Name: Deborah Duncan
Title: Host/Senior Producer Great Day Houston
Hometown: Born in Oklahoma City. Three months later I was living in Taiwan. I am a military brat.
School: University of Texas at Austin
Family: I am blessed with a wonderful husband and son who share me with our awesome viewers!
Fun fact: Deborah once worked for Lifetime Television and ABC in New York
Favorite restaurant: Any place that serves food is my favorite restaurant!
Hidden talent: When you do a talk show, none of your talents are hidden! When the producer says stretch, any talent you might have reveals itself.
Most embarrassing moment: When hosting a show, a motorcycle daredevil did a segment and asked me to get on the back of his bike. I had no idea he was going to pop a wheelie. I fell off, live on the air. It really hurt but as they say, the show must go on! And it did.
Pet peeve: Jumping to the wrong conclusion before trying to ask the right questions.
Greatest career accomplishment: There have been many great moments in my career that I am thankful for. One of the best, though, is winning the Emmy Award for the Star of Hope Christmas CD project. We wrote and performed an original song for the homeless shelter and put it on a CD with Grammy- and Dove Award-winners who donated their songs. All sales benefitted the Star of Hope. It is a great way to give a gift that someone would truly enjoy and at the same time help people to get back on their feet and live the life that God intended for them. It was truly a labor of love. It was great to watch the seed of an idea and watch it grow to help those struggling through tough times.
Dream job as a kid: My mom bought me one of those Fisher Price doctor bags when I was 5 years old. I would go around the neighborhood giving free physicals. Whenever a friend would fall and hurt their knee, I would patch it up. When I saw them a few days later, it was healed. It stands to reason why I really thought I was a doctor and medical school was only a technicality. Wow! What happened?
Favorite childhood TV program: Bewitched. It was the only thing in English when I was living in Taiwan. Of course like everyone else, I wished I could just wiggle my nose and make anything happen. In fact, with all the new technology today, I am still holding out hope that it will happen!
Fears and phobias: Refuse to think about them!
What do you like most about Houston: That s easy! The PEOPLE! I mentioned earlier that I grew up in a military family. Like every base where we lived, I love that Houston is made up of so many cultures. Many people do not realize it has been that way for many decades. Up north, the migration of immigrants was mostly from Europe. Galveston was another point of entry and welcomed people not only from Europe, but every other continent as well. Our community is a role model for the rest of the country. We function well as one united city, but we are also free to celebrate what makes each of us different.
My hero: I will always be grateful to a number of people but the one who comes to mind first is former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. When I was in middle school, my class had a trip planned for Washington D.C. I begged my parents to go because I wanted to meet Ms. Jordan. She was the first African-American woman I ever saw in any of my school books. My parents said the trip was too expensive for them. My friend suggested that I write a letter to Representative Jordan and enlist her help in changing my parents mind. A few weeks later, the letter arrived in the mail. It worked! My parents somehow scraped together the money to give me the experience of a lifetime. Congresswoman Jordan met me and my classmates on the steps of Congress! And for that and many more things, my parents are also my heroes.
Greatest piece of advice you received: Rather than receiving this advice from someone else, I came across it in my life experiences. I ve learned along the way that If you let God use you, you don t have to figure out how. We oftentimes wait until we think we can do something grand or we do nothing if we don t feel like it will rival the works of Mother Theresa. Whether one person benefits or one million, it is the act that is important. With just a little initiative, I have come to believe that God truly can do the hard part, like move the mountain.
