Deborah Puette is a queer creator who moves between film, television, and theater as a writer, director, actor, and producer. Adopted by an Irish-Catholic family of hunters who taught her to use a shotgun when she was eight, Puette left her life of weekend crow shoots to study photography in Paris, work at a shelter for abused women and kids in Alaska, and (very briefly) deal cocaine in Chicago until a surprise pregnancy shut that right down. She draws on these, ahem, eclectic life experiences to tell stories centering sharply observed female and LGBTQ+ characters claiming space in places that traditionally tell them to stay the eff out.
Her first feature script, CASH FOR GOLD, was a Finalist in The Black List x WIF Feature Residency, garnering the attention of Franklin Leonard who championed the project on its way to production. After winning awards on the festival circuit, the film, which Puette also co-directed and starred in, enjoyed a limited run in commercial theaters before being released on the major VOD platforms in early 2025. As of this writing, it’s 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
She has since written and directed SUCH A PRETTY GIRL, a semi-autobiographical short film inspired by her real-life relationships with her father and her daughter. The short stars Sarah Drew and Harry Groener and is currently in festivals. Puette’s next project will be a feature based on the short.
Puette’s various television pilots have landed her on the GLAAD x Blacklist and propelled her to the finals for the Writer’s Lab, the WB Writers Workshop, and the NBC TV Writers Program, among other accolades.
A working actor for more than two decades, Puette has been hailed as “L.A. theater royalty” by Stage Raw and her work in lead roles on stage have earned nominations from every major award outlet in Chicago and Los Angeles along with critical acclaim from publications including the Los Angeles Times (who’ve dubbed her a “local critics’ darling”), Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, and the Huffington Post.
Raising her daughter to be a kind, thoughtful, fierce advocate for making this world a better place for all is, and forever will be, her greatest achievement.
Please List the Title of Your Film at BIFF 2025
Such A Pretty Girl
What was your first experience with film and how did it influence your first project?
I was a very fanciful kid, constantly making up and acting out fantastic tales, but I hadn’t thought much about moving images in storytelling until I saw “The Wizard of Oz.” The scene in which the adults– who are meant to protect Dorothy!–do nothing as Mrs. Gulch drives away with her beloved dog, Toto, absolutely gutted me. The injustice of it, the terror of having your best friend stolen from you…I couldn’t bear it. I ran from our living room crying and nearly refused to return for the rest of the film. But once I’d calmed down, I was in awe of how that one image–Gulch sneering and hunched over the handlebars, skirts flying behind her as Dorothy screamed–could so deeply affect me. As a kid, I often felt like I had no control, that I was at the whims of the adults in my life. I come back to that theme often in my work–what it means to lose agency in our own lives and then fight to regain it, no matter how old we are. It was woven through my first feature, “Cash for Gold,” and is integral to my BIFF ’25 short film, “Such A Pretty Girl.”
Who is (are) your favorite filmmakers?
I’ll run to watch anything by Debra Granik. She writes and directs a narrative feature every 6-8 years, and I’ve loved everyone of them. I’m also a big fan of Nicole Holofcener’s entire body of work–she so beautifully illuminates the profound within the mundane and makes even the most cringe-worthy moments of humanity deeply touching and funny. More recently, Sarah Polley has become a north star. “Women Talking” is one of my favorite movies of the last five years. Throwing it back to American classics of the 30s and 40s, I watch and rewatch anything from Ernst Lubitsch, Frank Capra, George Cukor, and Howard Hawks. Their films are comfort food to me. (I love “It’s A Wonderful Life” so much that I buried a bunch of subtle nods to that movie as easter eggs in my first feature film, “Cash for Gold.” It thrills me when fellow fans pick up on them.)
What are you working on that no one knows about?
I’m developing an idea for a television procedural that gets me pretty worked up. It’s not a genre I normally feel drawn to, but I think I’ve found a way into this one that excites me. I also have an idea for a contained thriller–a feature–that scares the bejesus out of me, but that I know I need to write.!
Who would play you in a movie? What’s your go to movie snack? What’s the film title that best describes your life?
I’m an actor, so I’d play myself. Popcorn mixed with peanut butter M&Ms. THIS IS SO CORNY AND EARNEST, but I can’t help myself: “It’s a Wonderful Life,” because it is.
