David Shaw-Parker trained at RADA in 1975 and began his career at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1977 appearing in over twenty five productions between then and 1991. 

He went on to appear at The National Theatre in Oedipus Rex, The False Servant and My Fair Lady and in London's West End in Grand Hotel, The Country Wife, Acorn Antiques, Heavenly Ivy, Up n' Under, A Dead Secret, Milkwood Blues, Cyrano de Bergerac, Uncle Vanya at The Print Room, Titus Andronicus at Shakespeare's Globe, McQueen at the St. James Theatre and Hobson's Choice  at The Vaudeville Theatre. His numerous television credits include Endeavour, Victoria, The Crown, Inspector Morse, Space Precinct and The Commander and his films include Steven Soderbergh's Kafka, Uberto Pasolini's Still Life, The Man Who Knew Infinity and The Muppets' Christmas Carol.

His radio recordings include innumerable dramas such as Rumpole of the Bailey, Far Side of The Moore, Heading For Paradise, Headlong, Two-Pipe Problems and Number Ten and as a voice artist records audio books regularly for Macmillan, Harper Collins, Big Finish [Dr. Who] and Naxos for whom he has just recorded Pilgrim's Progress, Trollope's The Warden, Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington, The Last Chronicle of Barsetshire, The Way We Live Now, Can You Forgive Her?, Phineas Finn and The Poetry of John Clare.