Deborah Leiser was raised in a strict Jewish household, attended Moriah High School and was involved with the Jewish Zionist youth movement, Habonim. During her teenage years Leiser spent several years in Israel living in a Kibbutz and studying art in Tel Aviv.
On her return to Australia (after a period of travelling) Leiser joined the Sydney-based theatre company, Entr'acte. Her experience of being a Jewish woman, and the prohibitions incumbent on women in Orthodox Judaism, inspired her play, 'Hungry'.
