David Olufemi graduated from Bristol University and trained at the City Literary Institute and the Actors Institute. His biography in the Talawa Antony and Cleopatra programme also states that he played Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing as a student, although it gives no particulars as to the institution. Olufemi also played Wagner and Martino in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus for Commonweal Theatre Company in 1992.