Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in fine art from Sheffield Hallam University in England, David Slade started his career as a journalist. He also took jobs as a computer animator, gas station attendant and a tire factory shelf-packer before his directing career began. In 2002, Slade moved to Los Angeles to pursue features and within a year he had found his first script: the taut, psychological thriller "Hard Candy." Starring Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson, the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2005, where Lionsgate picked it up after one of those infamous all-night bidding wars. At the world-renowned Sitges Film Festival in Spain, "Hard Candy" won the Jury Award and the Audience Award. Slade was also awarded Best Director at the Malaga Film Festival.
Slade's next project was the vampire horror film "30 Days of Night" starring Josh Hartnett. The film opened on October 19, 2007, as the number-one movie in America and went on to similar success in countries across the world. Most recently, Slade directed the third film in the "Twilight" franchise, "Eclipse." Among his television directing credits is the pilot of NBC's "Awake," which drew 6.2 million viewers and unanimous praise from critics: IGN called it "a pitch-perfect pilot episode that, on many levels, acts as its own brilliant self-contained short film." And Slade counts an episode of AMC's award-winning series "Breaking Bad" among his credits as well.
In 2010, he was given a further Honorary Graduation from the Award School, AustralAsia's leading school for creative thinking. Recently he was granted an honorary Ph.D. in film studies by his alma mater Sheffield Hallam University. In addition, he has a string of over 100 nominations and awards for his work in commercials, videos and films.
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