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David Silverman (born on 15 March 1957 in New York City, New York) is an animator best known for directing numerous episodes of the animated TV series The Simpsons, where he would go on to be the supervising director of animation for several years, as well as animating on all of the original Simpsons Tracey Ullman shorts.

Started his education at the University of Maryland, College Park for two years, focusing on art. Then he attended UCLA and majored in animation. [1]

Early in his career with The Simpsons, he was a subject on the December 26, 1990 episode (#83) of To Tell the Truth. [2]

He was once credited as Pound Foolish as the director of the episode "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular". [3] Silverman is largely credited with creating most of the "rules" for drawing The Simpsons. He appeared during the end credits of the Simpsons episode "Goo Goo Gai Pan" giving a quick method of drawing Bart, and is a frequent participant on the Simpsons DVD audio commentaries. A cartoon rendering of him can be seen in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", where he is the animator who draws Poochie (along with renderings of other Simpsons staffers).

Silverman is also the director of the upcoming The Simpsons Movie, to be released in summer 2007. He originally left The Simpsons to direct The Road to El Dorado. Some of his other film work includes Monsters, Inc..

On June 23, 2006, he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where he played a flaming sousaphone. [4]

Silverman has toured many college campuses, speaking about his experiences as an animator and longtime Simpsons director and producer. [5] He describes his early experiences in the animation field, working on shows such as Turbo Teen and Mister T. He goes on to say that at the point he considered leaving animation to devote his time to cartoon illustration, he took a job animating on The Tracey Ullman Show. He has pointed out that he and his fellow animators Wes Archer and Bill Kopp first started animating The Simpsons shorts on March 23, 1987.

Silverman then elaborates on Simpsons production, the evolution of the show and its characters, and various show facts and trivia. He may show animatics, deleted scenes, and favorite scenes and sequences, while giving background information. He closes by hand-drawing character sketches before the audience.

• "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"
• "Bart the Genius"
• "Bart the General"
• "Life on the Fast Lane"
• "Some Enchanted Evening" (replacing Kent Butterworth)
• "Bart Gets an F"
• "Treehouse of Horror" (The Raven segment only)
• "Bart vs. Thanksgiving"
• "The Way We Was"
• "Old Money"
• "Blood Feud"
• "Black Widower"
• "Homer's Triple Bypass"
• "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
• "Treehouse of Horror IV"
• "Another Simpsons Clip Show"
• "Homie the Clown"
• "Mother Simpson"
• "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" (as Pound Foolish)
• "Treehouse of Horror XIII"
• "Treehouse of Horror XV"
• "Treehouse of Horror XVI"
• "Treehouse of Horror XVII"

• David Silverman at the Internet Movie Database
• An interview with David Silverman
• APB Speaker page info
• The Simpsons Archive interview
• Video interview, Treehouse Of Horror XVII
• Performing the Flaming Tuba