David F. Sandberg was born in 1981 in Jönköping, Sweden. According to Sandberg, he grew up watching films and making his own using his dad's VHS-C camera. He worked in a video store as a teenager, and saved up money to buy his own camcorder for filmmaking.
He continued working at Film i Jönköping, primarily working on documentary projects. From 2006 to 2009, he worked on several documentaries for Arvsfonden, the Swedish Inheritance Fund. His last collaboration with Rosberg before his retirement was Animera=Göra Livlig, a 2010 documentary about senior citizens creating animated films.
In 2009, he moved to the city of Gothenburg. He continued working on animation and documentaries, and began collaborating with Producer Claes Lundin. In 2011, they completed and sold an animated documentary series called Earth Savers, and in 2013, their documentary short Ladyboy premiered at Cinequest Film Festival.
Sandberg married Actress, designer, and Photographer Lotta Losten in 2013. She has featured in many of his short films, including Lights Out. They moved to Los Angeles together circa 2015.
One of these contacts was Lawrence Grey, a Producer who wanted to adapt Lights Out into a feature-length film. Grey brought Screenwriter Eric Heisserer and Producer James Wan on board to collaborate and produce a script with Sandberg, who would also direct the new feature. The film (also titled Lights Out) began production in mid-2015, and premiered at LA Film Festival in June 2016. The film was a massive box office success, grossing $148 million on a $5 million budget, and a moderate critical success, earning a 76% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 58 out of 100 score on Metacritic.
Sandberg next directed Annabelle: Creation, a prequel to supernatural horror film Annabelle. The film was released in 2017 to positive reviews and box office success. In July that year, Sandberg signed on as Director for the DC Extended Universe film Shazam!, based on the DC Comics character of the same name.
He is currently directing Shazam! (2019), the seventh installment in the DC Extended Universe.
