| Tom Franco | |
| Birth Name: | Thomas Andrew Franco |
| Birth Date: | 14 April 1980 |
| Birth Place: | Palo Alto, California, U.S. |
| Education: | Palo Alto High School |
| Alma Mater: | University of California, Santa Cruz California College of the Arts |
| Occupation: | Artist, actor |
| Years Active: | 1990–present |
| Relatives: | James Franco (brother) Dave Franco (brother) |
| Spouse: | |
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 in Palo Alto, California. His mother, Betsy Lou (née Verne), is a writer and occasional actress. His father, Douglas Eugene Franco (died 2011), ran a Silicon Valley business,[4] [5] and was a "philanthropic entrepreneur". Franco's father was of Portuguese (Madeiran) and Swedish descent.[6] Franco's mother is from a family of Russian Jewish ancestry; her parents had changed the surname from "Verovitz" to "Verne."[7] 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.
Franco is a graduate of Palo Alto High School, class of 1998. He graduated in 2002 from University of California, Santa Cruz majoring in fine art,[8] then attended California College of the Arts in Oakland, California, majoring in ceramics.
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).[9] He had a small role in The Disaster Artist (2017), in which his brothers played the lead roles.
Franco is the founder and co-director of Berkeley's Firehouse Art Collective.[10] He shared directorship with his wife Julia Lazar Franco who died in 2014.[11]
Franco's first wife, Julia Lazar, worked closely with him. Her death was a result of liver failure (brought on by hepatitis C and liver cancer)[12] and kidney trouble. The two were married in a hospital solarium about a month before her death.[13] In 2021, Franco married Iris Torres, a film producer.