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Claudia Wells

Claudia Wells is an American film and television actor whose career is closely associated with one of the defining movie adventures of the 1980s. Born in Kuala Lumpur on July 5, 1966, she moved with her family to the San Francisco Bay Area when she was seven weeks old. Before working on screen, Wells appeared in ten operas between the ages of eight and twelve. She began acting on television in the late 1970s and moved to Los Angeles at fourteen, later graduating from Beverly Hills High School. Wells played Jennifer Parker, Marty McFly’s girlfriend, in 1985’s Back to the Future. Her route to the role was unusually complicated: she had initially been cast but was required to leave the production when an ABC pilot was picked up. Once that commitment ended, she was recast as Jennifer and filmed the role opposite Michael J. Fox. Her other work during the period included the 1985 anti-drug music video Stop the Madness, the television movie Babies Having Babies and the short-lived 1986 series Fast Times. In the latter, an adaptation of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Wells took on the role of Linda Barrett. After her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Wells put acting on hold for family reasons and declined to return as Jennifer for the two Back to the Future sequels. She later appeared in the independent film Still Waters Burn and, after another lengthy absence, returned to acting in 2011 with a small role in the science-fiction film Alien Armageddon. That same year, she revisited Jennifer Parker by voicing the character in Back to the Future: The Game. Away from acting, Wells founded the Studio City clothing store Armani Wells in 1991 and continued to own and manage it as of 2024. Her career has taken an unconventional path, balancing screen work, family priorities and entrepreneurship while remaining firmly connected to the role that introduced her to movie audiences.