David Calder trained at Bristol Old Vic School. He has gone on to become one of Britain's most respected stage and screen actors. He is an Associate Member of the Royal Shakespeare Company where he has played leading roles such as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Gorbachev in Moscow Gold, and Prospero in The Tempest. He has also appeared at the Young Vic as Iago in Othello and Victor in The Price, at the National Theatre as the Marquis de Sade in Marat Sade and at the Almeida in Yasmin Reza's Conversations After a Burial.

David's extensive television career includes over 50 productions. Starring appearances include Lynda La Plante’s The Commander, Love or Money, Tumbledown, Greville Wynne in Wynne and Penkovsky, John Schlesinger's A Question of Attribution, Dr Bramwell in three series of Bramwell, Cracker, Argos in Jason and the Argonauts, and Uriens in Uli Edel's Mists of Avalon. By coincidence, prior to their work together on Mr In-Between, Calder had also appeared as actor Andrew Howard's father in the BBC drama Drover's Gold.

Calder's feature film credits include Defence of the Realm, American Friends, Fairy Tale - A True Story, Moonlighting, Superman and Bond film The World Is Not Enough (where he played Sophie Marceau's ill-fated father). Before Mr In-Between, he shot the unusual Dogme movie The King Is Alive, alongside Romane Bohringer and Jennifer Jason Leigh: Calder's performance attracted much personal critical acclaim.