David Furnish

Biography: A Canadian/British filmmaker, former advertising executive, and now a film director and producer most known for his documentary Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras. He is the civil partner of British entertainer Elton John.

David Furnish was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada to Jack Furnish (retired, former director of Bristol-Myers) and Gladys Furnish (retired, homemaker). He has an older brother, John, and a younger brother, Peter. Furnish graduated from the Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute in 1981 and received an Honours Business Administration undergraduate degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in 1985. He was recruited by the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, eventually transferred to the London, England, office and was appointed to their Board.

A mutual friend of Furnish and Elton John left a message for Furnish inviting him to a dinner party at John?s house on October 30, 1993. Initially fearing that the dinner would be unpleasant, or that John would be boring, he instead found John to be interesting and engaging. Both were attracted to each other; John asked for his phone number and the two had a private dinner the following night.

Furnish resigned from his position in 1994 after finding it increasingly difficult to balance the position?s demands with the demands of his new life with John.

With a keen interest in film, Furnish enrolled in courses at the British Film Institute. He is currently co-chief of Rocket Pictures along with John.

Furnish is a contributing editor for Tatler magazine and also is a regular columnist for Interview and GQ.

Furnish currently serves on the board of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, attending fundraisers and other events in support of that cause.

Furnish was proposed to by John in May 2005 at a dinner party with friends and family at one of their homes in Old Windsor. Furnish and John entered into a civil partnership on December 21, 2005, the first day that civil partnerships could be performed in England, in the town of Windsor, Berkshire. Their son Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John was born December 25, 2010 in California via a surrogate