Raised in the Deep South, Deb Hiett moved to Los Angeles after years of living in New York City, where she performed as an actress, writer, dancer (scholarship with The American Dancemachine), and musician (founding member of the band "Orson Welk"). After two years at The University of Alabama, she graduated with honors from New York University (Gallatin) with a B.A. in Writing and Philosophy. Her short stories, "Listening to Alarms" and "Coffee Shop" won NYU's Herbert Rubin Creative Writing Award and were published in The Gallatin Review.
Deb’s play, “Circle Forward,” is a Semifinalist for the 2024 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and has been selected for a workshop/staged reading as part of Durango Playfest in June 2024 (Colorado) as well as Gulfshore Playhouse’s New Works Festival (Naples, FL) in September 2023. It was a Finalist for the Local Theater Company New Play Festival and the 2023-2024 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting, and received a reading as part of Antaeus Theatre Company’s series “Lab Results” in 2022. In 2020, Deb was commissioned by Antaeus Theatre Company (Los Angeles) to create an audio play centered around a single Los Angeles zip code. “90024 Westwood: All Information Herein is Classified” was released in November 2020 and has had over 40,000 downloads. (You can listen for free here or wherever you get your podcasts!)
Deb's play, "Miss Keller Has No Second Book" received its World Premiere at Gulfshore Playhouse in April 2018, after having been workshopped at GP's New Works Festival in 2016. It is also a Semifinalist in the 2017 Ashland New Play Festival, 2016 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2016 PlayPenn New Play Workshop, and 2016 Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship, as well as a Finalist for Local Theater Company's 2017 New Play Festival (Boulder) and the 2016 Route 66 New Play Workshop (Chicago). The play also received readings at New Jersey Rep and Writers Theatre of New Jersey.
Her play, "The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!" received its Ovation-Recommended World Premiere at Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles in November 2016. Extended twice, The Los Angeles Times called the production "ingenious." StageSceneLA called it "an unexpectedly moving and utterly unique comedy gem." This play was also a Finalist for the 2017 Reva Shiner Comedy Award, and was created as part of The Playwrights Union's "First Peek 2016 Reading Series." It was also produced as part of the 2019 Orlando Fringe Festival.
“Call Time” was a Semifinalist for the 2022 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival as well as the Ashland New Play Festival 2019.
"The Escape Thingy" is a Finalist for the 2018-2019 Reva Shiner Comedy Award, and a Semifinalist for the 2018 Ashland New Play Festival, 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the 2018 Garry Marshall Theatre New Works Festival. It was also selected for the Moving Arts "Seasons Readings" series in Los Angeles in May 2018 and the inaugural Festival of New Plays 2022 at South Dakota State University. SDSU produced the play in February 2024.
“The Clearing in the Jacoby” is a Finalist for the 2019-2020 Reva Shiner Comedy Award, and the 2019 Garry Marshall Theatre New Works Festival.
Her short play, "Chain Link," was presented as part of Canada’s largest short play festival, "TheatreInspiraTO” in Toronto in May 2019, and in Nylon Fusion Theatre Company's "Best of Festival" in June 2018 in New York City. Her short play, "The Presentation," was selected for the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival in New York City in 2017, and was a finalist for the 2017 Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville.
In reviewing her original one-woman show “Words in a Certain Order” at downtown performance arts venue Dixon Place, New York City’s Village Voice called her "the bold new voice in solo . . . a sure-shot writer." Deb's original one-woman show, “Tattoo Expo and Accordion Show” premiered in L.A.’s Second City theater, and her sketch comedy show (co-written with Rick Kuhlman), “Deb and Rick on a Stick” ran for four weeks in the same venue. Her original one-act play, "Bad Dates," won first place in The Western Stage's Starving Artist Playwriting Competition, and two of her monologues won the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts (Carmel, CA) “One on One” Monologue Competition two years in a row. In April 2012, her solo piece "You Do What You Have to Do" won first prize at L.A.'s MonoSlam competition.
Deb’s short film “Open House” won Los Angeles Film Festival/FunnyorDie’s “Make ‘Em LAFF” Showcase, Best Comedy Short at the 2015 Women In Comedy Festival Film Night, and Best Video Short at iOWest’s Funny Women LA Festival in 2014. She co-wrote and co-starred in the short comedy film “A Bit of Counseling” which won the Audience Choice Awards at the 2009 Palm Beach International Film Festival, the 2009 L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival, the 2009 Over The Fence Short Film Festival (Australia), and the 2010 Ojai Film Festival. This comedic short film also won the Atom.com Showdown and was broadcast on Comedy Central’s “Atom TV.”
Her original screenplay, "Maxed," placed third in the 2015 Screencraft Comedy Screenplay Competition, and another screenplay, "Twang," landed in the top 7% in the 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.
She has had several short stories published in various literary journals, and her hit humor book about the great football rivalry "When Mommy Loves Bama and Daddy Loves Auburn" is available on Amazon.com.
Deb is a proud member of the Dramatist's Guild, Playwrights Union, Antaeus Playwrights Lab, New Play Exchange, Actors' Equity, and SAG-AFTRA, and she heads up Sweet Biscuit Productions.