David Firth (born 1982 or 1983) is an English animator and filmmaker. He created the
Newgrounds animated web series ''
Salad Fingers'' in 2004 and co-wrote the 2017 live-action feature film ''
Kuso''.
Early life
Firth was born in
Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England.
His mother, Rosemary Firth, is an artist. He began creating
stop-motion animation
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
when he was 13 years old, using
Lego
Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...
and other toys.
He studied animation at the
Hull
Hull may refer to:
Structures
* Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle
* Fuselage, of an aircraft
* Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds
* Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship
* Submarine hull
Mathematics
* Affine hull, in affi ...
campus of the
University of Lincoln
, mottoeng = Freedom through wisdom
, established = 1861 – Hull School of Art1905 – Endsleigh College1976 – Hull College1992 – University of Humberside1996 – University of Lincolnshire and Humberside2001 � ...
and further studied television and film.
Career
In July 2004, Firth created the animated web series ''
Salad Fingers'', which was released on
Newgrounds.
The series was created using
Adobe Flash, and Firth became a notable figure in the medium of Flash animation. Ten episodes were released from 2004 to 2013, and an eleventh episode was released in 2019. Having accumulated roughly 110 million video views on
YouTube as of 2020,
the series is considered to have become the subject of a
cult following
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
.
Since his start on Newgrounds, Firth released several different flash animations, contributed animation to the BBC television series ''
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe
''Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe'' is a British television review comedy programme created and presented by Charlie Brooker and broadcast on BBC Four. The programme contains reviews of current shows, as well as stories and commentary on how tele ...
'',
and voiced the character Shrimp in the third episode of the
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swimand often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...
animated series ''
Smiling Friends''. Firth also co-created the comedy rapper character MC Devvo, a dimwitted
chav performed by his friend Christian Webb, for a series of videos that satirised the music scene of Doncaster's white working class. In 2022, he contributed an animated segment to
Justin Roiland
Mark Justin Roiland (born February 21, 1980) is an American voice actor, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known as the co-creator of Adult Swim's ''Rick and Morty'' and its subsequent Rick and Morty (franchise), franchise. H ...
's ''The Paloni Show! Halloween Special'' on
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
.
In 2014, he created the animated music video for the
Flying Lotus song "Ready Err Not", which ''
Pitchfork'' described as disturbing and highly graphic. Flying Lotus referred to Firth as one of his favorite animators. Firth also co-wrote the 2017 body horror feature film ''
Kuso'', which was directed by Flying Lotus.
In 2016, he created the animated short film ''Cream'', which tells the story of a scientist who creates a miracle cream that solves all of the world's problems. It screened at
Regent Street Cinema in London on 16 November that year and featured the voice of Flying Lotus. The two also co-directed the video for Flying Lotus's song "
Fire Is Coming", featuring
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...
.
Style
Ryan Ball, writing for ''
Animation Magazine'', describes his animations as "a brilliant and original hodgepodge of hilarity, stupidity and unshakable creepiness".
Firth says that he "
akesinspiration from the unpredictability of dreams", and describes applying this style as difficult because of the lack of spontaneity in producing animation.
References
External links
Personal website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Firth, David
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
English animators
Flash artists
Newgrounds people
People from Doncaster
YouTube animators
English filmmakers
YouTube filmmakers
English YouTubers
1980s births