Evan Wells
Wells at theGame Developers Choice Awards in 2010
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Stanford University
Occupation(s)	Game director, artist
Years active	1993–2023
Employer	Naughty Dog
Title	Co-president

Evan Wells is an American video game designer and programmer and former president ofNaughty Dog. Wells's first video game was atSega, where he worked onToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, before moving toCrystal Dynamics in 1995 to work onGex andGex: Enter the Gecko. He was employed atNaughty Dog in 1998, working on severalCrash Bandicoot andJak and Daxter titles before becoming co-president of the company alongside Stephen White in 2005; White was replaced the following year by Christophe Balestra, who retired in 2017. The two oversaw the release of theUncharted series, andThe Last of Us. Wells remained the sole president, overseeing the release ofThe Last of Us Part II, untilNeil Druckmann's promotion to co-president in 2020. Wells announced his retirement in 2023.

Evan Wells graduated fromStanford University in 1995 with a computer science degree.^[1] He worked atSega in 1993, working onToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (1993) as a lead tester, before working atCrystal Dynamics from 1994 to 1998, working onGex (1995) as a programmer, andGex: Enter the Gecko (1998) as lead designer. Wells then moved toNaughty Dog, where he worked onCrash Bandicoot: Warped (1998),Crash Team Racing (1999),^[2]Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (2001),Jak II (2003),Jak 3 (2004) andJak X: Combat Racing (2005).^[3] Following the departure of foundersJason Rubin andAndy Gavin in 2004, Wells became co-president of Naughty Dog alongside Stephen White; White was replaced by Christophe Balestra after a year. Wells continued to work as co-president during the release of theUncharted titles (2007–17), as well asThe Last of Us (2013). Balestra retired from the company in April 2017; Wells became the sole president.^[4]Neil Druckmann was promoted to vice president in March 2018,^[5] and to co-president alongside Wells in December 2020.^[6] Wells was an executive producer on the filmUncharted (2022),^[7] and onthe television adaptation ofThe Last of Us withHBO.^[8] In July 2023, Wells announced he would retire by the end of the year.^[9]

• Evan Wells atIMDb

• Living people
• American video game designers
• American video game programmers
• Uncharted
• Stanford University alumni
• Naughty Dog people

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from July 2023
• Articles with hCards
• Place of birth missing (living people)
• Date of birth missing (living people)
• Year of birth missing (living people)