David Bleiman Ichioka grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles and attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where he graduated with a degree in film. He started professionally creating animated logos and titles, and then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and into the field of stop-motion animation by joining Gumby Adventures, the 1980s TV series revival of the beloved character.
After making The Danger Team, a prime-time network television pilot that mixed live-action and stop-motion, Mr. Bleiman Ichioka created, directed, and produced the children's television series Bump in the Night for ABC-TV. During this period, he experimented in the video game business with several titles, including Clay Fighter. He subsequently directed the short Ozzie the Elf, before moving to Portland to work as producer and director on the television series The PJs and Gary & Mike.
Mr. Bleiman Ichioka later spent a year in London working on the animated feature Corpse Bride, directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson. He also had a stint at San Francisco's Mondo Media, producing the television series adaptation of the cult online cartoon Happy Tree Friends.
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