Deborah Forte is an American producer of family television series and movies, websites and digital media including ''

Clifford the Big Red Dog ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'' is an American children's book series which focuses on the adventures of an 8-year old blonde haired girl named Emily Elizabeth and her titular pet: a gigantic, red-furred dog named Clifford. It was first published ...

'', ''

Clifford's Puppy Days ''Clifford's Puppy Days'' is an animated children's television series that originally aired on PBS Kids from September 1, 2003 to February 25, 2006. The prequel to the 2000–2003 series ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'', it features the adventures o ...

'', ''

Maya & Miguel ''Maya & Miguel'' is an American children's animated television series produced by Scholastic Productions. It aired on PBS Kids Go! from October 11, 2004, to October 10, 2007, and had a total of five seasons and 65 episodes over three years. The ...

'', ''

WordGirl ''WordGirl'' is an American animated superhero children's television series produced by the Soup2Nuts animation unit of Scholastic Entertainment for PBS Kids. The series began as a series of shorts entitled ''The Amazing Colossal Adventures of ...

'', ''

The Magic School Bus ''The Magic School Bus'' is an American edutainment media franchise which includes a book series, TV adaptations, a streaming series, and various video games. Each of the stories within the franchise focuses on the antics of the fictional ...

'', the series ''

Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror novels written by American author R. L. Stine. The protagonists in these stories are teens or pre-teens who find themselves in frightening circumstances, often involving the supernatural, the p ...

'', Sony's films ''

'' and '' Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween'', ''

Horrible Histories ''Horrible Histories'' is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more. In 2013, Lisa Edwards, UK publishing and commercial director of Scholastic Corpo ...

'', ''

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

'', ''

I Spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

'', ''

The Baby-Sitters Club ''The Baby-Sitters Club'' (also known as the BSC) is a series of novels written by Ann M. Martin and published by Scholastic Corporation, Scholastic between 1986 and 2000. Collectively, the series has sold more than 190 million copies.Then, the f ...

'', '' The Golden Compass'', and '' Astroblast''. She created

Scholastic Media Scholastic Corporation is an American multinational publishing, education, and media company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials for schools, teachers, parents, children, and other educational institutions. P ...

, a division of Scholastic Inc. She is the founder of Silvertongue Films and under that banner is currently producing a television adaptation of His ''Dark Materials''. She is attached to produce ''The 39 Clues'' and ''Spirit Animals'' for Universal and ''

'' for Paramount. Her productions have won six Emmys, one Academy Award, the Humanitas Prize, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center Award for Outstanding Educational Program on a Commercial Broadcast Station.

Career

Forte began her career in publishing at

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

in 1976 before joining Scholastic Productions in 1984 as VP of new business development. Forte became President of

in 1995 and is the lead creative and business executive overseeing all media production including two production studios (Weston Woods and

Soup2Nuts Soup2Nuts (sometimes referred to as Soup2Nuts Studios, and formerly part of Tom Snyder Productions) was an American animation studio founded by Tom Snyder (animator), Tom Snyder. The studio is known for its animated comedy series, its use of Squ ...

), Scholastic Interactive, Scholastic Audio Books and Scholastic Media Marketing and Consumer Products. Forte formed

Scholastic Entertainment Scholastic Corporation is an American multinational publishing, education, and media company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials for schools, teachers, parents, children, and other educational institutions. P ...

, a part of Scholastic Media, in 1997. At Scholastic, Forte has produced over 300 productions, which includes turning best-selling Scholastic book series ''

'', ''

Dear America ''Dear America'' is a series of historical fiction novels for children published by Scholastic starting in 1996. By 1998, the series had 12 titles with 3.5 million copies in print. The series was canceled in 2004 with its final release, ''Hear ...

'', ''

Animorphs ''Animorphs'' is a science fantasy series of youth books written by Katherine Applegate and her husband Michael Grant, writing together under the name K. A. Applegate, and published by Scholastic. It is told in first person, with all si ...

'' and ''

'' into some of the longest running children's TV series. Her feature film credits include the ''

'' film (2015; Columbia Pictures), ''

The Indian in the Cupboard ''The Indian in the Cupboard'' is a low fantasy children's novel by the British writer Lynne Reid Banks. It was published in 1980 with illustrations by Robin Jacques (UK) and Brock Cole (US). It was later adapted as a 1995 children's film ...

'', ''

Clifford's Really Big Movie ''Clifford's Really Big Movie'' is a 2004 American animated adventure comedy film based on the PBS Kids TV series ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'', itself an adaptation of the book series of the same name by Norman Bridwell. This film was directed b ...

'', ''

The Mighty ''The Mighty'' is a 1998 American coming of age buddy comedy-drama film directed by Peter Chelsom and written by Charles Leavitt. Based on the book '' Freak the Mighty'' by Rodman Philbrick, it stars Sharon Stone, Gena Rowlands, Gillian ...

'' and '' Tuck Everlasting''. Forte produced '' The Golden Compass'', an adaptation of Philip Pullman's critically acclaimed trilogy ''

His Dark Materials ''His Dark Materials'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of '' Northern Lights'' (1995; published as ''The Golden Compass'' in North America), '' The Subtle Knife'' (1997), and '' The Amber Spyglass'' (2000). It follo ...

'', which won the 2008 Academy Award for Visual Effects. She produced the 2018 film '' Mortal Engines'', with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh for

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

and will likely produce its TV re-adaptation. She also produced the TV re-adaptation of ''

.''

Filmography

Television

Film

Awards and honors for production

* 1 Oscar Award * 6 Emmy Awards * 1 Humanitas Prize * 11 Cine Golden Eagle Awards * 12 Parents' Choice Awards * 4 Webby Awards * 1 National Education Association Award * 1 American Women in TV and Radio's Gracie Award * 1 National Educational Media Network Golden Apple Award * 1 The Annenberg Public Policy Center Award * 1 Literacy in Media Award * honored by The National Hispanic Federation * honored by The National Wildlife Federation * honored by The Environmental Protection Agency Forte's productions have won over 100 industry awards, including those listed above. In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' article, "At Scholastic, Turning Books Into the Stuff Of Multimedia", a colleague at Scholastic described her creative direction, by saying, "She takes tremendous care in seeing that our products get developed with the qualities that made them popular in the first place and making sure the new products are right for kids, educationally, developmentally and from an entertainment point of view." In Fast Company's Spring 2014 interview, "How Scholastic Kept Its Relevance in a Digital World", Forte shared that, “We have developed our brand so that it’s relative and meaningful to children when they want to read, when they want to watch and when they want to play." Fast Company remarked that the Bottom Line from her interview was, "Scholastic’s secret sauce is the development of a complementary media strategy across a variety of mediums, without losing focus on the company’s mission. "

Personal life

Forte was a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the

Children's Museum of Manhattan The Children’s Museum of Manhattan is located on West 83rd street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded by Bette Korman, under the name GAME (Growth Through Art and Museum Experience), in 1973. The museum adopted ...

and currently serves on the board of the American Center for Children and Media and the International Emmys. She is a member of the

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), also known as the National Television Academy until 2007, is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of televisio ...

as well as the

British Academy of Film and Television Arts The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

. A native of Newton, Massachusetts, Forte graduated from

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, Clinton, New York. It was established as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and received its c ...

and lives in New York with her husband, Peter Stone, and their two sons.

References

General references

* * *

External links

*
"Deborah Forte '75 Producer The Golden Compass"
story at Hamilton College website {{DEFAULTSORT:Forte, Deborah American television producers American women television producers American animated film producers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women Sony Pictures Animation people American women film producers