Franco was born Thomas Andrew Franco on April 14, 1980, in
Palo Alto, California. His mother, Betsy Lou (
née Verne; born 1947), is a writer and occasional actor. His father, Douglas Eugene Franco (1948–2011), ran a
Silicon Valley business, and was a "philanthropic entrepreneur". Franco's mother is from a family of
Russian Jewish ancestry; her parents had changed the surname from "Verovitz" to "Verne." Tom was born the second of their three boys and 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. then attended
California College of the Arts in
Oakland, California, majoring in ceramics. ==Career==