David Angsten was born in Chicago, attended Grinnell College in Iowa and American University in Rome and Paris, and graduated from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana. He initially worked in Chicago, traveling internationally as a writer-director of videos, documentaries, fiction shorts, and animations. His half-hour drama, Notes From a Lady at a Dinner Party, was selected for competition at Cannes.

Since 1990, David has lived and worked in Los Angeles as a screenwriter and video director, and is a story analyst and senior editor for Atchity Entertainment International.