David Wachtenheim is an Animation Director, Writer, Board Artist and Animator who has been working in the business for over 20 years.  In 2000, David began W/M Animation with partner Robert Marianetti. a full-service animation company based in New York that has produced and directed award-winning work for a client list including Cartoon Network, HBO, Disney/ABC, Universal, ESPN, Fox TV, Comedy Central, NBC, Sesame Workshop and Coca Cola.  They most recently served as Heads of Story on the feature Hotel Transylvania 2 and wrote and directed a Smurfs short, both for Sony Pictures Animation.

 

          David began his career in his native Los Angeles on the animated motion picture Rover Dangerfield before moving to New York.  He has worked as a storyboard artist on Cartoon Network’s Courage the Cowardly Dog and Code Name: Kids Next Door.  His past animation work on television commercials have won numerous awards for clients including Converse, Pacific Bell, Mitsubishi, Hallmark, Levi’s, Nike, Hewlett Packard and Volkswagen. He has vividly brought to life the art of many well-known illustrators, such as Garry Trudeau, Peter DeSeve, David Levine, Gary Baseman, Barry Blitt and the legendary Al Hirschfeld. 

 

          W/M Animation is best known for over nine seasons of Robert Smigel’s Saturday TV Funhouse on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, earning them First Place at the Ottawa International Film Festival in 2004 for “Saddam and Osama” and again in 2006 for “Journey to The Disney Vault”, also co -written by Robert and David. In 2001, Wachtenheim and Marianetti served as Animation Creative Directors and Producers on the acclaimed Comedy Central cult classic TV Funhouse.

         

          In 2004, they went on to direct and design the pilot and thirteen episodes of Stroker and Hoop, a half-hour comedy/detective series for Adult Swim. In 2008, they directed and designed the CG television pilot for Happy Madison/Fox TV's Animals. For the children's market, W/M Animation has created animation for such beloved institutions as Cartoon Network (over 24 interstitials, including the Big Baby series), Sesame Street (the unforgettable and powerful letters 'K' and 'Q'), and Schoolhouse Rock.

 

          Though best known for their comedy, they have also received critical acclaim for their half-hour, animated musical for HBO entitled My Depression (The Up and Down and Up of it), based on a picture book by Broadway writer and composer, Elizabeth Swados. Wachtenheim and Marianetti not only directed and produced the animation, they also co-wrote the script and songs for this Tribeca-Nominated film produced by Sheila Nevins’ HBO Documentary unit. The film premiered in April of 2014 at The Tribeca Film Festival and is currently airing on HBO NOW and HBO GO.

 

          David lives in Scarsdale NY with his wife Barbara and three children Alli, Josh, and Kyra as well as more dogs than any one family should be allowed to have.