Lea Thompson is an American actress and director. She was born the daughter of Cliff and Barbara Thompson (a singer and musician). She studied dance as a girl and would practice three to four hours every day. She was dancing professionally by the age of 14. She won scholarships to several ballet schools, including the American Ballet Theatre, the San Francisco Ballet and the Pennsylvania Ballet. Thompson danced in more than 45 ballets with the American Ballet Theatre. She also danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Minnesota Dance Theatre and the Ballet Repertory.

Thompson was told by Mikhail Baryshnikov that she was "too stocky." Due to this (as well as some small nagging injuries), she decided to give up dancing in favor of an acting career. She moved to New York at age 20 and performed in a number of Burger King advertisements in the 1980s along with Elisabeth Shue her eventual co-star in Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III.

Thompson is married to film director Howard Deutch. She first met Deutch on the set of Some Kind of Wonderful. They have two daughters, Madeline and Zoey. Thompson had previously been engaged to Dennis Quaid, her Jaws 3-D co-star.

Thompson's first significant film roles came in 1983, with Jaws 3-D and All the Right Moves. That was followed by Red Dawn (1984) and The Wild Life (1984). Her most famous role was that of Lorraine Baines McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy, the first of the three films being released in 1985. Thompson's character is the mother of Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox

In 1986, Thompson starred in SpaceCamp and Howard the Duck. For the latter film, she sang several songs on the soundtrack, in character, as musician Beverley Switzer, a.k.a. "Cherry Bomb." The recordings appeared on both the soundtrack album and on singles. Rounding out film appearances in the late 1980s, Thompson starred in Some Kind of Wonderful, Casual Sex?, Going Undercover and The Wizard of Loneliness. She also had a prominent role in the 1989 TV movie Nightbreaker, for which she was nominated for a CableACE Award. In the early 1990s, Thompson starred in Dennis the Menace (1993), The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) and The Little Rascals (1994). She also appeared in several TV movies throughout the 90s, such as The Substitute Wife (1994), The Unspoken Truth (1995) and The Right To Remain Silent (1996).

Thompson found moderate critical and popular success as the star of the NBC sitcom Caroline in the City, from 1995-1999. In 1996, she received a People's Choice Award for "Favorite Female Performer in a New TV Series."

After a break from acting, Thompson went on to star in several Broadway plays. She later appeared in a TV series called For the People, which only lasted one season. In 2005, Thompson began a series of made-for-TV movies for the Hallmark Channel, in which she plays "Jane Doe," an ex-secret agent turned housewife, who helps the government solve mysteries. Thompson directed two films from the Jane Doe series - Jane Doe: The Harder They Fall and Jane Doe: Eye of the Beholder. She is currently attached to direct the feature film The Swingin' Sounds of Jack Amsterdam, which is set to be released in 2009.