Growing up on a film set is an odd kind of education. Some young performers come away with little interest in the business, while others spend those years watching how scenes get built and decide they want to run the show.
The nine people below started in front of the camera as children or young teens. Each one later moved behind it and directed at least one project.
Ron Howard
Ron Howard became a household face as young Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show, which ran from 1960 to 1968. He kept acting into adulthood, including a long run on Happy Days. His first feature as director was Grand Theft Auto in 1977.
His career as a filmmaker then grew well beyond his acting résumé. He won the Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind, and he also made Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon and Rush. Few former child actors have a directing record this broad.
Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster was working on screen by the time she was a small child. She earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Taxi Driver, which she filmed as a young teenager. Her acting work continued without a long break through adulthood.
She directed her first feature, Little Man Tate, in 1991. Later films include Home for the Holidays, The Beaver and Money Monster. She has also directed television episodes, including installments of Orange Is the New Black and Black Mirror.
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore was seven when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came out in 1982. The role made her one of the best known child stars in the world. Her early fame was complicated, and she has spoken publicly about the difficulties of it.
She made her feature directing debut with Whip It in 2009. The roller derby comedy starred Elliot Page, then credited as Ellen Page. Barrymore has since become best known as a talk show host, but Whip It remains her main credit as a feature director.
Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck’s earliest screen work came in childhood, on the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi in the 1980s. He later broke through as an actor and screenwriter, winning an Oscar for co writing Good Will Hunting.
As a director he made Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo. Argo won Best Picture at the Academy Awards held in 2013. More recently he directed Air, the 2023 drama about Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan, which reunited him with Matt Damon.
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman made her film debut in Léon: The Professional in 1994, when she was still a child. The performance launched her career and led to a long run of major roles. She later won the Oscar for Best Actress for Black Swan.
Her feature directing debut was A Tale of Love and Darkness in 2015. She also wrote the film and starred in it, adapting Amos Oz’s memoir, with dialogue in Hebrew. Earlier, she directed a short segment for the anthology film New York, I Love You.
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling first appeared on American screens as a cast member of The All New Mickey Mouse Club in the early 1990s. That show also featured several other future stars. He moved on to teen roles and eventually to serious film work.
He wrote and directed Lost River, released in 2014. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. It was a divided critical reception, but it showed his interest in directing alongside his acting career.
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart appeared in Panic Room in 2002, playing the daughter of Jodie Foster’s character. She was a young child actor at that point, long before the Twilight films made her globally famous. She later built a reputation in independent cinema.
She directed the short film Come Swim in 2017. Her first feature as director, The Chronology of Water, is based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir and premiered at Cannes in 2025. It screened in the Un Certain Regard section, the same program that showed Gosling’s Lost River.
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke made his film debut in Explorers in 1985, sharing the screen with River Phoenix. He continued acting through the following decades, and later worked with director Richard Linklater on the Before trilogy and Boyhood. Those collaborations are often seen as shaping his later interest in filmmaking.
His directing credits include Chelsea Walls in 2001 and Blaze in 2018, a drama about the singer songwriter Blaze Foley. He also directed Wildcat in 2023, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. Hawke has additionally directed documentary work, including The Last Movie Stars.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Gordon-Levitt began acting as a child, appearing in films such as A River Runs Through It in 1992 and Angels in the Outfield in 1994. He then became widely known as a teenager on the sitcom Third Rock from the Sun, which ran from 1996 to 2001. He later moved into more varied adult roles.
His feature directing debut was Don Jon, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. He wrote the film, directed it and starred in it. He also founded the online creative platform HitRecord, which grew out of his interest in collaborative projects.
