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Silverman, 50, who grew up in the Kemp Mill neighborhood of Silver Spring, has animated Bart Simpson and other characters from ‘‘The Simpsons” since the show’s inception. He also directed the movie that became one of the summer’s blockbusters.

Silverman lived just seconds away from Kemp Mill Elementary School, which he attended before going to Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School and graduating from John F. Kennedy High School in 1975.

By the time Silverman got to high school, his abilities in animation, art and music were already established.

‘‘David was exceedingly talented, even when we were kids in early elementary school,” said Benjamin F. Kramer (D-Dist. 19), a state delegate from Derwood. Kramer, who was a neighbor, said he remembers making movies and being creative with Silverman.

Silverman enjoyed growing up in Kemp Mill and while he doesn’t often visit, he has fond memories of ‘‘horsing around” with his friends.

‘‘We were walking distance to a wooded area ... and we’d go down there and joke around like kids do, playing and inventing stories and adventures and so forth,” Silverman said.

Silverman said his parents were behind his efforts.

‘‘They sensed that there was creative energy going on in their son and they wanted to support it,” he said. ‘‘... My mom always took me to art galleries, but it wasn’t being regimented or forced. I liked it.”

Barry Auerbach, who grew up just doors away from Silverman, remembers back in 1972 when he and Silverman went to go see ‘‘The Godfather” and Silverman then drew the entire movie scene by scene on paper.

‘‘Our parents would say, ‘Hang on to that one, he’s going to be famous one day,’” Auerbach said.

At a young age, Silverman was making claymation films — using clay figures in animation — while handing in movies instead of papers in classes in middle and high school.

While at Kennedy, Silverman was a cartoonist for the school newspaper and an editor and artist for the yearbook. George Cokinos, a former assistant principal at Kennedy High School, said he remembers Silverman as a good kid who had extraordinary talent.

‘‘I’m really thrilled and proud that he has accomplished what he’s accomplished,” Cokinos said.

Silverman was also a member of Kennedy’s marching, stage and concert bands, and performed a ‘‘flaming tuba” act last year on the ‘‘Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

Flaming instruments aside, Silverman sees a clear connection with music and animation. ‘‘Animation is about rhythm and timing and breaking down seconds. In fact, in the old days in animation, they used [musical] bar sheets.”

Silverman, who initially attended the University of Maryland to study architecture, said he realized fairly quickly that he wanted to move to Los Angeles to pursue animation. He transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles and worked on animation film and illustration.

However, Silverman’s life would change when he gained the opportunity to animate characters for a short sketch on ‘‘The Tracy Ullman Show” in 1987. The sketch was a rough version of ‘‘The Simpsons” most people recognize today, and in 1989, the dysfunctional animated family debuted in its own show, which Silverman continued to animate and direct.

Silverman’s parents, Joseph and Joan Silverman of Chevy Chase, said when they saw ‘‘The Simpsons” on television, they didn’t know what to think.

‘‘We, of course, enjoyed it,” Joseph Silverman said. ‘‘Our son has a wonderful comic flair and he had collaborators that were just an extraordinary gifted group, but we knew nothing about whether it would become a success and such a great success.”

While the Simpsons’ characters were conceived and developed by Matt Groening, Silverman said he and animator Wes Archer all developed the characters for the original sketches. The original Simpsons were also inspired by ‘‘Life in Hell,” a comic strip created by Groening.

Silverman said one of the challenges was how to make simple figures move in three-dimensional ways.

‘‘We were trying to get it done as fast as possible,” he said. ‘‘We didn’t have a lot of time to think, [and] a lot of things came from how we liked things looking and [from] laughing at them,” he said.

Mark Kirkland, supervising director with ‘‘The Simpsons,” said Silverman’s energy and talent were inspiring to people involved with the show.

‘‘He is a brilliant animator and he is a very funny guy, but he can also get down to business, which is what you have to do to create an episode that needs 20,000 to 30,000 drawings,” Kirkland said.

But even when things were serious and tense, Kirkland said Silverman would start playing his tuba to remind everyone that what they were doing was fun.

Following a short stint away from ‘‘The Simpsons” from 2000 to 2001 to work for Dreamworks and Pixar on movies such as ‘‘The Road to El Dorado” and ‘‘Monsters Inc.,” Silverman returned to ‘‘The Simpsons” as a supervising director.

‘‘It was great to come around full circle,” he said.

The movie opened No. 1 in its first week and has grossed nearly $500 million worldwide. It includes a scene of a nude Bart Simpson riding a skateboard, which Silverman thought might affect the movie’s rating. However, it was rated PG-13 for irreverent humor throughout.

‘‘That’s not a rating, that’s a review,” Silverman said. The rating, he said, was also indicative of how adult humor in animation had become commonplace since ‘‘The Simpsons” began.

Since the movie opened in July, Silverman said he’s been weighing his options and attending meetings about live action movies. While he doesn’t have any immediate plans to start working on ‘‘The Simpsons” again, he said there was always a possibility.

He also said that he would love to come back to Kennedy one day and speak to students about his life and what he’s accomplished.

‘‘You drift away from your hometown and no one pays attention,” he said. ‘‘Well, some do pay attention and are saying, ‘Wait a minute, this kid is kind of interesting.’”