Chloe lenihan

is a fifth-generation Californian based in Los Angeles.  As a writer/ director/ producer/ actor, her films have screened at Academy-qualifying festivals including: Atlanta, Nordisk Panorama, and Palm Springs among others. A proud SAG member since 1989, Chloe creates heartfelt, humorous stories that explore identity, purpose, and the absurdities of everyday life, immersing audiences in authentic Americana and emotion that lingers long after the screen fades to black.

Chloe holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University where she received the New York Women in Film & Television scholarship.  She was awarded the Katharina Otto-Bernstein grant to write and produce her thesis film How Far She Went, which won “Jury Honors” and the “Audience Award” at the Columbia University Film Festival, “Best Female Student Filmmaker” by the Director’s Guild of America East, and “Best Student Film” at BendFilm Festival before making its broadcast premiere on KQED’s “Film School Shorts” series, hosted by PBS. She co-wrote, directed, and starred in All-American Sex Offender, which won “Best Web Series” at the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival in 2020 and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Chloe was selected to develop her feature script, Metanoia, at the Stowe Story Lab and Cine Qua Non Storylines Lab in 2021 and then, in 2022, she revised that script at Cine Qua Non’s Revision Lab in Tzintzuntzan, Mexico.

Prior to Columbia, she worked for Oscar-winning GK Films on Martin Scorsese’s The Departed and The Aviator, and Jean-Marc Vallée’s The Young Victoria. Chloe is a graduate of the William Esper Studio acting conservatory in New York.

Currently, Chloe is in post-production on her feature directorial debut, SMILE…the Worst is Yet to Come, a dramatic comedy about infertility, the generational divide, and how we define success.