Katy Drake Bettner

Katy Drake Bettner enables talented creatives to scope, advance, refine, and execute their unique visions. She has produced and managed projects across gaming as well as narrative and documentary film. Her most recent documentary, Shouting Down Midnight, was acquired out of its SXSW premiere. She is in post-production on Lije Sarki's debut feature, Doug Out, starring Chris Bauer. As an executive producer, Katy has supported a range of films, including Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins, The Infiltrators and Pray Away. She is an art form agnostic and is happiest when she can find a balance between the independent projects she produces and her role as a game company executive. In 2013 Katy and her husband, Paul (Words with Friends, the Lucky's Tale series, Creativerse) founded Playful Studios. In 2021 they formed its subsidiary, The Wildcard Alliance.

Wildcard is a first-of-its-kind hybrid of multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), real-time strategy, and collectible card game where players compete surrounded by live, interactive fans and spectators. Designed to be the ultimate spectator sport, Wildcard is the beginning of a new genre of online games where being a fan is as fundamental to the experience as being a competitor.

Katy has served as an advisor for the Sundance Producing Lab and Summit, the Women in Film/Sundance Financing Strategy Intensive, and the Documentary Producers Alliance. She serves on the boards of Austin Film Society and The 19th* (a non-profit, non-partisan digital new organization), is a member of the Women at Sundance Leadership Council, and has juried both the New York City and DFW South Asian film festivals.