Deborah Gregory

Deborah Gregory is the author of the popular book series The Cheetah Girls. She was also the co-producer of the Disney Channel Original Movies The Cheetah Girls and The Cheetah Girls 2, as well as an executive producer for The Cheetah Girls: One World.

Deborah Gregory was born in Brooklyn, New York. When she was only three years old, her mother was institutionalized, and young Deborah was put into foster care until she outgrew the system at the age of 18. As a teenager, she started designing her own clothes and fantasized about a singing career. At the age of eighteen, she attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and received her A.A.S. She graduated in 1986 with a BS in Cultural Studies from Empire State College (Metropolitan Center, NYC).

The book series is about five ambitious girls who form a singing group and achieve their dreams in the fictional "Jiggy Jungle." These girls have their own set of ethics as well as their own language, which Gregory provides a glossary for in her books. The girls pictured on the cover of the books are made up of an actual three girl singing group called Before Dark, an aspiring ballerina and a performer who was starring in "The Lion King." Gregory's inspiration for the musical group was the R&B group Destiny's Child and her own childhood aspirations of musical stardom. The original Disney movie starred Raven-Symoné. It also starred Sabrina Bryan, Kiely Williams, and Adrienne Bailon of 3LW. Two music albums were produced as a result of the two Disney Channel movies. There are 22 books in the Cheetah Girls series, six of which are books that tie directly to the films. In 2001, the series became the Blackboard Children's Book of the Year.

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