A native of Montreal, Joey Klein graduated with Great Distinction from Concordia University where he earned his BA in Communications, with a specialization in film making.
He went on to win the prestigious FCAR scholarship, the major Graduate scholarship awarded by the province of Quebec, and was to attend Columbia University’s MFA program in Film. He opted to go a different route however, moving to NYC to attend Circle In The Square Theater School in 2003.
After completing the two year professional conservatory program, Joey wrote his first one act play Don’t Turn Out Your Lights Tonight: a limited Equity Showcase run ensued at Tom O’Horgan’s Blue Box Theatre (Tom O’Horgan directed the original Broadway productions of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar) that was mentored by John Kander (Kander & Ebb: Chicago, Cabaret and Kiss Of The Spider Woman). During this time Joey also starred in the NYC debut of Judith Thompson’s I Am Yours at Centre Stage and landed the role of The Chemist in Ridley Scott’s American Gangster opposite Denzel Washington. As an actor, Joey has since starred in numerous Independent features including The Waterhole and Girl In The White Coat (TIFF Bell Lightbox limited run release, April 2012 – ‘Joey Klein is excellent as Sterling, a chatterbox…’ -Toronto Star), and most recently played Tom Saybrook in Walter Salles’ On The Road for American Zoetrope and Josh in Michael Sucsy’s The Vow for Screen Gems. TV credits include (but not limited to) the role of Rabbi Feldman on Ken Finkleman’s HBO show Good Dog, TJ Smith, the guest starring role on the season premiere of Haven (season 2) as well as over a dozen National commercials on both sides of the border.
As a writer, Joey has completed drafts of two feature length screenplays; The Other Half Of A Missing Person and Welcome To The Terror Zone, finalists for the Sundance Lab in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The Other Half Of A Missing Person is currently in development, and is set to star Trevor Morgan (The Sixth Sense, Off The Black, Mean Creek) and Tatiana Maslany (Grown Up Movie Star, Violet & Daisy).
Joey was introduced at an early age to the films of master directors like Marcel Carne’s Les Enfants Du Paradis, Francois Truffaut’s Tirez Sur Le Pianiste, and Emir Kusturica’s Time Of The Gypsies to name a few. His contemporary influences/favorites range from Roy Anderson (You The Living) to Gasper Noe (Enter The Void) to Bela Tarr. Joey’s aim is to explore how formal elements can inspire the details of content, how these details are built into stories, and subsequently how these stories will influence and affect style: How possibilities of style are mastered to delineate story, and stories are uncovered through picture and sound.
Waiting For You is Joey’s first film.