Born in the San Francisco Bay Area, Daniel studied acting at the American Conservatory Theatre and the Actor's Center of San Francisco while working with veteran filmmaker Rob Nilsson's ensemble, Citizen Cinema. Making his screen debut in Nilsson's "Maelstrom", da Silva played a Portuguese native who comes to America with his French girlfriend in search of her father. As a reluctant heir to his father's affluence, da Silva collaborated again with Nilsson in "Collapse", a vignette of the times in the world of the San Francisco Ballet Company during the economic crisis - and as a phone gambler in an uncredited role with Stacy Keach playing a bookie facing an identity crisis in "Imbued". da Silva continues working in other independent films; appearing in Richard J. Bosner's award-winning* directorial debut, "Falling Uphill" a feature about twenty-somethings going through a quarter life crisis, and currently filming period short "The Great Explorers" as Marcolini, the mad gold-fevered leader who will stop at nothing to stake his fame and fortune.