Raised in Mansfield, Ohio, David Leslie Johnson began writing plays in the second grade and wrote his first screenplay at age nineteen. A graduate of Ohio State University in Columbus with a bachelor of fine arts degree in photography and cinema, Johnson worked as a production assistant on the Academy Award-nominated film The Shawshank Redemption, and spent five years as an assistant to the film's director and writer, Frank Darabont. Most recently Johnson wrote an original screenplay for the film Red Riding Hood, directed by Catherine Hardwicke and he has several projects in development. Johnson lives in Burbank, California, with his wife, screenwriter Kimberly Lofstrom Johnson, and their son, Samuel.