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 and Cyrano de Bergerac. His numerous television credits include Inspector Morse, Space Precinct and The Commander and his films include Steven Soderbergh's Kafka, Uberto Pasolini's Still Life and The Muppets' Christmas Carol.

His radio recordings include innumerable dramas such as Rumpole of the Bailey, Headlong, Two-Pipe Problems and Number Ten and as a voice artist records audio books regularly for Macmillan, Harper Coillins and Naxos for whom he has just recorded Pilgrim's Progress, Trollope's The Warden, Doctor Thorne, Barchester Towers and The Poetry of John Clare.