Prague born, Vancouver raised, David Nykl arrived in Canada at age two when his family emigrated from Czechoslovakia after the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of what was then Czechoslovakia.

David started early as an actor in Vancouver: community theater, small TV parts, and classes in dance and music. He graduated University of British Columbia with an Major in English Literature and Theater.

Post graduation David began appearing in Vancouver theater production at Bard on the Beach, Pacific Theatre, and the Gateway Theatre. He soon toured with a production of "Waiting for Godot" to Prague - where he remained for almost a decade - where he co-founded the famous English language theater company Misery Loves Co. as well as appeared in several local Czech companies such as divadlo na zabradli, kaspar, and divadlo v dlouhe.

Since his return to Canada in the late nineties, David has appeared in dozens of film and TV projects including Yıldız Geçidi: Atlantis (2004), Arrow (2012), Doğaüstü (2005), Fringe (2008), Eureka (2006), Continuum (2012), Yarının Dünyası (2015), HBO's The Sleepers (2019), and, since 2019, Karnaval Sokağı (2019). He lives in Vancouver with his family.