David Elisco, Sea Studios Foundation

For nearly twenty years, David Elisco has been an award-winning producer, writer and editorial leader. For the past eight years, he has been the storytelling center of Sea Studios Foundation where he has brought his appreciation and understanding of science together with his background in filmmaking to help lead the foundation’s unique vision.

For Sea Studios Foundation, Elisco most recently served as the Series Producer for the award-winning and critically acclaimed National Geographic’s Strange Days on Planet Earth, and he also served as producer for Episode Five, Most Dangerous Catch.  Previously he served as Series Producer and program producer/ writer for the foundation’s The Shape of Life, as well as writer producer for PBS’s highly rated Oceans in Glass, produced for WNET’s Nature Series.

In addition to broadcast television, Elisco has produced a number of short-subject and targeted films for Sea Studios Foundationdesigned to produce measurable impact on environmental issues, including Once Upon A Tide, the foundations first foray into animated short-subjects, and Ocean Legacy, to support a campaign promoting a network of Marine Reserves within the Monterey Bay. Elisco also oversaw production on Ahead of the Curve, designed to spur business leaders to address climate change, and Coral Connections, which focused on conserving the coral reefs of the Mexican Caribbean.

Throughout his career, Elisco has produced science documentaries, spanning a broad range of topics including Earth System Science and the environment, evolutionary biology, biodiversity, mathematics, engineering and marine forensics.  

Elisco’s honors include Best Series for Strange Days at Wildscreen, the environmental equivalent of the Academy Awards, first place in The Environmental Media Awards, a gold medal in The New York Film Festival, and an Emmy nomination.  His films have been narrated and hosted by Edward Norton, Martin Sheen, Danny Glover, Linda Hunt, Jonathan Price, Peter Coyote and Leon Panetta.

Prior to SSF, Elisco produced five Discovery Channel programs about the RMS Titantic and numerous shows for WQED Public Broadcasting System (PBS) in Pennsylvania.  Web of Life was an Emmy-nominated, two-hour special on biodiversity.  David’s Life by the Numbers was a series of seven, one-hour programs making connections between science, mathematics and technology.