Debra was born in Southport, Lancashire - Merseyside on the North West coast of the United Kingdom. Her father a photographer and her mother a singer. The fourth of five children her earliest experience of live music was with her family at home.
Debra began writing songs in her childhood. As a teenager Debra sang in the bars and folk clubs of Liverpool, Southport, and Maghull.
Performances in Greater Manchester, Preston, Burnley, Bury, North Wales, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Durham, and Scarborough followed.
Debra trained at Sandown College of Performing Arts in Liverpool and with Guildhall School of Speech and Drama.
Upon leaving college Debra worked in British Television and Theatre with guest interviews on Radio shows at BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Radio Bournemouth, and Brighton Radio; subsequently Debra based herself near London.
Debra’s work in TV included roles in Brookside for CH4, Emmerdale for ITV, and for the BBC roles in ‘Spender’ alongside Jimmy Nail, and Carla Lane’s ‘Luv’ working with Sue Johnson and Michael Angelis.
The lead roles of Sandy in ‘Grease’ on National Tour of UK Theatres; Wendy in ‘Peter Pan’ The Musical, at The Hawth Theatre Crawley; Helena in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at The Neptune Theatre, Liverpool; Angel in ‘Follow The Star’ at Chichester Festival Theatre and Marion in ‘Robin Hood’ at The Southport Theatre, along with supporting roles in many other productions across the UK contributed to Debra’s experience of work within British Theatre.
Debra always continued to write, sing and perform her own material and this initially took her to New York, USA to work on the ‘garage’ track ‘Everything’. During this period Debra was offered the opportunity to work within the realms of children’s television, writing and performing all the songs for GMTV / CITV’s Saturday morning show ‘Mole in the Hole’; working alongside the team from the well known children’s show ‘Rainbow’.
Debra discovered that she loved writing for children and very quickly found herself writing, performing and producing all the songs for the children’s ‘Characters’ of The Tiger Club for UK holiday company ‘Haven Holidays’ with David Oliver, (Debra’s husband and writing partner). Their ‘song’ success was such that it led to Debra and David writing and producing all the ‘Character Shows’, and their songs, stories, CDs, and DVDs for over 18 years for both Haven Holidays UK and Haven Europe. This developed into the latest children’s brand ‘Zootroop’ with further shows for Haven Holidays UK, shows at London Zoo for The Zooalogical Society and two feature length animations for which Debra not only co-wrote music / songs but performed the female ‘Character Voices’. Debra has also written for the very popular children's TV series ‘Tweenies' for CBeebies.
Debra has sung/performed at many events in many countries across Europe including Italy, France, Belgium, Ireland, Cyprus, The Netherlands and Switzerland. In the UK Debra spent several months as the resident guest singer at ‘Windows’ at The Hilton Hotel, Park Lane, London. Other London venues where Debra has sung/performed are; The Savoy Hotel; The Dorchester Hotel; The Grosvenor House Hotel; The Landmark Hotel; The Mandarin Oriental Hotel; The Metropolitan Hotel; The Crowne Plaza Hotel, Kensington; The Lancaster Gate Hotel; ‘Sound’ Leicester Square; Café Royal, Piccadilly; Claridges Hotel, Mayfair; The Waldorf Hilton Hotel and many, many more venues in London and across the UK.
In 2001 Debra was backing vocalist for Lisa Stansfield.
Between 2001 and 2006 Debra was signed to Native Songs/ Universal Music Publishing UK where she wrote songs for other artists with many songwriters and producers from across Europe and the USA. Collaborations with various writers /producers included Biffco, Metrophonic, Mike Stevens, Calum MacColl, Mike Rutherford, Ash Howes and the production teams at world-renowned 19 Management. Songs co-written by Debra included, the UK Top Ten Hit ‘Come On Over’ for Kym Marsh; ‘Are You Ready For Love’ and ‘Not Sorry’ for Sarah Whatmore; Spanish Chart Topper ‘I Dare You’ for Chenoa – Spanish Fame Academy Winner.
Early in 2002 Debra was invited to collaborate with Skahana resulting in the song ‘St Tropez’, released on Phonetic Recordings in July 2003. The song was featured in the documentary of the same name on the British TV Channels E4 and CH4.
Debra was then invited to co-write and perform as a featured artist on the house/dance single 'Blue Water' with Black Rock, again released on the Phonetic Recordings dance label in 2004. This was then re-released on Positiva /EMI in 2005 in the UK. A USA release followed along with releases across Europe and Australia. The song was also featured on the soundtrack of the hugely successful British film 'It's All Gone Pete Tong' (2005). At BBC Radio 1 it became Pete Tong’s ‘Essential Tune’ during the summer of 2005.
To see ‘Blue Water’ video click here
During 2005 Debra continued to collaborate with many UK, American and European songwriters and producers. This brought her together with Ben Cullum and Ferry Corsten. The songs ‘Forever’ and ‘Beautiful’ were the result. Both songs were co-written by Debra and again featured her vocals. Ferry included both songs on his album ‘Loud. Electronic. Ferocious.’ or ‘L.E.F.’; the album was released worldwide to high acclaim in 2006.
To hear ‘Forever’ click here
To hear ‘Beautiful’ click here
Spring 2007 began with the release of the single ‘Beautiful’ from the L.E.F. album. The song become the tour anthem for Ferry Corsten in the USA that same year. It was soon added to his compilation albums; ‘Ferry Corsten presents Passport to United States of America’ and ‘Dance Valley 2007’.
Debra feels blessed to have written spiritual music for Worship Bands, music that has also been used by church congregations in the UK. For Debra some of the most rewarding music she has written is music for meditation, relaxation and healing.
In the autumn of 2006 Debra began a much needed two year break from the commercial music scene allowing her to spend quality time with her husband and family. During this time Debra studied and began training in healing therapies, something very close to her heart after many years of practicing yoga and receiving energy healing. This took Debra on a spiritual journey that changed the direction of her life and enabled her to re-connect to music and her own voice. In the autumn/winter of 2008 Debra returned to her acoustic, folk roots and began work on a new album with the focus turned to making music that would soothe the soul and heal the spirit of the listener.
After completing the writing process Debra went in to the studio in the summer 2009 to begin recording ‘Child Of The Universe’. At the same time Debra began to perform live again, beginning with her first guest performance with The Ronnie Scotts All Stars Band in London and The Brandenburg Sinfonia at ‘St Martin In The Fields’ Trafalgar Square, London; appearing in specialist concerts organized for Jazz audiences in the capital.
Debra was a guest singer with the Motown Show ‘How Sweet It Is’ for much of 2009/2010, performing at theatres across the UK all the time continuing to write music and perform at private parties and events.
In October 2010 Debra performed her first solo album 'Child Of The Universe' live with the musicians who appeared on the recording at The Leatherhead Theatre for the Mole Valley Arts Alive Festival.
The album was released on itunes, amazon, tescos, and many other online stores in December 2010.
During the Spring of 2011 the album was reviewed in ‘Up Country’, ‘Cross Country’, ‘Country Music People’ and ‘Maverick’ country music magazines (see Press page on this website). Most recently Debra has been interviewed on Radio Shows across the UK; several times with UK Country Radio, Radio Jackie (London), BBC Radio Surrey, and BBC Radio Sheffield where Debra sang live for Allan Watkiss International CMA award winner on ‘Your Country’.
Local Radio Stations in Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the UK continue to add songs from the album to their playlist, in particular the title song ‘Child Of The Universe’.
September 2011 saw Debra perform at UK Country Radio’s Annual Party & Awards and for the International Event ‘Voices For Hospices’.
