She made her debut on TV as a child in The Persuaders! episode "The Long Goodbye" in which her father co-starred alongside Tony Curtis, and early on in her career, she was often billed as "Deborah Barrymore". She appeared in such films as Lionheart (1987), Alien Terminator (1988), the 1990 comedy, Bullseye! (opposite her father), Chaplin (1992), Into the Sun (1992), and South Kensington (2001). She is probably best known in the UK as the face of the Scottish Widows advertising campaign from 1986 to 1995 when she was replaced by Amanda Lamb. She later took on the name Deborah Moore.