Tom Franco | |
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![]() Franco in 2016 | |
Born | Thomas Andrew Franco April 14, 1980 Palo Alto, California, U.S. |
Education | University of California, Santa Cruz (BFA) California College of the Arts |
Occupation(s) | Artist, actor |
Years active | 1990–present |
Spouses | Julia Lazar (m. 2014;died 2014)Iris Torres (m. 2021) |
Children | 1 |
Relatives | James Franco (brother) Dave Franco (brother) Alison Brie (sister-in-law) |
Thomas Andrew Franco (born April 14, 1980) is an American actor, [1] artist, and the founder of the Firehouse Art Collective in Berkeley, California. [2] He is the brother of actors James Franco and Dave Franco. [3]
Franco was born Thomas Andrew Franco on April 14, 1980, in Palo Alto, California. His mother, Betsy Lou ( née Verne; born 1947), is a writer and occasional actor.[ citation needed ] His father, Douglas Eugene Franco (1948–2011), ran a Silicon Valley business, [4] [5] and was a "philanthropic entrepreneur". [6] Franco's father was of Portuguese (Madeiran) and Swedish descent. [7] Franco's mother is from a family of Russian Jewish ancestry; her parents had changed the surname from "Verovitz" to "Verne." [8] Tom is the middle child of three brothers; the older is actor, director, writer, and artist James Franco and the younger is actor and director Dave Franco. They were raised in Palo Alto. [6]
Franco is a graduate of Palo Alto High School, class of 1998. [9] He graduated in 2002 from University of California, Santa Cruz majoring in fine art, [9] then attended California College of the Arts in Oakland, California, majoring in ceramics. [6]
Franco started acting professionally with his role as Frog Boy in the comedy horror film Basket Case 2 (1990). He subsequently appeared in A Peace of History (2005) and The Devil Wears a Toupee (2007). [10] He had a small role in The Disaster Artist (2017), as a crew member on The Room , in which his brothers played the lead roles (James as Tommy Wiseau and Dave as Greg Sestero).
Franco is the founder and co-director of Berkeley's Firehouse Art Collective. [6] He shared directorship with his wife Julia Lazar Franco, who died in 2014. [11]
Franco's first wife, Julia Lazar, worked closely with him. [12] They married in a private ceremony on July 28, 2014 and she died one month later. [13] [14] Her death was a result of liver failure (brought on by hepatitis C and liver cancer) [15] and kidney trouble. The two were married in a hospital solarium about a month before her death. [16] On May 14, 2021, Franco married film producer Iris Torres. [17] [18] On February 25, 2023, Franco and Torres revealed they were expecting their first child. [19] [20] Their son, Lennon Jnaneshwar Franco, was born on May 4, 2023. [21] [22]