Tony Award-Winning Producer Debra Martin Chase to Speak at UT Austin Next Week

Tony Award-winning, Emmy nominated and Peabody Award-winning film, television and Broadway producer Debra Martin Chase (Cinderella, The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Cheetah Girls, The Equalizer TV series and many more) will return to The University of Texas at Austin on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022 to discuss her work producing blockbuster projects featuring women and Black voices for TV and movie audiences.

The event will take place from 5:30 - 7:15 p.m. at the Texas Union Theater, located at 2308 Whitis Ave, Austin, TX 78712. The panel is free and open to the public. Reserve a spot here.

Martin Chase is the first African American female producer to secure a deal with a major Hollywood studio. Affiliated with the Disney Corporation for fifteen years, Martin Chase Productions is now producing with NBC Universal. She pioneered the highly successful franchises of young female empowerment such as The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and The Cheetah Girls. Film credits include Harriet, starring Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, and Janelle Monáe, directed by Kasi Lemmons; Sparkle starring Jordin Sparks and Whitney Houston; Just Wright starring Queen Latifah and Common (Winner of 2011 NAACP Image Award for Best Screenplay); Courage Under Fire starring Denzel Washington and The Preacher's Wife starring Washington and Houston.

Television credits include the Emmy Award-winning Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella with Brandy Norwood, Whitney Houston and Whoopi Goldberg, the Lifetime Television series Missing and Disney Channel's original musical Lemonade Mouth. She currently executive produces The Equalizer TV series starring Queen Latifah. In 2022, Chase was a Co-producer, in partnership with Marc Platt, for A Strange Loop and Topdog/Underdog on Broadway. In 2016, Ms. Chase was awarded the prestigious Ford Foundation Grant to develop projects focused on social justice, diversity and inclusion.

The panel is sponsored by The School of Design and Creative Technologies, Nelda Studios, The Cain Foundation, The Department of Radio-Television-Film, and The Warfield Center for African and African American Studies & Black Lens. Panelists include Natasha Davison, Lecturer, School of Design and Creative Technologies & Producer, Adrien Sebro, Assistant Professor, Moody College of Communication, and Dr. Aria S. Halliday, Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellow, Center for Women's and Gender Studies.

For more information on Nelda Studios, please see neldastudios.com.