Davis began animating as a child using his parent's 8 mm camera to film action figures in stop motion. His interest in animation began when watched a stop motion film called Icharus at a film festival. He worked on the stop motion film The Bermuda Triangle in 1981 while still attending Southern Methodist University, where he graduated in 1984.

K&H Productions

Soon after his graduation Davis joined the animation company K&H Productions, working with 2-D animator Keith Alcorn. Soon, Davis made the transition from claymation to 2-D animation with Alcorn's help. K&H did production work for commercials, public access animation, and film festivals. K&H Productions declared bankruptcy in early 1987; that same year DNA Productions was founded.

Ant Bully

In 2006 he directed the film Ant Bully after being approached by Tom Hanks to direct the film. Production on the film made Davis resign from production of Jimmy Neutron in January 2003. He gave his position away as Executive in charge of production to Steve Oedekerk. The two business partners have been associated with various CGI animated projects for over ten years. Davis met Steve in 1995 after a successful time at Siggraph with his Jimmy Neutron character. He also directed the movies Video Game.

Closure of DNA

DNA closed its doors in 2006.

In 2000 Davis was up for an Emmy along with 8 others in the category Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming More Than One Hour) for Olive, the Other Reindeer.

In 2002 Davis was nominated for an Oscar along with Steve Oedekerk in the category of Best Animated Feature for Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. The award went to "Shrek".