David James Furnish (born 25 October 1962) is a Canadian filmmaker and former advertising executive. He is married to English singer, pianist and composer Sir Elton John.

Early life and education

David Furnish was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, the son of Gladys and Jack Furnish, a director at the

Bristol-Myers The Bristol Myers Squibb Company (BMS) is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in New York City, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consistently ranks on the ''Fortune'' 500 list of the lar ...

pharmaceutical company. He has an older brother, John, and a younger brother, Peter. Furnish graduated from the

Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute (equally known to as Sir John A. Macdonald CI, SJAM, Macdonald Collegiate or Mac , originally known as O'Sullivan Secondary School,http://www.metropolicyarchive.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/HSS-1146450- ...

in 1981 and received an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration (HBA) from the

Ivey Business School Ivey Business School is a constituent unit of the University of Western Ontario, located in London, Ontario, Canada. Ivey offers full-time undergraduate (HBA), MBA, MSc, MFE and PhD programs and also maintains two teaching facilities in Toronto ...

at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...

in London, Ontario in 1985.

Career

After graduation, he was recruited by the advertising agency

Ogilvy & Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City a ...

Canada in Toronto. At 27, he asked his firm to transfer him to their UK principal offices in London. Furnish flourished in England, becoming the firm’s youngest Director of Account Services. . Furnish is co-chief of

Rocket Pictures Rocket Pictures is a British film company founded in 1996 by Elton John to produce family and music-themed film and TV projects. The company was established in 1996 with a ten-year first-look deal with The Walt Disney Company, a three-year deal w ...

along with his husband, Sir Elton John. Furnish serves on the board of the

Elton John AIDS Foundation The Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) is a nonprofit organization, established by rock musician Sir Elton John in 1992 in the United States and 1993 in the United Kingdom to support innovative HIV prevention, education programs, direct care a ...

, attending fundraisers and other events in support of that cause. Furnish is a contributing editor for ''

Tatler ''Tatler'' is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications focusing on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper-middle class and upper class, and those interes ...

'' magazine and also is a regular columnist for ''

Interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...

'' and '' GQ''. In 2015, he was named one of '' GQ''s 50 best dressed men in Britain. In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

, ''

Queerty ''Queerty'' is an online magazine and newspaper covering gay-oriented lifestyle and news, founded in 2005 by David Hauslaib. As of June 2015, the site had more than five million monthly unique visitors. History ''Queerty'' was founded by David ...

'' named him, along with John, as one of the ''Pride50'' "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards

equality Equality may refer to: Society * Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing ** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elite ...

, acceptance and dignity for all

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

people".

Personal life

Furnish began a relationship with singer

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

in 1993. John proposed to Furnish in May 2005 at a dinner party with friends and family at one of their homes in

Old Windsor Old Windsor is a large village and civil parish, in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, England. It is bounded by the River Thames to the east and the Windsor Great Park to the west. Etymology The name originates from old ...

. Furnish and John entered into a

civil partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

on 21 December 2005, the first day that civil partnerships could be performed in England, in the town of

Windsor, Berkshire Windsor is a historic market town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British monarch. The town is situated west of ...

. Their first child, son Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, was born on 25 December 2010 in California via

surrogacy Surrogacy is an arrangement, often supported by a legal agreement, whereby a woman agrees to delivery/labour for another person or people, who will become the child's parent(s) after birth. People may seek a surrogacy arrangement when pregnan ...

. On 11 January 2013, the couple's second son, Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John, was born through the same surrogate. After

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

became legal in England and Wales in March 2014, John and Furnish retroactively converted their civil partnership into a marriage and marked the occasion with a ceremony in

, on 21 December 2014, the ninth anniversary of their civil partnership. In 2016, Furnish sought an anonymised privacy injunction in the case ''

PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd ''PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd'' 016UKSC 26 is a UK constitutional law case in which an anonymised privacy injunctionThe injunction has been incorrectly referred to as a "super-injunction" in some media reports. Super-injunctions prohibit pub ...

''.

Filmography

*'' Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras''; director (1997) *''Women Talking Dirty''; producer (1999) *''Desert Flower''; co-producer (1999) *''

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder ...

: Center of the Storm''; executive producer (2002) *''Fame and Fashion: Inside Gucci – Sex and Fashion''; director, script writer (2002) *''Fame and Fashion: Inside Versace – Fame and Fashion''; director, script writer (2002) *''

It's a Boy Girl Thing ''It's a Boy Girl Thing'' is a 2006 romantic comedy film directed by Nick Hurran and written by Geoff Deane, starring Kevin Zegers and Samaire Armstrong and set in the United States but produced in the United Kingdom. The producers of the film are ...

''; producer (2006) *''Pride and Predator''; producer (announced 2009) *''

Gnomeo & Juliet ''Gnomeo & Juliet'' is a 2011 computer-animated romantic comedy film directed by Kelly Asbury from a screenplay by Rob Sprackling and John Smith. It is loosely based on the play '' Romeo and Juliet'' by William Shakespeare and features the voi ...

''; producer (2011) *''

Billy Elliot the Musical Live ''Billy Elliot the Musical Live'' is a 2014 British filmed version of Elton John's coming-of-age stage musical ''Billy Elliot the Musical'' (2005), which in turn was based on the 2000 film ''Billy Elliot''. Stephen Daldry directed both the orig ...

''; executive producer (2014) *''Virtuoso''; executive producer (2015) *''

Sherlock Gnomes ''Sherlock Gnomes'' is a 2018 3D computer-animated mystery comedy film directed by John Stevenson. Based on the character Sherlock Holmes created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the film serves as a sequel and spin-off to ''Gnomeo & Juliet'' (2011) ...

''; producer (2018) *''

Rocketman ''RocketMan'' (also written as ''Rocket Man'') is a 1997 American comic science fiction film directed by Stuart Gillard and starring Harland Williams, Jessica Lundy, William Sadler, and Jeffrey DeMunn. A partial remake of the 1967 film, '' The ...

''; producer (2019) * ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: The Final Elton John Performances And the Years That Made His Legend''; co-director and producer (announced 2022)

Television

*''Spectacle:

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

with...''; producer (2008)

Theatre

*''

Billy Elliot the Musical ''Billy Elliot: The Musical'' is a coming-of-age stage musical based on the 2000 film of the same name. The music is by Elton John, and the book and lyrics are by Lee Hall, who wrote the film's screenplay. The plot revolves around Billy, a m ...

''; executive producer (March 2005).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Furnish, David 1962 births Businesspeople from London Businesspeople from Toronto Canadian expatriates in England Film producers from Ontario Elton John Film directors from London Film directors from Toronto LGBT businesspeople from Canada LGBT producers Living people People named in the Pandora Papers University of Western Ontario alumni