Deborah S. Esquenazi is a two-time Emmy nominated, Peabody-winning film director, screenwriter, and investigative journalist. 

She is directing a film about one of the longest awaiting exoneration defendants in Texas, James Harry Reyos, a gay Jicarilla Apache man framed for the horrendous slaying of a Catholic priest in West Texas, 1981.

Esquenazi's first feature, the critically acclaimed documentary Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four, won the Critic’s Choice Award for 'Best First Feature', garnered her first Emmy nomination for 'Outstanding Social Issues Documentary', a Peabody Award, and won a GLAAD Media Award for 'Outstanding Documentary', among other distinctions. The film helped exonerate the ‘San Antonio Four’ and is mentioned in the opening passages of the Writs of Habeas Corpus in Ex Parte Anna Vasquez, Cassandra Rivera, Elizabeth Ramirez, and Kristie Mayhugh.​

Her documentary short, El Vacio, produced by Concordia Studios/New York Times, was nominated for an Emmy as part of the series From Here to Home. She was a 2020 Sundance Momentum Fellow for her thriller, A Killing on Park, a fictional work inspired by one of her early criminal investigations.​ A Killing on Park was also chosen as Cannes’ Inaugural List of Best Screenplays by Women.

Esquenazi served as a Field Director on PBS' recent acclaimed documentary special, And She Could Be Next, produced by Marj Safinia, Grace Lee, and Executive Produced by Ava DuVernay. 

She is the former Senior Producer of STORIES FROM DEEP IN THE HEART, a teen radio program that partners Texas Folklife with KUT-NPR (Austin). During her tenure she produced over 80+ stories, many of which made the “Best of” list of PRX.

She has also been a Sundance Screenwriting Fellow, a 2022 Women @ Sundance fellow, a Sundance Documentary Film Fellow, a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, and a Firelight Film Fellow.

She lives in Austin, Tx, with her wife and two sons.