After graduating from Palo Alto High School in 1996, to overcome his shyness, James attended UCLA majoring in English and got into acting while studying, but then left after a year.
After fifteen months of intensive study at Robert Carnegie's Playhouse West, James began actively pursuing his dream of finding work as an actor in Hollywood. In that short time, he landed himself a starring role on Freaks and Geeks (1999). The show, however, was not a hit to its viewers at the time, and was canceled after its first year. Now, it has become a cult-hit. Prior to joining Freaks and Geeks (1999), Franco starred in the TV miniseries To Serve and Protect (1999). After that, he had a starring role in Whatever It Takes (2000).
Although he'd been working steadily, it wasn't until the TNT made-for-television movie, James Dean (2001) that James rose to fan-magazine fame and got to show off his talent. Since then, he has been working non-stop. After losing the lead role to Tobey Maguire, James settled for the part of "Harry Osborne", Spider-Man's best friend in the summer 2002 major hit Spider-Man (2002). He returned to the Osborne role for the next two films in the trilogy.
Definitely growing out of his shyness, James Franco is turning into a legend of his own.
| Filmography | His acting career. |
| Productions | Movies he produced. |
| Director | Projects he's a director of. |
| Writing | His published works. |
| Awards | His awards and nominations. |