Deborah Hautzig was born in New York City and grew up on the Upper West Side. She graduated from the Chapin School and published her first novel, HEY,DOLLFACE (Greenwillow Books/William Morrow & Co.) in 1978 while still a student at Sarah Lawrence College. Her second novel, SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT, was a National Book Award finalist in 1982. SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT was originally published in hardcover by Greenwillow Books in 1981, and has had several paperback editions (Avon Books, Knopf). It was re-issued in 1999 by Penguin Putnam with an Afterword by the author. Both novels have been translated into six languages.

She is the author of dozens of children's books, including nine LITTLE WITCH books, a character she created and which made its debut in 1984; nineteen highly regarded retellings of classic fairy tales and stories, thirty-three SESAME STREET books, two BRAINQUEST books, as well as many other well-known titles.

She has written book reviews for The New York Times, contributed to poetry collections, and two of her LITTLE WITCH books were bought by Sony Wonder and made into a video in 1999.

She lives in New York City .