Righetti High School graduate Deb Loftis has made it big in Los Angeles.

She is the producer for integrated Web content for the new Nickelodeon television show “iCarly,” and films behind-the-scenes podcasts for other Nickelodeon shows including “Drake & Josh” and “Zoey 101.”

She is also the series co-creator of “S.U.D.S. (Simian Undercover Detective Squad)” for Jim Henson Productions and Warner Brothers, and the writer/producer of the feature film “Wreckless Epic: The Journey to SXSW.” The film stars Jerry Trainor, who is also an actor on “iCarly,” as well as Esteban Powell and Clarke Kohler.

But this big-city woman comes from small town roots, and has memories of the place where she grew up.

“The thing I remember about Santa Maria is it’s a nice agricultural place to grow up,” she said, recalling “all the stupid things I did with people, like take orange cones and put them in people’s yards ... We used to cruise up and down Broadway when we were younger, which is really silly.”

She remembers going to Bob’s Big Boy in Santa Maria and the Far Western Tavern restaurant in Guadalupe.

Loftis met one of her best friends, Stephanie Hull, at the Hi-Way Drive In in Santa Maria. “Two different sets of cars went to see ‘Prom Night’ or some stupid movie like that, and we became friends after that,” she said.

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She also met her friend Holly Wolcott at the drive-in. Wolcott also lives in Los Angeles now, but still has family in Santa Maria.

Loftis considers herself a writer first, and produces only because she wants to have more creative control over her work.

She said she has been influenced most by those who both write and produce for film media, such as Steven Soderbergh and Spike Lee.

She also cites her mother, Madeline, as an influence.

“I’ve been writing since I was in high school,” Loftis said. “I always wrote, and I also always drew. I was an artistic (person), and I always wanted to do something creative that way.”

Her mother was a teacher for Orcutt Union School District, and was, in fact, Loftis’ first-grade teacher.

“She’s always worked really hard, and I’ve always felt like I could do whatever I wanted to do,” said Loftis. “I’ve had a lot of support and freedom to do what I felt was the best thing for me to do.”

Her fifth-grade teacher, Anne Price at Dunlap Elementary School in Orcutt, also encouraged her to do what she wanted to do.

“I was always the kid who would doodle on my paper or whatever, and she was always really encouraging of that, even though most teachers would say you shouldn’t do that,” she said. “If you see any (of my) notes during a meeting that’s supposedly a business meeting, I still doodle all over everything.”

Her dad was Basil Loftis, and was involved in the Santa Maria Elks Lodge. He has passed away, but her mother still lives in Santa Maria.

Loftis graduated from Righetti High School in 1982. She received a B.A. in psychology at UC Davis and minored in English, and took post-graduate classes at San Francisco State University. She said she didn’t start writing screenplays until after college.

Loftis said her experience working on “iCarly” at the Nickelodeon studio has been “great.”

“The Nickelodeon studio is really nice, it’s really pleasant,” she said. “All the people are great. Everyone’s like super-nice and really talented. It’s got a really good vibe or personality ... pretty much everyone there is nice and easy-going, and superprofessional. They do a really good job.”

She enjoys working with the “iCarly” actors, who she said look up to actor Jerry Trainor, who plays the main character’s older brother.

“He’s very talented, and very funny,” said Loftis. “He has a lot of energy, so it’s really fun to watch him interact with the kids, because they’re all about 13 ... it’s really fun because they’re all superprofessional, and they’re not bratty or anything. It’s really nice.”

She said she sees the current efforts of TV networks and production companies to harness Internet content as a “media Renaissance.”

“There’s no rule, and everyone is trying to figure out how to use the Internet for content distribution,” she said.

“There’s so much less structure than you have with television that the opportunities are a lot more,” she added.

She said Internet content offers more flexibility and freedom, in exchange for the big money available from television.

Loftis said she doesn’t see a lot of women in her production teams, and thinks there’s more than one reason for that.

“I don’t know that there’s discrimination against women,” she said. “I think it’s just harder to create your own team of people that are like you ... I think the guys are better at self-promoting, and women are better at promoting other people.”

She sees her biggest success as being able to do what she wants to do.

“The thing I’m most proud of is that I’ve gotten to kind of create what I want with very few creative limitations,” she said. “I think that myself and the people I work with tend to do what we say we’re going to do ... we continue to work with the same people, and that shows we have a lot of loyalty for each other and that people like working for us.”

Contact Bettina Adragna at 739-2220 or at badragna@santa mariatimes.com.