Today, AFX Studio is run by David and his wife, Heather Langenkamp Anderson. With a team of industry professionals, AFX has been turning out memorable and award winning work for decades. 

Over his 35 years in the Motion Picture Industry, David Leroy Anderson has been nominated 3 times for an Academy Award for Best Make-Up, winning two Oscars for his achievements. He has also been nominated for 4 Emmy Awards and won for American Horror Story: Freak Show for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For a Series, Limited Series, Movie Or a Special. David is a member of Local 706 and for the past 20 years he has served on the Academy of Motion Pictures Make-Up Selection Committee.

David  Leroy Anderson is a native Angeleno, born in Venice, California. A graduate of Santa Monica High School, David entered the Special Effects Make-Up field after receiving his AA degree at Santa Monica College. He began his career working for his father at Lance Anderson Make-Up Designs and had his first opportunity to work on set in Wes Craven’s “The Serpent and the Rainbow.” It was through his work with Wes Craven that David met his wife, Heather Langenkamp, star of “A Nightmare on Elm Street”.

Working as a sculptor and mold-maker in many of the best make-up labs in LA (Stan Winston Studio, ADI, LAMUD) David learned all aspects of creating special make-up effects until the day when he took on projects of his own in partnership with his father, Lance. You can see their work in “Hot Shots, Hot Shots Part Deux”, “Death Becomes Her”, “Jane Austen’s Mafia!”, “Dragonfly”, “Bruce Almighty”, “Krippendorf’s Tribe” and dozens of commercials. When not running shows from his shop, David worked on set in features such as “Shocker,” “Pet Semetary”, “Batman,” “Waterworld,” “The Three Musketeers” and “Spawn.”

In 1996, David was tapped by Rick Baker to serve as Rick’s second on “Men In Black.” David applied the Vincent D’Onofrio ‘Edgar’ make-up on the film for which Rick Baker and David were awarded an Academy Award™.

The next year, Rick picked David once again to apply the Klump family make-ups to Eddie Murphy in “The Nutty Professor” for which David received his 2nd Academy Award™. (Rick – his 5th!)

David's portfolio includes all the zombie F/X in Zack Snyder’s 2004 “Dawn of The Dead,” all make-up F/X for the horror film “Asylum,” directed by David Ellis, and “Dead Silence,” directed by James Wan. In 2005, David designed, created and applied the looks of all the boxers in Ron Howard’s “Cinderella Man” (2005). For this work he and his father, Lance, received an Academy Award™ nomination.

Since 2014 David and AFX Studio have ventured into TV and have been working on the American Horror Story series. David has been nominated for multiple Emmys for his work on American Horror Story, winning in 2015 (Freak Show) and 2017 (Roanoke) for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Limited Series, Movie or a Special.