About Us

Deborah Gilels

Deborah Gilels currently is president of LA Media Consultants, representing screenwriters, directors, actors, production companies and book authors. Consulting duties include project development and packaging, financing, public relations and marketing.

From January 2002 - August 2004, Deborah was an executive/consultant for Media Design Institute, a Japanese/American media company where she was instrumental in the creation of a video-on-demand/satellite network financed by NTT-Data in Tokyo, the content, as well as acquired film/television product for the Japanese territory (Television, Video/DVD). She also created and produced MAJESTIC STUDIO, an entertainment talk show for Japan television.

As a development and production executive, she worked in motion picture and television for producers Kent Bateman and David Permut, studios such as Tri Star and Twentieth Century Fox, as well as The Agency, Innovative Artists and Leading Artists (UTA). In 1988, she was a production executive on NBC’s CROSSING THE MOB, which starred Jason Bateman.

In 1990, Deborah became Vice President of Production at Blue Ribbon Films, supervising the company’s television deal at Warner Brothers and feature film distribution deal at foreign sales company PFG Entertainment. While at Blue Ribbon she also developed film projects for JVC, LIVE Entertainment (Artisan), Disney/Hollywood Pictures and Republic Pictures, as well as for actors Jean Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren and the late Brandon Lee. Among the projects she produced and developed are: SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO (Warner Brothers/1992), PENTATHLON (LIVE/1994) and SPECTRE (Hollywood Pictures), a WWII action drama written by the late Donald Stewart.

In 1995, Deborah founded Torch Productions, nurturing several projects in various stages of development and production. Among her collaborators were actors Robert Duvall, Reese Witherspoon, Rachel Leigh Cook and Bill Pullman; writers and directors Hossein Amini, A. Scott Berg, Allan Scott, the late John Bishop, Michael Hirst, Nicholas Meyer, Rusty Cundieff and Paul Verhoeven. Companies and producers she has been in business include Lucas Foster/Warp Films, Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures, Hearst Entertainment, ESPN, Phoenix Pictures, Baltimore/Spring Creek, Wind Dancer Films, DIC, Management 360, Alive Entertainment, First Look International and New Line Television.

An avid sports enthusiast, Deborah created and executive produced a documentary for ESPN in association with Hearst Entertainment entitled BEARING THE TORCH: A HISTORY OF POLITICS & THE GAMES, which aired as the network’s Olympic special in June of 1996. The show featured celebrities such as Henry Kissinger, Mark Spitz and David Wolper.

A noted script doctor, Deborah is avidly sought out by many of the industry’s top producers, directors and actors in the development process. Projects that she has consulted on include TNT’s A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER, Touchstone’s ENEMY OF THE STATE and Showtime’s A COOLER CLIMATE.

Deborah has also lead seminars for the USC Film School Writer’s Program and been a guest lecturer at UCLA Extension School and LA Film School.