Diana Wilson was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio surrounded by old-growth forest. She met her future husband and collaborator David Wilson while attending Kalamazoo College in Michigan. After college, she moved to Colorado and took painting classes at the University of Colorado, Denver. Inspired by the Whole Earth Catalog and back-to-the-land movement, she moved to rural land 17 miles outside of Montrose, Colorado in 1972 where she and David built their own house and collaborated on animated films without the benefit of electricity. In 1974 the Wilsons moved to California so that David could attend classes at Cal Arts, where Diana also sat in on classes and used equipment to make shorts films. Her animation talent led to work with Adam Beckett, Roberta Friedman and Pat O'Neill on film effects for the Star Wars trilogy.