Debbie Ridpath Ohi IF HoF

Debbie Ridpath Ohi was introduced to filk by her friend Tom West at an early Ad Astra convention in the late 80s. Intrigued, she started bringing her flute but usually sat in the back of the room, way too shy to actually open her flute case. Eventually, she worked up the nerve to start playing, her tone wobbly because her hands were shaking. Someone complimented her, and she was encouraged enough to keep playing. Debbie would still be wobbly-noodling in the background if it wasn't for Clif Flynt and Mary Ellen Wessels. When Clif found out Debbie played the flute, he and MEW cheerily strong-armed her into joining them on stage sometimes. Debbie was terrified. But to her shock, she realized that hey, this was also kind of FUN.

In the early 90s, Debbie met fellow Toronto area filkers Allison Durno and Jodi Krangle, and the three friends became Urban Tapestry (urbantapestry.org). With Allison's and Jodi's encouragement, Debbie started to not only write songs but also to sing. Urban Tapestry has been GoHs at filk and sf conventions across North America as well as in Germany and England, and were honoured to be inducted into the Filk Hall Of Fame in 2011.

Originally a computer programmer/analyst and with the support of her husband Jeff, Debbie left the corporate life to pursue her life dream of creating books for young people. Beckett Gladney convinced Debbie to enter the portfolio showcase at the SCBWI conference in LA in 2010 and helped Debbie put together her first portfolio. This portfolio ended up winning two awards and jumpstarting Debbie's children's book career. She now writes and illustrates books for a living, and her illustrations have appeared in books by Judy Blume and Michael Ian Black, among others.

Debbie continues to be grateful to the filking community for their early encouragement... especially her home turf filkcon, FilKONtario. Her dedication at the front of the book RUBY ROSE, BIG BRAVOS (author Rob Sanders, illustrations by Debbie, publisher HarperCollins): "For the filk music community, especially Allison and Jodi, for helping me find my place onstage." You can find out more about Debbie and her work at DebbieOhi.com.