FASHION DESIGNER, COSTUME DESIGNER AND FINE ARTIST, DEBRA’S CAREER HAS SPANNED ALMOST 50 YEARS.

Among Debra McGuire's many accomplishments as a fine artist, fashion designer, and costume designer, she is best known for her 10-year run on the hit show FRIENDS and for designing many of David Mamet's film and theatre projects, including PHIL SPECTOR (starring Al Pacino and Helen Mirren), which was nominated for 11 Emmys and for which she received a nomination for Best Costume Design. Debra has also designed many of Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan's film and television projects.

Debra designed SONIC the Hedgehog #1 and #2, starring James Marsden and Jim Carrey (Paramount Studios/Sega), which premiered in February 2020 and became the #1 box office success in 2022. Currently, Debra designs for Jennifer Aniston in THE MORNING SHOW (Seasons 2, 3, and now Season 4). She was in Atlanta in Fall 2023 designing the TV series HYSTERIA!, and subsequently in Montreal and Budapest designing the epic film MAYDAY, an end of the Cold War comedy starring Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Reynolds, directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley.

Passionate about theatre, she began designing costumes for a dance theatre company in Paris in the early '80s. In 2006, she was nominated for an Ovation Award for Best Costume Design for BOSTON MARRIAGE, and in 2007, she won the NAACP Award for Best Costume Design for ATLANTA at the Geffen Playhouse. In the summer of 2016, she designed the original period musical, I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU (written by Arlene Sarner and Jerry Leichling, directed by Kay Cole), at the Montalban Theatre in Los Angeles, which was nominated for several OVATION awards.

Debra is primarily a fine artist whose career began as a painter, working and teaching in her Bay Area studio. She later became an instructor at colleges and universities in Northern California, as well as a jewelry and accessories designer in New York. Additionally, she has worked as a fashion designer, fashion consultant, couturier (with a store in Pacific Palisades, CA for 10 years), and costume designer. Debra has spoken at galleries, art colleges, and film festivals, and recently taught a Master Class at The Visegrad Film Festival in Bratislava titled "The Refinement of Process: Visual Journey of the Artist as Costume Designer." Recently, she has been back in the studio and travels between her LA office and her home/studio in Rhode Island.

Her creativity is rivaled only by her ability to multitask, a skill honed through many years of hard work and dedication. "An artist with passion can create anything… a world 1000 years in the past or the future, as far as the imagination can go! Creating a visual story that didn't exist a moment ago is about the miraculous Designer-Director relationship… understanding the vision and making it happen. However, without my loyal and dedicated crews, none of this would be possible!"