Debra Martin Chase

Two-time Emmy nominated television and film producer Debra Martin Chase has carved out a unique niche in the entertainment business. She is the first female African American 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 seven years. Producer of three very successful movie franchises; The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Cheetah Girls, Chase is often referred to as the “Queen of Tweens.”

Chase has focused her career mainly on projects for girls and women. She has helped launch the careers of a number of young actresses including Anne Hathaway, Blake Lively and America Ferrera. She has also produced four musicals including Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella and worked with top choreographers from Chicago, Dreamgirls and Dirty Dancing. Chase has also executive produced two multi-platinum soundtracks with a third soon to be released.

The Princess Diaries, which starred Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway, earned $109 million in domestic box office receipts. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, based on the bestselling novel by Ann Brashares, was declared by Variety to be one of the ten most critically acclaimed movies of 2005. She also executive produced the Lifetime Television series, Missing, which ran for three seasons and starred Vivica A. Fox and Mark Consuelos. When the show initially aired in 2003, it was the most watched series debut in Lifetime’s history.

Chase also executive produced the film Courage Under Fire, which stars Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan. She co-produced The Preacher’s Wife which stars Washington and Whitney Houston. Chase was a producing partner of Whitney Houston in BrownHouse Productions for five years and, previous to her stint with Houston, ran Mundy Lane Entertainment, Denzel Washington’s production company for three years.

Before her success in film and television production, Chase graduated from Harvard Law School and was an attorney at several major law firms and Fortune 500 corporations in Houston and Manhattan.

She serves on the Board of Trustees of Columbia College of Chicago, the Board of Directors of the Center Dance Association of the Los Angeles Music Center, the Board of Directors of the United Friends of Children and the Advisory Board of the Heartland Film Festival.

Chase was honored in 2002 by Girls Inc. for inspiring young women, and has been honored by Ebony magazine, Women in Film, The New York Times, the Heartland Film Festival and the National Association of Black Female Executives in Music and Entertainment. In 2003, Savoy Magazine named Chase one of the most influential Blacks in America, and Essence magazine named her one of the 50 African American women shaping the world.