Owen Kline

Owen Kline
Kline at the Walter Reade Theater in 2022
Born	Owen Joseph Kline (1991-10-14) October 14, 1991 New York City, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actor, filmmaker
Years active	2001–present
Parents	Kevin Kline (father) Phoebe Cates (mother)
Relatives	Greta Kline (sister), Gilbert Cates (great-uncle), Gil Cates Jr. (first cousin once removed)

Owen Joseph Kline (born October 14, 1991) is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for his directorial debut Funny Pages (2022) and his performance as Frank Berkman in The Squid and the Whale (2005).

Early life

Kline was born and raised in New York City, to actor Kevin Kline and actress Phoebe Cates. His father is of German-Jewish and Irish descent, and his mother has Russian-Jewish and Chinese-Filipino ancestry. He has one younger sister, Greta Kline, a musician/singer-songwriter. At age 7, he fell ill, and during a two-week stay in the hospital was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He acted in his adolescence in the independent films The Anniversary Party (2001) and Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and The Whale (2005), but did not pursue a subsequent career in acting, instead remaining in junior high school. He performed in provocative novelty bands in high school, released prank call CDs, and created xeroxed comics, joke books and zines. He attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, studying illustration and film.

He worked as an assistant to the archivist at New York film museum Anthology Film Archives, and for musicologists Billy Miller and Miriam Linna at their Norton label and Kicks Books imprint. He crewed on early work of filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie, and acted in their film John's Gone (2010), and in Michael M. Bilandic's films Hellaware (2013), and Jobe'z World (2018).

Work

In 2013 Kline wrote and directed the short comedy Fowl Play, about a group of low-rent criminals fooled into buying a hen for a cockfight in Flushing, Queens. He co-wrote and directed the short film Jazzy for Joe (2014), a narrative comedy about, and starring, New York broadcaster Joe Franklin raising an abandoned baby, which premiered at BAMcinemaFest 2015.

Kline spent six years continually writing, directing and editing his debut feature Funny Pages, a black comedy about a young dropout cartoonist striking out on his own in Trenton, New Jersey. Produced by the Safdie Brothers and distributed by A24, it premiered in the Director's Fortnight at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in 2022.

Prior to Funny Pages, Kline provided archival research for books, including Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik's How to Read Nancy.

In 2021, Kline contributed a two-page comic about Our Gang star Norman "Chubby" Chaney to film critic Nick Pinkerton's premiere issue of Bombast: A Journal of Film & Funnies.

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Actor	Editor	Notes
2001	The Anniversary Party	No	No	Yes	No	dir. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming
2005	The Squid and the Whale	No	No	Yes	No	dir. Noah Baumbach
2010	John's Gone	No	No	Yes	No	dir. Josh and Benny Safdie
2010	Sinners of Kings Highway	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Short film, directorial debut
2012	Dave Buddin Drinks at Home	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Documentary
2013	Fowl Play	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Short film
2014	Jazzy for Joe	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Short film
2016	Steve Dalanchinsky	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Documentary
2018	Jobe'z World	No	No	Yes	No	dir. Michael M. Bilandic
2022	Funny Pages	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	First feature film
2022	Mystery Reel	Yes	Yes	No	Yes