David Ley was born on June 18, 1978 in Ithaca, New York. He grew up in nearby Dryden, with a younger brother, Jonathan, and younger sister, Jacquelyn. Although belonging to a family of rather limited means, he excelled in school and was selected for a specialized accelerated learning program early on. At the age of 9, he took up computer programming as a hobby. At age 12, he was writing, directing, and starring in a community access television show called "Nothing in Particular" which he created with his since longtime collaborator, Herman Nugent. New episodes of the program continued to air throughout his years in high school. After graduation, he moved to Chicago to attend Illinois Institute of Technology on scholarship to study computer engineering. Deciding that this course of study did not engage his interest enough to merit a career in it, he transferred after one year to New York University's illustrious film program; he did so on a sizeable scholarship and graduated with honors in 2000. He has since appeared in numerous commercials, television shows, and feature films. While supporting himself solely through his work as an actor, he is also an avid musician, having self-produced an experimental electronic album under the guise of DJ evil genius as well as fronting a New York City rock band called Torpor. He is also an artist whose paintings have had exhibitions throughout New York and have sold to numerous collectors.In 1999, he unveiled his first video installation entitled "Ultra High". The following year, he conducted a "conceptual film happening" entitled "Simulacrum" in which he screened an experimental film for the first and only time to a select audience of 50 people before recording their interpretations of the screening and ultimately burning the only existing copy of the film. In 2003, he finished work on his first screenplay for a feature film entitled, "Big Boy, Little Lady", which is currently in development.
