Colette Burson was born on Andrews Air Force Base, home of Air Force One, and grew up in Abingdon, Virginia, which she likes to refer to as the "Aspen of the Appalachia". She attended the University of Virginia where she majored in rhetoric (this major was later abolished) and French. She was also a national forensics champ in college which essentially means competitive poetry reading in public (her winning technique was to look hazy and sway).

Colette earned an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and later started a creatively adventurous yet highly unprofitable theater company, The Playwrights' Collective, with Dmitry and seven other playwrights. For the past ten years she has written film and television, including the infamous "Chunky K" episode of "The Riches". Colette directed the independent feature "Coming Soon" with Mia Farrow and Ryan Reynolds in 2000 and an award-winning short in 2005, "Little Black Boot". Her latest screenplay is the comedic feature "Permanent".