Deborah Frances-White, lives in a fourth floor flat in Camden Town with her husband Tom. They, along with their friend Alex, are business partners of The Spontaneity Shop, an improvisation company.
I get to bed very late usually, so I get up later than most people. I am often on calls to Hollywood at 2 or 3am or replying to emails so it’s not unlike me to sleep in until 10am.
Once I’m up, I’ll get dressed and walk to the office which is just around the corner from the flat. Usually Tom and Alex will get in before I do. We will have a meeting about what’s going on during the day and who is going where.
We’ve know Alex for years and he is totally on the same wavelength as us. We are such good friends and he’s also a business partner of The Spontaneity Shop.
We develop ideas for our clients, and if any of us has a challenge or needs to pitch for something we like to discuss it, keep it fresh and get some ideas floating around.
I then leave the office and head to Caponata, a cool café place where they play jazz in the evenings. Luca, my very handsome waiter, will serve up brunch; usually scrambled eggs and strong cappuccino, and I get writing my screenplay.
If you write screenplays you need to feel like you are working. I do have a writer’s retreat in my flat but I also slightly live at various Camden cafes.
I sometimes write screenplays on my own, others I write with Philippa Waller and Monica Henderson. Monica is based in LA, and is a writer for two programmes - Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, while Philippa has just written a musical called the It Factor. So we come together and write between London and LA. We often say the sun never sets on the rom com empire!
There are three strands to what I do. I am a stand up comedienne, a screenwriter and I also give seminars and corporate training, as part of The Spontaneity Shop to companies like Coutts, where I will go in and talk to women about being more charismatic.
My seminar ‘How to be a charismatic woman in a man’s world’ draws on my experiences of stand up and pitching in Hollywood. What I always say is that I am not training out of a binder.
So if I am doing my monthly West End stand up show, where I have 400 people looking at me to make them feel safe, I also have to be funny and in control - it’s a very high stakes situation.
Stand up is a very male environment as are screenplays and Hollywood. I’ve had producers tell me I am the first female screenwriter that’s ever pitched to them.
Often I have a lunchtime gig which is an hour and half session working for an investment bank or large company doing my seminar. I like to hang around after those because the room gets really fired up and women want to talk.
There is often such good energy after those seminars as I am effectively telling women they have an edge in business that they didn’t know they had. There was a recent study done that said men assume that if they are going out for a promotion they would need 50 per cent of the skills for their next job because they will learn the other 50 per cent on the job. Women assume they need 90 per cent of the skills and that’s what I would like to shift. I don’t want men to want less I want women to want more. And that physical ability to assert yourself, say something definitely and use all the charm and empathy that we have would be amazing.
I also coach individual clients. Every woman I have worked with in the last year has been promoted and that is really exciting. They have really grown, and they carry themselves differently.
I go to bed frighteningly late. I am trying to correct this but it’s hard. I am a natural night owl. The dead of night no one is calling you, no emails, it’s just dark and quiet and I can get so much writing done. If I am inspired I would rather stay up all night and then sleep late into the morning. But if I have a seminar I will be sensible and go to bed early. Then again, I can survive on very little sleep.
As told to Rupa Sudra
