After graduating from Boston University, Kline interned at Roger Corman's Concorde/New Horizons and worked in feature development for Michael Shamberg and Harold Ramis's Ocean Pictures. He served as a television executive in Daytime Programming at
NBC Entertainment for one year then spent five years at
Columbia Pictures Television, eventually serving as the senior vice president of drama before transitioning into writing/producing at the suggestion of his first writing partner,
Frank Lupo, co-creator of
The A-Team and
Wiseguy. Between 1995 and 2006, he developed or produced the series:
My Friends Tigger & Pooh (
Playhouse Disney);
Jackie Chan Adventures (
Kids' WB);
Dragon Tales (
PBS);
Stuart Little: The Animated Series (
HBO);
That Was Then (
ABC);
Harold and the Purple Crayon (HBO);
Max Steel (Kids WB);
Men in Black: The Series (Kids WB);
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (
FOX);
Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles (
BKN);
Godzilla: The Series (FOX);
Channel Umptee-3 (Kids WB);
Extreme Ghostbusters (BKN); and
Jumanji (
UPN). From 2006 to 2008, he wrote a
Paris Hilton pilot for
MTV, and co-wrote the feature film
The Rosenbergs Save Christmas (with
Goldie Hawn attached to star) for Fox Searchlight. In 2009 he taught as an adjunct professor at Boston University's College of Communications, and wrote two live-action pilots for
SyFy before being recruited to develop and executive-produce
Transformers: Prime for
Hasbro's then-new cable co-venture with
Discovery Communications,
The Hub. Kline developed and was executive producer of
G.I. Joe: Renegades as well before signing an exclusive four-year series development and production deal with Hasbro Studios in 2011. He was executive producer of both
Transformers: Prime and the first season of
Transformers: Rescue Bots. He was an executive producer of
Transformers: Robots in Disguise. In 2013, Kline founded
Darby Pop Publishing, a comic book publishing company, and entered into a distribution agreement with
IDW. Darby Pop's first title,
Indestructible, was created by Kline. The first issue was released in December 2013. Other Darby Pop titles include
The 7th Sword,
City: the Mind and the Machine,
Doberman, and
Dead Squad. In October 2015, Darby Pop announced a collaboration with
Bruce Lee Entertainment to produce
Bruce Lee: The Dragon Rises, co-written by Bruce Lee's daughter
Shannon Lee and Kline. In January 2018, Darby Pop announced another collaboration with Bruce Lee Entertainment:
Bruce Lee: The Walk of the Dragon by
Nicole Dubuc (
Star Wars: Rebels, My Little Pony, Transformers: Rescue Bots). Kline's Darby Pop Productions produced
Jingle Bell Rocks, a documentary about
Christmas music, distributed by
Oscilloscope Laboratories. In 2018, Kline served as executive producer and head writer on a new series of
Woody Woodpecker animated shorts for YouTube.
Achievements The crew of
Transformers Prime Beast Hunters were nominated for a 2014
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program for which Jeff Kline was named for his work as executive producer.
Transformers Prime Beast Hunters won two
Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation: Jose Lopez for Character Design and Yasuhiro Motoda for Character Animation.
Transformers: Prime won three 2013
Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation: Arato Kato for Character Animation, Jason Park for Background Design, and Kirk van Wormer for Storyboards. The series
Transformers: Prime won a 2012
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program for which Jeff Kline was named for his work as executive producer.
Transformers: Prime was also nominated for six Daytime Emmys in 2011, and won two Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation Awards for Christophe Vacher's color design and Vince Toyama's background design. While Kline was executive producer, PBS children's series
Dragon Tales was nominated for the
Outstanding Children's Animated Program Daytime Emmy in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Kline's shows have also been nominated for Daytime Emmys in: 2007:
My Friends Tigger & Pooh 2002:
Jackie Chan Adventures;
Harold and the Purple Crayon won for Outstanding Achievement in Main Title Design;
Men in Black: The Series won for Outstanding Sound Editing Special Class 2001:
Jackie Chan Adventures,
Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles 2000:
Men in Black: The Series;
Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles won for Outstanding Sound Editing Special Class.
Jackie Chan Adventures was nominated for an
Annie Award in 2003, as was
Dragon Tales in 2000.
Harold and the Purple Crayon was nominated for a
Humanitas Prize in 2002.
Max Steel was nominated for the Annie Awards in 2000 and 2001 and for
Golden Reel Awards in 2001 and 2002.
Men in Black: The Series was nominated for a
Kids' Choice Award in 1999 and for Golden Reel Awards in 1998, 1999, and 2002.
Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles was nominated for Golden Reel Awards in 2000 and 2001. Kline's 2013 film
Jingle Bell Rocks!, for which he was an executive producer, was selected for inclusion in several film festivals, including the 2015 Cleveland International Film Festival and the Detroit Institute of Arts Cinetopia Film Festival.
Jingle Bell Rocks! was released on DVD for Record Store Day in 2014. Kline helped start the BU in L.A. industry exchange program. He received the Boston University College of Communication Distinguished Alumnae Award in 2003. In early 2009, Kline taught as an adjunct professor at BU's College of Communications. == Filmography ==