Weiss: Living His Dream in Hollywood
by Wileen Wong

David N. Weiss graduated from Seaver College in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in business administration "to satisfy the conventional wisdom vendors of the day and my father, who said, 'Get a solid education in a marketable field, then pursue your dreams.'" And that is exactly what Weiss did.

David Weiss, left, with his son and Paula Gareés and Jesse Bradford, the stars of "Clockstoppers," a film Weiss co-wrote with J. David Stern.

After Pepperdine, he continued his education, earning a graduate degree from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television. Today, Weiss is living his dream. He and his writing partner, J. David Stem, are currently one of the most sought-after family film and animation writing teams in Hollywood.

In two decades, Weiss has achieved several major successes. Clockstoppers, a film he co-wrote with Stem, was released in March. In 2001, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, another film written by the pair, was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Animated Feature category. Unfortunately, the film lost to Shrek, but there are no hard feelings-the "Daves," as Weiss and his partner are often called, just finished Shrek II.

Weiss' career began as a writer for television. He worked on Disney's "Carol Burnett & Company" and wrote two original screenplays, All Dogs Go to Heaven and Rock-A-Doodle. His career skyrocketed on Nickelodeon's award-winning "Rugrats" animation series, where Weiss won a Cable Ace award and was nominated for an Emmy award.

In 1997, he became head writer of "Rugrats." Soon after came The Rugrats Movie and its sequel, Rugrats in Paris. "I love the family thing," Weiss said. "Though movies like Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan portray great values, you can't share it with your family, your children. When The Rugrats Movie came out, my daughter got to ride in a limo and attended the premiere-it was her first film. And the sequel was my son's first film."

After being wooed by Disney, the "Daves" are now working on a live-action Tinkerbell movie and teaming up with Kelsey Grammer's company, Gramnet, to write a pilot for a new half-hour comedy series. They plan to stay in the family genre but would like to move toward producing and shepherding projects with new up-and-coming writers.