American actress, television director, television producer, and dancer starring in the Nutcracker Suite at age 4; at 14 she was a member of the Minnesota Dance Theater and at 20, with the San Francisco Ballet Co. Thompson moved to New York City at 21 to act in commercials and the following year, began doing bit parts in several movies. She hit the big time in 1985 when she was cast as Michael Fox’s young mother in the hit film “Back to the Future,” followed by its two sequels. Other films include, “Casual Sex?” and “Some Kind of Wonderful.”
A light-hearted, likable young actress, Thompson continued her upward mobility with her own series, “Caroline in the City” that made a debut September 1995 and was named one of the best new TV series. She performed in “Cabaret” on Broadway in 2000 and took a year sabbatical in 2001 to spend time with her family. On 7/21/2002, she debuted a new TV series, “For The People.”
Since 2011, she has co-starred as Kathryn Kennish in the FreeForm (formerly ABC Family) series Switched at Birth.
She has been married to director Howard Deutch since 1989. Thompson and Deutch have two daughters, Madelyn and Zoey, with whom she sang on stage in the Bye Bye Birdie production for the 16th annual Alzheimer’s Association “A Night at Sardi’s” in March 2008.
Link to Wikipedia biography