Levy's father was a member of the African National Congress, an academic, a historian. The family emigrated to Wembley Park, in 1968. Her parents divorced in 1974.

Levy trained at Dartington College of Arts, leaving in 1981 to write a number of plays, including Pax, Heresies for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and others which are published in Levy: Plays 1 (Methuen)

She was director and writer for Manact Theatre Company, Cardiff.

Deborah wrote and published her first novel Beautiful Mutants, in 1986.

She has always written across a number of art forms (see Bookworks and Collaborations with visual artists) and was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1989-1991.

Novels

Plays

• Pax, 1984
• Clam, 1985
• Heresies, 1986
• Our Lady, 1986
• Eva And Moses, 1987
• Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs Of Hell, 1991
• The B File, 1992
• Blood Wedding, 1992
• Call Blue Jane, 1992
• Walks On Water, 1992
• Shiny Nylon, 1994
• Macbeth - False Memory, 2000
• Dream Mamma
• Honey Baby
• Ophelia And The Great Idea
• Pushing The Prince Into Denmark

Radio Plays

• Unless, Carol Shield, BBC Radio 4
• Chance Acquaintances, Colette, BBC Radio 4