Wise began experimenting with animation and live-action film at the age of seven, under the tutelage of several artists and experimental filmmakers, including Len Lye, Francis Lee, and Stan VanDerBeek. Wise created dozens of brief animations using cut-outs, scratch-on-film techniques, as well as conventional cel animation. In 1963, at the age of eight, Wise released a compilation of his experiments, titled "Short Circuit". Distributed by the Filmmakers' Cooperative, "Short Circuit" was shown throughout the world, won several awards, and was the U.S. entry in the "Child & the World" festival in Czechoslovakia. Writing in the Village Voice, filmmaker and critic Jonas Mekas called Wise "the Mozart of Cinema." By the time he was nine, he was lecturing on filmmaking at universities and film societies, and appeared on numerous television shows, including I've Got a Secret with Steve Allen as host.
Career
''Star Trek: The Animated Series''
At the age of sixteen, Wise abandoned film-making for writing, determined to become a professional science fiction writer. The following year Wise sold several SF short stories to various anthologies. This led directly to his first television writing job, an episode of Filmation's animated series entitled "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth," written in collaboration with Russell L. Bates. The series as a whole won the only Emmy any Star Trek series has won in a non-technical category, for best children's production.
''Buck Rogers'', ''Wonder Woman'', ''He-Man'' and ''Mighty Orbots''
After a successful stint of live action work, writing for Glen A. Larson's Buck Rogers and the Lynda Carter series Wonder Woman, Wise returned to animation in the 1980s, collaborating on many of the animated endeavours of that period such as He-Man and Mighty Orbots.
''Transformers''
Wise also wrote Transformers episodes during the second and fourth seasons, including the Optimus Prime origin story "War Dawn", the comedy chase format of "Kremzeek", and the final three episodes of the original G1 series "The Rebirth", which Wise was forced to edit from five parts to three due to diminishing popularity of the franchise. During this period Wise also wrote scripts for Jem and My Little Pony.
He wrote the Battletoads animated pilot episode, as well as the two-part pilot for C.O.P.S., "The Case of C.O.P.S. File 1." He wrote some episodes of Defenders of The Earth. He wrote and story-edited such comic-based series as Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.S. He also developed, story-edited, and wrote most of the 26 episodes of Disney TV's Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series. During this period he also wrote and produced the live-action film , and was the first writer/story-editor on an animated interpretation of Zorro. He even wrote an episode of Corn & Peg an original series not based on existing property.
Go! Media Entertainment
He was CEO of the multi-media company Go! Media Entertainment from 2005 - 2010. Go! Media Entertainment consisted of the publishing imprint Go! Comi, and the digital entertainment division oPlay.
Other work
He wrote the final episode of the fourth series of the Doctor Who-related Gallifreyaudio drama series for UK-based Big Finish Productions. In 2019, David was announced as part of the team developing a television series based on the life of decorated dog hero Sergeant Stubby, serving as a prequel to the 2018 animated feature film .
