Claudia Marks is part of an Emmy-winning television writing team, movie actress, and award-winning playwright and documentary writer/producer, who has used her tragic life experiences to work as an advocate for change. After graduating from CCHS in 1966, she saved up enough money to attend Hudson Valley Community College and the State University at Plattsburgh.

She moved to California to teach but found out her credentials were not valid in that state. After working at odd jobs and supporting her mother, she got a position as a flight attendant on Military Air Command missions that brought U.S. soldiers to Vietnam. During one flight in the 1970s she helped save 252 military families from a burning aircraft at Yakota Air Force Base. The airline presented her with their “Perfection/Not Correction” Award. 

Marks’ dream was to be in the movies ever since she had landed the leading role in the CCHS school play, Gramercy Ghost. So she went to Hollywood, but soon discovered there were few roles for women at the time so she tried to change that by writing for television entertainment. 

Her first scripts were for the long-running TV dramas Knots Landing and Cagney and Lacey, where she collaborated with other writers on the “Who Said It’s Fair” episode that won an Emmy Award and an NAACP Image Award for Excellence in Television. For that specific Cagney and Lacey episode, she was invited to become a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She is also a member of the Writers Guild of America. 

As a playwright, her production, “POW-Police Officers’ Wives/Prisoners of War” about her life married to a police officer exposed spousal abuse on the police force and was nominated for two NAACP Excellence in Theatre Awards and won one. She also wrote the play, “My Client’s a Lunatic” based on the transcripts of her trial when she was beaten and sexually assaulted by a security guard. That play won several awards and was chosen as one of the Top 10 theatre productions that year. Marks later turned to documentary writing.

In 2010, she produced, co-directed and wrote a documentary short, “A Far Off Cry” filmed in Pakistan. It was accepted into 17 film festivals and won awards at six, including the Columbia Gorge International Film Festival and the Walt Ratterman Humanitarian Award. A second documentary, “Dry Clean Only” documents her efforts to prove that a dry cleaning solvent was killing her and ends with her testifying against the chemical companies, helping to get the first banning of the chemical in the United States. This production won four health and science awards. 

Marks is presently in post-production on her third documentary, “Like No Other” about the 2010 Pakistan floods. Her dream to become an actress came true when she landed a principal role as Madam of the Tortuga Cantina in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest with Johnny Depp and later, scoring a role in The Lone Ranger.

Marks has been involved in many other humanitarian efforts over her life such as helping sexually abused children, speaking to at-risk youth, producing Public Service Announcements for No Drugs America, leading Adopt a Highway campaigns, fighting homelessness, and establishing a college scholarship for children who have transitioned through the foster care system.