James Franco

James Franco
Franco at a ceremony to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in March 2013
Born	James Edward Franco (1978-04-19) April 19, 1978 (age 38) Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles Columbia University New York University Brooklyn College Warren Wilson College Yale University Rhode Island School of Design
Occupation	Actor, filmmaker
Years active	1997–present
Family	Dave Franco (brother) Tom Franco (brother)

James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. His first prominent acting role was the lead character Daniel Desario on the short-lived cult hit television program Freaks and Geeks. He later played the title character in the TV biographical film James Dean (2001), for which he won a Golden Globe Award. For his role in 127 Hours (2010), Franco was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He is also known for his roles in Spider-Man, Pineapple Express (2008), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Spring Breakers (2012), Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and King Cobra (2016) and other films, as well as TV roles in General Hospital and 11.22.63. In 2014, he made his Broadway debut in Of Mice and Men.

Franco volunteers for the Art of Elysium charity, and has also taught film classes at New York University, the University of Southern California, UCLA, Studio 4, and Palo Alto High School.

Franco was born in Palo Alto, California. His mother, Betsy Lou (née Verne), is a writer and occasional actress, and his father, Douglas Eugene "Doug" Franco (d. 2011), ran a Silicon Valley business. The two met as students at Stanford University. Franco's father was of Portuguese (Madeiran) and Swedish descent. Franco's mother is Jewish; her family were Russian Jewish immigrants, and her father, Daniel, had changed the family surname from "Verovitz" to "Verne" some time after 1940. Franco's paternal grandmother, Marjorie (Peterson) Franco, is a published author of young adult books. Franco's maternal grandmother, Mitzie (Levine) Verne, owned the Verne Art Gallery, a prominent art gallery in Cleveland, and was an active member in the National Council of Jewish Women.