DEBBIE’S ROAD TO FAME

MARCH ON In 1966, after living a few years in Mexico City, Debbie (right), a junior, and her senior sister, Phylicia (left), were both majorettes at Jack Yates High School in Houston. “We had the most incredible band,” Phylicia recalled. “It was a great time.”

BIG-SCREEN BREAK Though she thought she “couldn’t match the high” of playing fiery Anita in a 1980 Broadway revival of West Side Story,“Ragtime proved me wrong,” Debbie says. “I loved playing Sarah,” a doomed unwed mother (opposite Howard E. Rollins Jr.) in the 1981 film.

SISTER SWAP Phylicia was initially cast as Richard Pryor’s wife in his semi-autobiographical 1986 pic Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, but “they kept changing the schedule and [she dropped out]. They said to him, ‘You might look at her sister.’ ”

BACK TO SCHOOL She looks back fondly at producing and guest-starring on A Different World. “I’m still very close to Jasmine Guy (above) and Cree Summer. Love Sinbad to death. That was really a family,” she tells Closer.

TRIPLE THREAT Debbie now directs, exec produces and stars as Dr. Catherine Avery on Grey’s Anatomy. “I’ll never forget the first time I directed. Patrick Dempsey started singing ‘Fame’ and I’m like, ‘Stop it, already. Stop it!’ ” she said with a laugh.

EASY NUT TO CRACK She wrote, directed and choreographed Hot Chocolate Nutcracker, “my new family tradition for the holidays.” (Dec. 7 to 10 in Redondo Beach, Calif.) “I’ve made The Nutcracker fun, culturally diverse, contemporary and funny!”