Actor / Director Profile

David Austin grew up in a small town in Minnesota. He was inspired to be an actor at an early age by his great-grandfather George Irving, a very prominent actor and director of the early 20th century. As a child his interest in piano led him to win the Minnesota State Piano Competition, where he played at the Northrup Auditorium in front of 10,000 people. Fascinated by Bruce Lee, he trained hard to become a black belt at age 16 and went on to win many awards for performance demonstrations. Always into extreme sports, as a student in Santa Barbara,CA, he would often swim miles out into the ocean and surprise ships at sea with a visit. One swim out to an oil rig almost ended in tragedy when a storm broke out while he and his friend were swimming seven miles offshore. Miraculously they survived! This story was featured and re-enacted on the PAX television show "It's a Miracle" (1998) and also featured on Warren Miller's television show "Wild Survival". David completed principal photography on the WW II feature Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean (2005), in which he plays an earnest young Executive Officer on the USS Fleischer. The film broke a number of box-office records in Japan and is in negotiation for release in the U.S.