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David Nykl (born 7 February, 1967 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Canadian actor of film, television, commercials and theater.
After the Soviet invasion in 1968, he and his family left then-Communist Czechoslovakia for Canada. Upon arriving at Victoria, British Columbia, his father found work as a structural engineer and his mother found work as a nurse.
Nykl attended the University of British Columbia, where he majored in liberal arts.
Nykl has appeared heavily in Vancouver and Prague in dozens of theater, film and television productions. Known for his versatility and depth as an actor, he has also produced theatre and film projects, and in 1994 he co-founded Prague's Misery Loves Company Theatre with Richard Toth and Ewan McLaren.
He is known to science fiction fans as the recurring Stargate Atlantis character of Dr. Radek Zelenka, a Czech scientist on Earth's expedition to the "lost city" of Atlantis. His character often provides a foil to the main scientists, who forget the limits of their situation.
He is fluent in Czech, English, French and Spanish. Though his character on Stargate Atlantis speaks English with a Czech accent, Nykl has a Canadian accent.
Born in Prague; David arrived in Canada with his parents at the age of two, after the communist occupation of what was then Czechoslovakia. The Nykls arrived in Victoria, BC where his father soon found work as a Structural Engineer and his mother as a Nurse. With a propensity for acting and a strong sense of comic timing, David soon became involved in all sorts of performances - from TV Commercials (Adidas), School Plays, and Christmas Show hosts to Piano, Acting and even Dance classes. In his Senior year at High School he directed and produced his first play: The Murder Room. He attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he took literature, theatre, and acting classes. He graduated with a degree in arts and (after having travelled overseas for a year) worked for several years in the Vancouver Theatre scene (Pacific Theatre, Vancouver Little Theatre, Vagabond Players, Metro Theatre) and soon initiated a small collective known as Ironworks Productions, out of a group of friends at Vancouver's outdoor Shakespeare Festival, Bard on the Beach. With their first production of "Waiting for Godot" [Estragon], which debuted on Galiano Island BC, David toured Europe with Ironworks for the very first time. Prague was on the verge of its rise as the new "Moveable Feast" - a Paris for the Nineties. Within a year, David returned to Prague after being cast in Prague's KASPAR theatre as Attahualpa, the Inca Sun God in "Royal Hunt of the Sun". The city was teeming with actors, writers and artists and quickly became a perfect place to stay. After plunging headlong from one rehearsal to another David found himself involved in theatre, film and commercial work. It was then that he co-founded Prague's Best-known "english language" theatre company: Misery Loves Company with Richard Toth and 'Ewan McLaren'. At its height, "Misery Loves Company" was selling out houses in their home space: the Celetna Stage, right in central Prague's pedestrian district. In four years, David was directly involved in over seventeen productions - as actor, director, producer and artistic director. Later, David returned to his native Vancouver where he began working as a full time actor in television series, commercials, and film.







