Debra Martin Chase

Two-time Emmy-nominated motion picture and television producer Debra Martin Chase has carved out a unique niche in the entertainment business. She is the first African American woman to have her own producing deal at a major studio. Her company, Martin Chase Productions, has been affiliated with the Walt Disney Company for over ten years.

Chase's filmography includes three very successful movie franchises: The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and The Cheetah Girls. She has also come to be known for a keen eye for new talent having produced the first motion pictures of Anne Hathaway, Blake Lively, Chris Pine, America Ferrera, Common, Grey's Anatomy's Jesse Williams, and Pretty Little Liars's Lucy Hale.

She has also executive produced the Disney Channel musical Lemonade Mouth (as well as its soundtrack); Just Wright, which was the winner of the 2011 NAACP Image Award for Best Screenplay and the recipient of four Image Award nominations, including Best Picture; the Lifetime series Missing, starring Vivica A. Fox and Mark Consuelos; Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, which aired in November 1997 and stars Brandy, Whitney Houston, and Whoopi Goldberg; the documentary Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream; and the films Courage Under Fire and The Preacher's Wife. Chase is also the co-creator and producer of Byou and Byou 2, the dance/fitness workout DVD franchise for teens and tweens staring Sabrina Bryan of The Cheetah Girls.

Chase began her career as an attorney and worked at several major law firms and Fortune 500 corporations in Houston and Manhattan. She received her J.D. from the Harvard Law School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from Mount Holyoke College.

She serves on the Board of Directors of the United Friends of Children, the Women at NBCUniversal Advisory Board, The Advisory Board of Columbia College of Chicago, the Producing Mentor Board of USC's Peter Stark Program and the Advisory Board of the Heartland Film Festival.

She has been honored in recent years by Ebony Magazine, Women in Film, the Corporate Counsel Women of Color, the Heartland Film Festival, The New York Times/Blackfilm.com, Girls Inc., the I Have a Dream Foundation, the National Summit of Black Women Lawyers, and the National Association of Black Female Executives in Music and Entertainment.

In October 2003, Essence Magazine named her one of the 50 African American women shaping the world. In March 2007, Black Enterprise Magazine named her one of the Top 50 Powerbrokers in Hollywood. In May 2007, 2008 and 2009, Ebony Magazine named her one of the 150 Most Influential Blacks in America. In March 2009, Essence Magazine named her one of the most powerful African Americans in Hollywood. In May 2007, Chase received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College.