Debra Martin Chase facts for kids

Debra Martin Chase (born October 11, 1956) is an American film, television, and theater producer. Chase was the first Black female producer to have a deal at any major studio. She is also one of the first Black filmmakers to produce a film that grossed over $100 million. To date, her films have grossed over a half billion dollars at the box office.  

Background

Chase was born in Great Lakes, Illinois, but moved with her family as a child to Pasadena, California. She earned her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1977 and J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1981.

In an interview with Essence magazine in 1997, she told journalist Audrey Edwards, "I'm the kid who was in the movie theater every Saturday." Debra adds, "I've been a movie fanatic since I was a child, and my images of the world were shaped by what I saw on the screen. I want to do my part to see that Blacks are not only represented in film but also enhance it."

About first starting out, Chase has said, “I didn’t know the mechanics of how things worked. So I read books, went to seminars, met with anybody who’d meet with me just to learn information.” Chase met with the general counsel at Columbia Pictures production company through a good friend's sister. Later she met with and became the executive assistant to Frank Price, chairman of Columbia Pictures. Chase worked with Price for a year. After Sony brought Mark Canton in for the top job and Price gained a spot for Chase on the creative staff, before he left the company.(Alexander, George)

Career

Martin Chase Productions has an overall deal with Universal Universal Television, a division of the NBCUniversal Television Group. It previously had one with The Walt Disney Company from 2001 to 2016.  Prior to that, Chase ran Whitney Houston's BrownHouse Productions from 1995 to 2012 and Mundy Lane Entertainment, Denzel Denzel Washington’s production company, from 1992 to 1995. Chase and Houston's first collaboration together was on the 1997 TV film re-adaptation of Cinderella, which produced the biggest ratings of a Disney-themed film in over a decade with over 60 million viewers tuning into the film, later earning Chase and Houston an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series. In 2001, the duo co-produced The Princess Diaries, based off the novel of the same name, and they made history as the first Black women to produce a feature film to gross over $100 million, doing it again three years later with The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, in 2004. Houston and Chase also co-produced two of the first Cheetah Girls TV films. Houston and Chase's last production together was 2012's Sparkle, in which Houston played a co-starring role in and was her final film before her death in February 2012. The film was later released that August and became a modest success. She currently executive produces The Equalizer TV series starring Queen Latifah for Universal Television and CBS which is in its fifth season. Chase produced True True Spirit which debuted on Netflix in February 2023.

In 2022 Chase co-produced, in partnership with Marc Platt, the Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize winning musical A Strange Loop which won Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Book. She also produced the 2022 Broadway revival of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog alongside Platt, which won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play. In 2024, Chase co-produced two plays – the original musical The Outsiders, based upon the beloved novel by S.E. Hinton and the cult classic movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which won four Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Director of a Musical and Illinoise which was nominated for Best Musical and won the Tony for Best Choreography.

Chase graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Mount Holyoke College and the Harvard Law School. Prior to entering the entertainment industry, Chase practiced law at several major law firms and Fortune 500 companies in New York City and Houston.

Chase serves on the board of directors of B&G Foods, Inc., an American holding company for branded foods which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, where she chairs the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee; Bridge Investment Group, a publicly traded alternative asset management company; and Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust.

She is a member of the Motion Picture Academy, where she serves on the Producers Executive Committee, the Television Academy, and the Broadway League, where she serves on the Tony management committee.

Personal life

Chase was raised Catholic, stopped practicing as an adolescent, and later was married in the Church. She began attending Mass again some years later, identifying as Catholic in 2005.

Chase is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Producer credits

She was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

Film

Television

Theater