Deborah Wicks La Puma is a composer, music director, orchestrator and choral conductor. Her work for adults and children has been seen by thousands of audience members around the globe, from Australia to the East Room of the White House, enjoying both popular and critical success.   Her awards include the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, the Robert M. Golden Award, a National Endowment for the Arts’ New American Works Grant, two Helen Hayes nominations for Outstanding New Play, two Parent’s Choice Awards, and an iParenting media award. Her work has been commissioned and premiered at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Cornerstone Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Rep, the Alliance Theatre, The Theatre at Boston Court, Childsplay, Imagination Stage, and Olney Theatre. Her musical arranging credits include Theatre for Young Audiences hits such as Mo Willem's "Knuffle Bunny", Ken Ludwig's "Tom Sawyer", and Joan Cushing's "Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business", "Miss Nelson is Missing" and "Petite Rouge".

Ms. La Puma received her MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, her BA from Stanford University, and studied folk music with ethnomusicologist Alfredo Lopez Mondragona. A Mexican American with dual citizenship who speaks Spanish and Portuguese, her other musical works include a bilingual Mass and two Rock/Jazz albums with the Brazilian band Turba Multa. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Assitej-USA (TYA/USA), the national association for theatre for children and young people, as well as a member of ASCAP, the Dramatist Guild, and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights. She resides in Palos Verdes, CA with her very patient husband Chris and three beautiful daughters.