Debra Zane

Born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida, Debra is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.  She began her casting career as an assistant to casting director David Rubin.

After seven years with David, ending with the happy collaboration as partners on such films as Get Shorty and Men in Black, Debra created Debra Zane Casting in 1996.

Directors such as Bill Condon, Sam Mendes, Gary Ross, Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh and Steven Spielberg have called upon Zane to collaborate on the casting of their films.  Her list of credits include: Wag the Dog, Pleasantville, The Limey, American Beauty, Stuart Little, Galaxy Quest, Traffic, Ocean’s 11,12 & 13, Road to Perdition, Catch Me If You Can, Seabiscuit, Matchstick Men, The Terminal, Kingdom of Heaven, War of the Worlds, Jarhead, Dreamgirls, Things We Lost in the Fire, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

A member of the Casting Society of America, Debra has been nominated for their Artios® Award ten times and has won three times.  She was the recipient of the Artios® Award in 2000 for Best Casting for a Feature Film Drama for American Beauty, again in 2001 for Traffic and in 2006 for Dreamgirls.

The Screen Actors Guild honored the casts of American Beauty and Traffic for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Motion Picture.  The ensemble casts of Seabiscuit and Dreamgirls were nominees.  In 2004 Debra was honored by the Hollywood Film Festival as Casting Director of the Year.

Debra is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.