Growing up on a film set gives a person an unusual education. Some kids spend those years watching lighting setups and blocking, then carry that knowledge into adulthood. A handful eventually step behind the camera for good.
The eight people below all started acting as children and later directed feature films. Their routes differ, and so do their results, from Oscar winners to quieter festival favorites.
Ron Howard
Howard was a familiar face by childhood, best known as young Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show. He also appeared as a kid in the 1962 film version of The Music Man. Later came teen and adult roles, including Happy Days on television.
He made his feature directing debut with Grand Theft Auto in 1977, then found mainstream success with Splash and Apollo 13. His biggest win came with A Beautiful Mind, which took the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.
Jodie Foster
Foster began working in commercials and television as a small child. At around twelve she played a young sex worker in Taxi Driver, a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She later won two Best Actress Oscars as an adult, for The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs.
Her directing debut was Little Man Tate in 1991, about a gifted child and his mother. She went on to direct Home for the Holidays, The Beaver, and Money Monster, and she has also directed episodes of television.
Sarah Polley
Polley grew up in Canadian film and television. She was widely known for the series Road to Avonlea, and she also starred in the 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen as a child.
She moved into directing with Away from Her in 2006, which earned an Oscar nomination for her adapted screenplay. Her documentary Stories We Tell followed in 2012. Women Talking, which she directed and adapted, won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2023 ceremony.
Drew Barrymore
Barrymore came from a famous acting family and became a household name at age seven as Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Her teenage years were widely covered in the press, and she rebuilt her career in romantic comedies like The Wedding Singer.
She made her feature directing debut with Whip It in 2009, a coming of age story about roller derby starring Elliot Page. It remains her only major feature as a director. She has since become better known as a talk show host.
Ben Affleck
Affleck’s earliest screen work came as a child on the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi in the mid 1980s. He appeared in other small roles before breaking through in the 1990s, including Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote with Matt Damon.
His directing career began with Gone Baby Gone in 2007, followed by The Town. Argo won the Oscar for Best Picture, and he later directed Air in 2023, a drama about Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan.
Natalie Portman
Portman made her screen debut at twelve in Léon: The Professional in 1994. She went on to major roles in the Star Wars prequels and won the Best Actress Oscar for Black Swan. Throughout, she balanced acting with university study at Harvard.
She directed the short film Eve in 2008, then made her feature directing debut with A Tale of Love and Darkness in 2015. The film is based on Amos Oz’s memoir, and she shot it in Hebrew, the language she grew up speaking at home.
Kristen Stewart
Stewart was a young teenager when she appeared opposite Jodie Foster in Panic Room in 2002. Her fame later exploded with the Twilight series, though she has spent years since choosing smaller, riskier projects. She earned an Oscar nomination for playing Princess Diana in Spencer.
She first directed the short film Come Swim, which premiered at Sundance in 2017. Her feature debut, The Chronology of Water, is adapted from Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in 2025.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Gordon-Levitt acted from a young age, with early parts in A River Runs Through It and Angels in the Outfield. He became a teen star on the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. Adult roles in films like 500 Days of Summer and Inception cemented his career.
He wrote, directed, and starred in Don Jon in 2013, a comedy drama with Scarlett Johansson about habits shaped by pornography. He is also known for founding HitRecord, a collaborative online production platform.
