Debbie Patterson is a Winnipeg playwright, director and actor. Trained at the National Theatre School of Canada, she is a founding member of Shakespeare in the Ruins, served as Artistic Associate at Prairie Theatre Exchange and was a member of the PTE Playwrights Unit. She was writer in residence at University of Winnipeg and Theatre Projects Manitoba. She was a member of the Stratford Festival Acting Company 2023. She is a proud advocate for disability justice through her work as founding and current Artistic Director of Sick + Twisted Theatre.

She was honoured with the United Nations Platform for Action Committee’s 2014 Activist Award and the City of Winnipeg’s Winnipeg Making a Mark Award in 2017. She was twice shortlisted for the Gina Wilkinson Prize. She is a recipient of the King Charles III’s Coronation Medal. She is the matriarch of a family of artists.

She lives a wheelchair-enabled life in Winnipeg (Treaty 1) and in a cabin on the shore of Lake Winnipeg (Treaty 2) with her partner and collaborator, Arne MacPherson.