AFX Studio was founded by David Leroy Anderson and his father, Lance Anderson, almost 40 years ago.
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.
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 is most proud of his nomination for Cinderella Man in 2004. He and his father were the first father-son duo to be nominated for an Academy Award and though they did not win the trophy that night, being nominated with his father remains David’s fondest moment in the entertainment industry. David has also been nominated for 6 Emmy Awards and won two for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For a Series, Limited Series, Movie Or a Special. (American Horror Story:Freak Show and Roanoke. 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's extensive portfolio includes the zombie F/X in Zack Snyder’s groundbreaking 2004 “Dawn of The Dead,” the make-up F/X for horror films like “Dead Silence” by James Wan and “Canon in the Woods” by Drew Goddard, boxing/fight FX in Ron Howard’s “Cinderella Man” (2005) and alien FX in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek into Darkness.”