James Franco

James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is a Golden Globe-winning American actor, director, screenwriter, film producer, and artist.

Franco was born in Palo Alto, California, the son of Betsy, a poet, author and editor, and Doug Franco. His maternal grandmother, Mitzi Levine Verne, runs the Verne Art Gallery, a prominent art gallery in Cleveland, Ohio. Franco's father is of Portuguese and Swedish descent and Franco's mother is Jewish, a descendant of immigrants from Russia.

Franco grew up in California with his two younger brothers, Tom and Dave, and graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996, where he was elected by his senior class as the student with the "best smile". He then enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as an English major, and studied acting. He dropped out after his freshman year and chose to pursue a professional career as an actor, taking acting lessons with Robert Carnegie at Playhouse West.

After fifteen months of training, he began auditioning in Los Angeles, California, and got his first break in 1999, after he was cast in a leading role on the short-lived but well-reviewed television series Freaks and Geeks. Franco has since described the series as "one of the most fun" work experiences that he has had. Franco's first major film was the romantic comedy Whatever It Takes, where he met his co-star, now ex-girlfriend Marla Sokoloff. Franco was originally considered for the lead role of Spider-Man/Peter Parker in the film version of Spider-Man, but was instead cast in the supporting role of Harry Osborn, the son of the villainous Green Goblin. The success of the Spider-Man film led him to reprise the role in two sequels, Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3.

Franco has been signed to star opposite Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and Emile Hirsch in Gus Van Sant's upcoming Harvey Milk bio-pic Milk. On September 20, 2008, James hosted Saturday Night Live.

In 2008, Franco received his undergraduate degree in English from UCLA. He moved to New York to attend graduate school at Columbia University's MFA Writing Program and New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts.

Franco has also starred in a number of humorous viral videos. One such video purports to show the actor being fired from the 2007 film Knocked Up, which was directed by Judd Apatow. He also hosts a satirical series of acting lessons, Acting with James Franco, also featured on the website. In October 2008, Franco starred in a viral comedy video that appears to be a parody of a Hollywood tribute.

Art painting in particular is a talent Franco developed during his high school years while attending a rigorous summer school for the arts, California State Summer School for the Arts. Franco has said that painting was the "outlet" he needed in high school, and that he "has actually been painting longer than he has been acting." His paintings were displayed publicly for the first time at the Glü Gallery in Los Angeles, California from January 7, 2006 through February 11, 2006. Franco can also be seen painting in a scene in Spider-Man 3.