Tom Franco

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, and was a "philanthropic entrepreneur". Franco's father was of Portuguese (Madeiran) and Swedish descent. Franco's mother is from a family of Russian Jewish ancestry; her parents had changed the surname from "Verovitz" to "Verne." 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, 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). 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. He shared directorship with his wife Julia Lazar Franco who died in 2014.