Deborah Puette
A queer creator who moves between film, television, and theater, Deborah Puette draws on over two decades as a working actor to tell sophisticated stories centering sharply observed female and LGBTQ+ characters claiming space in places that traditionally tell them to stay the eff out. Adopted by an Irish-Catholic family of hunters who taught her to use a shotgun when she was eight, she eventually left that life of weekend crow shoots to study photography in Paris, work at a women's shelter in Alaska, and briefly deal cocaine in Chicago until a surprise pregnancy shut that shit down. Unwilling to wait for the L in sub-zero wind chills with an infant, she packed up her baby and their freaked-out cat and headed for the kinder climes of Los Angeles where the sun never stops shining and everything is a-okay. Deborah's first feature script, Cash for Gold, was a Finalist for The Black List x WIF Feature Residency, attracting the attention of Franklin Leonard who further championed the project. It was produced by Chariot Entertainment with Puette co-directing and playing the lead role opposite Farshad Farahat (Argo), David Sullivan (Argo), and JoBeth Williams (Poltergeist). Cash for Gold is slated for a limited theatrical run at the end of 2024 and will be distributed in February 2025 on streaming platforms. Deborah also wrote and directed Such A Pretty Girl, a short based on her semi-autobiographical series pilot, Play Like A Girl (Finalist, 2021 Writers Lab underwritten by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Oprah Winfrey). The short stars Sarah Drew and will play fests in 2025. The film was Executive Produced by Robina Riccitiello (Dídi, Mutt).
Her pilot Blaze was named to the GLAAD x Blacklist and propelled her to the finals of the Warner Bros. Writers Workshop. She's repped by Austin Aronson at Stride Management.
