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Debra (center) with Marie and Amy

Debra Louise Barone (nee Whelan) is a fictional character from the American TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. She is played by actress Patricia Heaton. Debra acts as Ray's complaining and nagging wife. On the show, Debra lives on Long Island, with her husband Ray Barone (Ray Romano) and their children Geoffrey, Michael and Ally (Sawyer, Sullivan and Madylin Sweeten respectively). Debra is occasionally visited by her mother Lois (Katherine Helmond) and her father Warren (Robert Culp). She loves Ray despite his shortcomings but is constantly tormented by her meddling in-laws, Frank and Marie Barone (Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts respectively), who rarely respect her privacy and both of whom she greatly resents. Debra is known to be attractive, admired by Robert - whom she seems to tolerate better than Ray's other relatives - and "out of my league" by Ray's own account.

A running gag involves Debra to be considered a bad cook, especially by Marie, who is a very talented cook. Along with the running gag, the only dish she makes that can be eaten by other characters is lemon chicken. In one episode, she also makes braciole, which other characters like, to the dismay of Marie, as Marie had been saving braciole after it resulted in Frank's proposal.

Debra went to college and worked for a while in Public Relations for the New York Rangers. After getting married to Ray, she became a housewife.

• Debra's maiden name is Whelan, and she has the same middle name as Amy, Louise.

• (To her husband) "I love you, I have to like you!"
• (To her husband) "You know what? I'm tired...can you just call yourself an idiot?"
• (After Ray offers to give Alli the "sex talk") "Know what Ray? You can be there and I'll explain it to both of you."
• (To Geoffrey and Michael's teacher) "You have no idea what I have to put up with. When I got married, I didn't just get a husband, I got a whole freak show that set up their tent right across the street! And that would be fine if they stayed there, but everyday, every day, they dump a truckload of their insane family dreck into my lap. How would you like to sit through 2 people in their 60's fighting over who invented the lawn? The LAWN! And then the brother, 'I live in an apartment. I don't even have a lawn. Raymond has a lawn.' But you can't blame him when you see who the mother is. She has this kind of sick hold on the both of them. And the father is about as disgusting a creature as God has ever dropped on this planet. So no wonder the kid writes stories. I should be writing stories. My life is a gothic novel, and until you have lived in that house with all of them in there with you, day after day, week after week, year after friggin' year, you are in no position to judge me!"
• (Usually to or regarding her husband) "Idiot."
• (Angry at her husband) "What are you doing Ray?!" Ray: "Listen, I know what you are thinking." Debra: "Really? Then, why aren't you protecting yourself?"
• (To Raymond about not going to church) "You know, God can hear you right now."
• (After Ray votes against her for president of the school board) "I don't care if my platform was anti-puppy, you vote for me!"
• (To Raymond and his buddies watching sports) "I could walk through here naked and you wouldn't even notice."
• (When Marie points to the fork and spoon on the wall) "I always thought they were Robert's baby utensils."
• (On the tape recorder) I told you 8 million times, when you empty the dryer you CLEAN THE LINT SCREEN! Look at all this lint! Do you like lint, Ray? How about I give you some for your birthday? Happy birthday, Ray, HERE'S YOUR LINT!!!
• (After apologizing to Ray after a fight) "And I sigh I should've told people I know you.
• (while fighting with Ray) "If there's anything wrong it's PMS!
• (Yelling at Ray) "You are the reason for the yeller!"
• (To Ray and Robert in the cannister episode) "Ok fat people, who cares?!"

• (To Ray on the checkbook episode) "When you're on the Titanic, you load the lifeboats. You don't stop to yell at the iceberg."

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