Debra Black

Black was born Debra Ressler to New York lawyer Ira Ressler. She is the sister of Tony Ressler, who co-founded Apollo Global Management with Leon Black. She graduated from Barnard College in 1976. She has four children, including Benjamin, with Leon Black.

Black is a Broadway producer who has been nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning two in the Tony Award for Best Play category for The History Boys (2006) and The Pillow Man (2008).
She has an extensive Broadway career spanning several decades, beginning with Butley (1972). She later returned to Broadway as an associate producer on Sly Fox (2004) and as a producer or co-producer on Sixteen Wounded (2004) and Prymate (2004). In 2005, she produced Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Pillowman, continuing her work with The History Boys, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Shining City, Butley, and The Times They Are A-Changin’ in 2006, as well as the U.S. tour of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels the same year.

In 2007, she produced a number of prominent Broadway productions, including The Vertical Hour, The Year of Magical Thinking, Inherit the Wind, Frost/Nixon, Coram Boy, LoveMusik, and Deuce. Her work continued in 2008 with productions such as August: Osage County, Sunday in the Park with George (as an associate producer), Gypsy, The Country Girl, and Thurgood. In 2009, she produced Irena’s Vow, Mary Stuart, and Superior Donuts.

In 2010, she served as producer on A Behanding in Spokane, further adding to a Broadway portfolio that includes a wide range of plays and musicals across both original productions and revivals.