Bio

David Arcus is a Toronto-based composer for film and television and a Juno-nominated producer. His score for the genre-bending Dark Match, co-written with Michelle Osis and Terry Benn, will premiere at Fantasia Film Festival in 2024. Arcus has scored numerous award-winning films including Knuckleball (2018) starring Michael Ironside, Fire Song (2015) which premiered at TIFF and Great Great Great (2017), which won best feature film at the Canadian Film Fest. From 2020-2023 he co-scored the Eli Roth-produced series The Haunted Museum with Michelle Osis and Terry Benn.

David’s scoring career started at age 9 when he learned how to overdub his music home movies he made with his friends (an imperfect system which involved transferring the movie to videotape, playing it on a TV and literally filming the screen while playing his Radio Shack synth). After playing guitar in various bands throughout his teens and 20s, his love of film scoring eventually led him to the University of Toronto where he earned a degree in composition and was the recipient of the Glenn Gould Composition Scholarship.

David has never lost his DIY spirit and love of synths. His horror scores are noted for their sonic adventurousness and he’s been known to use found objects and custom built instruments to create unique, unsettling soundscapes.

A collaborator by nature, David relishes the opportunity to work as part of a creative team to help tell a story. He understands the unique role that music can play in creating an emotional connection with the characters and immersing the audience in the world of the film.

In 2015, David graduated from the Canadian Film Centre’s Slaight Music Residency, where his mentors included Mark Korven (The Witch) and Lesley Barber (Manchester by the Sea). In 2016 he studied under the legendary Mark Snow (X-Files) and Sean Callery (24, Jessica Jones) at the NYU Scoring Workshop. In 2017, he took part in the Zurich Film Festival’s International Scoring Competition where he had the thrill of hearing his nominated score performed live by the legendary Tonhalle Orchestra. David has also composed music for ad campaigns by some of the world’s biggest brands including Coca-Cola, IKEA, and Cadbury.

In addition to his scoring work, David has produced several albums, including the Juno-nominated Flores, Tambores E Amores by Brazilian-Canadian artist Aline Morales.