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DEBORAH AMELON is an Emmy and ACE Award-nominated writer, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally acclaimed filmmaker with credits in producing and directing. She has written for major networks and studios including ABC-TV, CBS-TV, NBCUniversal, Showtime, Paramount, Disney, Warner Bros., Savoy, Rastar, Mind's Eye Entertainment, CBC, CTV, ITC Entertainment, Jaffe/Braunstein, and Zev Braun Productions, among others.
Her extensive writing portfolio spans television movies, series, and theatrical features, with notable works such as EXIT TO EDEN, TRICKS, THE LAST SHOT, HUNGER POINT, WHEN HE WAS SAM, THE OTHER LOVER, NASH BRIDGES, PARENT TRAP II and III, and CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL.
Amelon adapted Anne Rice's novel EXIT TO EDEN for director Garry Marshall, starring Dana Delany, Rosie O'Donnell, and Dan Aykroyd. She also penned TRAVELING SALESLADY for Garry Marshall and legendary producer Ray Stark.
While at UCLA, she won the Samuel Goldwyn Award for her screenplay TRICKS, which was later produced as a theatrical release featuring Mimi Rogers and Tyne Daly, receiving critical acclaim for its portrayal of Las Vegas's underbelly.
She earned the International CINE Golden Eagle Award for both writing and directing THE LAST SHOT, which starred Garry Marshall and Adam Baldwin and was a finalist in the Oscar Short Film category. Additionally, she received a Cable Ace nomination for directing and accolades from festivals such as Santa Barbara and Mill Valley.
Amelon directed the pilot for CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL, based on the bestselling book series, starring Meredith Baxter-Birney. The series was picked up by PAX-TV, where she served as showrunner, producing 122 stories and directing eight episodes. The show featured renowned actors including Martin Sheen, Gary Cole, Charles Durning, Jack Lemmon, Teri Garr, and Rod Steiger.
In 2005, the Writers Guild of America honored her original teleplay KATIE’S CHOICE as Best Unproduced by publishing it in their journal "Written By." She wrote the original screenplay ROPE DANCIN', commissioned by 21st Century Film Corporation, with director Martha Coolidge, the only female president in the history of the Directors Guild of America. Amelon also penned CUTTING EDGE, commissioned by Century Park Pictures, about a figure skater overcoming challenges—drawing on her own competitive skating background.
She has collaborated with esteemed directors such as Garry Marshall, Martha Coolidge, Nicholas Meyer, Joan Micklin Silver, and Penny Marshall, and producers including Academy Award winners Wendy Finerman and Steve Tisch, Emmy winner Orly Adelson, as well as prolific television producers Frank Von Zerneck, Robert Sertner, and Howard Braunstein.
At CBS, she developed and wrote ROCKET WOMEN, a historical project about the Mercury 13 female pilots tested for astronaut training in 1961.
Her adaptation of Jillian Medoff’s novel HUNGER POINT was produced by Lifetime and Jaffe/Braunstein, starring Christina Hendricks and Barbara Hershey. The film received outstanding reviews from the Hollywood Reporter and Los Angeles Times, praising Amelon’s writing as “something extraordinary,” and achieved the highest ratings during its debut month.
A dual American and Canadian citizen, Amelon wrote the teleplay TARNISHED GOLD for CTV, depicting the story of Canadian pair skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier and the Salt Lake City Olympic judging controversy.
She adapted the acclaimed book SMART WOMEN, FOOLISH CHOICES for ABC-TV, working with Academy Award-winning producers Steve Tisch and Wendy Finerman.
Her original teleplay DANCE HALL was written for Academy Award Best Actress nominee and Tony Award winner Lee Remick, CBS-TV, and Warner Bros. Additionally, she wrote THE OTHER LOVER and BUT NOT FOR KEEPS for CBS-TV.
In 1994, for Zev Braun Productions, Amelon interviewed Tonya Harding following the Detroit incident to write a treatment presenting Harding’s true story, ultimately exonerating her.
Amelon authored year-long bibles for three CBS soap operas, elevating their daytime ratings to top positions and earning Emmy nominations.
She collaborated closely with Emmy Award-winning actor Joe Mantegna on the thriller screenplay NO ONE WAS WATCHING, adapted the romantic comedy OUT OF THE BLUE from Laura Castora's novel A NEW LU, and provided script doctoring for films including CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME with Penny Marshall.
Amelon authored Dorothy Hamill’s biography A SKATING LIFE, which debuted on the New York Times bestseller list four days after its October 2007 release and became a national bestseller in paperback in 2008. The book is widely used in high school English curricula and was uniquely written in Dorothy’s voice as an 80,000-word monologue.
She wrote THE FRUITS OF VICTORY screenplay, collaborating with Tommy Lasorda and sixteen baseball players on the story of the American baseball team’s gold medal win at the Sydney Olympics. Amelon also adapted the Steven Lindsteadt sci-fi novel EARTHBEAT for film. Her current projects include directing the film ONE NIGHT STAY, which she wrote, starring Gia Mantegna.
Amelon graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in English Literature from UCLA and earned an MFA from UCLA’s School of Film and Television. Before college, she toured as a competitive figure skater with Shipstad and Johnson’s ICE FOLLIES for nearly three years across the US and Canada, funding her education. She began as a playwright, studying at the University of Michigan and the University of London before transferring to UCLA.
Committed to mentoring, she has served as a Visiting Professor teaching screenwriting at UCLA’s Graduate School of Film and Television, guest lectured at the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead, and taught in MFA programs at Chapman University and CSUN. She has served on boards for educational and environmental causes and has been a Writers Guild of America member since 1983, as well as a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She lives with her husband, architect Robert Huddy, and they have two adult sons.
