actor

Derek M. Puma is an American actor known for his Western style, his creative writing, and passion for storytelling. Puma was born in Rome, New York on December 24th, 1989. He is of Sicilian and Seneca Tribe (Haudenosaunee) decent. Puma started out modeling at age 6 and during his childhood, his father owned a restaurant that was located downtown next to the local theater called 'The Capitol' where he enjoyed watching many live theatrical productions, and this exposure would interest him in acting doing school plays leading up to college. Puma took a film class in High school and while attending college at Mohawk Valley he minored in Theater where he focused on taking numerous acting classes. Puma also spent time as his school mascot 'Mo' the Hawk. He also took to the stage where he performed many community theatre productions. In 2011, Puma was ready to make his on-screen debut which he was casted to play a major role for what would have been his first feature film called 'First Allies" based off of the book 'Forgotten Allies' which was the story about the Oneida Indian Nation's role during the Revolutionary War. But the film was placed on hold and would never happen. Two years later Puma would have another opportunity when an audition looked promising for a lead role in another major motion picture but plans for that film would fall thru. The years that followed Puma spent much of his time doing a lot of writing and in 2017 he directed, produced, and did the voice over in his own short film that he also wrote called 'A Message Told'. In 2018 Puma became a professional mascot for a AHL hockey team which at the time was affiliated with the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL. In 2019 Puma decided to shift his main focus as an entertainer back to acting for film and television. In 2021 Puma moved to Nashville to seek more acting opportunities where he booked himself roles in numerous films, commercials, music videos, and also booked a role as a member of the Court of Owls on the CW's series 'Gotham Knights' and was the local bar DJ in season 2 of 'Heels'. Puma's passion for acting can also be seen in a commercial with ESPN and is also featured in Nashville Voyager Magazine for his inspiring story of striving towards his acting dreams! In 2023 Puma got his first lead role as 'Koda' in a short film titled 'The Squirrel Whisperer". During the Summer of 2024 Puma being FEMA certified spent weeks volunteering his time to help his hometown with cleanup efforts to recover from a Tornado. Puma attended the 2024 Lake Placid Film Festival where he took part in doing a live table read. In 2025 Puma founded 'De-O-Wain-Sta Productions' an independent film and television production company with the mission to create original stories. It is imagination and creativity which have been two driving factors in Puma's life since at a young age, and it has been through writing stories, acting, directing, and being a professional mascot that has made it possible for him to share this passion with others!