David John Franco (born June 12, 1985) is an American actor. He began his career with small roles in films such as Superbad (2007) and Charlie St. Cloud (2010). Following a starring role in the ninth season of the comedy series Scrubs, Franco had his film breakthrough as a supporting role in the buddy comedy film 21 Jump Street (2012).
Franco has had starring roles in the films Fright Night (2011), Now You See Me (2013) and its sequel Now You See Me 2 (2016), Warm Bodies (2013), Neighbors (2014) and its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), Nerve (2016), The Little Hours (2017), The Disaster Artist (2017), The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017), and If Beale Street Could Talk (2018).
Franco was born in Palo Alto, California, to Betsy Lou (née Verne), a poet, author, and editor, and Douglas Eugene Franco (1948–2011), who ran a Silicon Valley business; the two met as students at Stanford University. Franco's father was of Portuguese (from Madeira) and Swedish descent. Franco's mother is Jewish (of Russian-Jewish descent); her parents had changed the surname from "Verovitz" to "Verne". Dave has stated that he is "proud" to be Jewish, which is his mother's faith and the way she raised her boys. Franco's paternal grandmother, Marjorie (Peterson) Franco, is a published author of young adult books. Franco's maternal grandmother, Mitzie (Levine) Verne, owned the Verne Art Gallery, a prominent art gallery in Cleveland, and was an active member in the National Council of Jewish Women. Franco grew up in California with his two older brothers, Tom and James.