David first read the works of Rick Bass, Barry Lopez, and Aldo Leopold by head lamp on the Blue River in Arizona as a student on Round River’s Mexican Wolf program in 1994. They opened his mind to the adventure of nature writing. David has since looked to marry his love of the outdoors to his work on stage and screen.

David made his feature film debut at age thirteen in Big, starring as the young Tom Hanks; several years later, he starred with Christian Bale in Newsies. He has appeared in dozens of films, television shows, and theater productions. He directed the horror film, Desolation, and has executive produced more than twenty feature films, including Under the Silver Lake, To Dust, Strawberry Mansion, and Wild Nights with Emily.

David found a way to integrate his interest in the outdoors with his media work with the cable show From Scratch, and the bestselling book From Scratch: Adventures in Harvesting, Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging on a Fragile Planet (2022). To reconnect with the food that sustains our lives, David has spent four years going around the world for the show and the book, meeting with chefs and sourcing ingredients within local food ecosystems. Through his culinary travels, he has milked a water buffalo to make mozzarella for pizza in Italy; harvested oysters in Long Island Sound, and honey from wild bees in Kenya; made patis in the Philippines, beer in Malta, and sea salt in Iceland. David embarks on deep dives (sometimes literally) with fisherfolk, farmers, scientists, community activists, historians, hunters, and more, bringing back stories of the communities, workers, and environments involved—some thriving, some in jeopardy, all interconnected with food.