Owen Kline

Owen Joseph Kline (born October 14, 1991) is an American filmmaker, actor, and cartoonist. He is best known for his directorial debut Funny Pages 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. 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 co-edited his high school's comic book magazine, released prank call CDs, and self-published his own xeroxed comics, joke books and zines. He attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, studying illustration and film. 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. In 2025, The Metrograph published The Day The Clown Cried: The Unauthorized Disaster, drawn by Kline and co-written by Stephen Kroninger, surrounding the facts and myths of the unfinished film by Jerry Lewis.

Filmography Short film Year Title Director Writer Editor 2010 Sinners of Kings Highway 2013 Fowl Play 2014 Jazzy for Joe

Documentary film Year Title Director Writer Editor 2012 Dave Buddin Drinks at Home 2016 Steve Dalanchinsky

Feature film Year Title Director Writer Editor 2022 Funny Pages

Acting roles Year Title Role Notes 2001 The Anniversary Party Jack Gold 2005 The Squid and the Whale Frank Berkman 2018 Jobe'z World Zane 2024 A Different Man Nick 2025 The Studio Himself Episode "The War"