh (Angry Kid) and Stefan Marjoram (BBC3 Blobs and Presentators for Nickleodeon).
David co-produced Aardman’s first feature film Chicken Run (2000), The Curse of the Wererabbit (2005) and the CGI feature Flushed Away (2006) made in association with DreamWorks. Recently David has been involved in the production of 'Arthur Christmas' and 'The Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists' made in association with Sony Pictures. He has also been involved in the many TV projects the studio has produced.
David spent three years on the Board of the UK Film Council. He is now chairman of Encounters Festivals (Bristol’s celebration of the Short film) and a board member of the National Film & Television School.
In 2006, Aardman’s 30th year, David and Peter Lord celebrated being awarded CBEs in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
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