Wondering if James Franco is from Canada, eh?
While James Franco is from North America, he is not Canadian. The actor and director was actually born in Palo Alto, California, USA.
Born to an eclectic and artistic family, James Franco was raised in California and has spent most of his life there. Interestingly, while he’s not from Canada, there is someone from Canada who looks quite a lot like James Franco.
James Franco’s Life in California
James Edward Franco came into the world on April 19, 1978. He was born in Palo Alto, California and spent much of his early life there. He attended Palo Alto High School and didn’t leave that city until he was 18.
After graduating high school, James Franco moved to LA so that he could attend UCLA for college. He studied in English and drama, and took a great interest in the latter. Eventually deciding to drop out of college and focus on his true passion, Franco dropped out his freshman year to try to become an actor.
He turned his acting dreams into reality in 1997 when he landed his first acting gig on the crime show Pacific Blue.
James continued to act and study throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. He studied with a drama coach at the acting theater Playhouse West, which was located in North Hollywood.
Heading back to UCLA, James Franco re-enrolled in 2006 to pursue a creative writing major. He continued to act while studying and completed the degree in just two years (and graduated with a very impressive GPA).
James Franco would continue to live in California for most of his adult life. It wasn’t until 2008 that he decided to move to New York City when he enrolled at Columbia University. He took a variety of classes during this period. While studying a Master of Fine Arts degree he also took filming courses, fiction writing courses, and studied poetry, too.
In 2010, James Franco was accepted to Yale University for a Ph.D. Shortly after that he was also accepted into the Rhode Island School of Design’s literature and creative writing program.
The actor has moved around quite a bit (mostly in California) and the public is unsure of where he’s currently living. What we do know is that in early 2020, a house he used to live in was sold for nearly $5 million.
Franco Ancestry
It appears that none of James Franco’s close relatives are Canadian either. On his father’s side is Portuguese and Sweedish ancestry. And for his mother, she’s of Russian-Jewish descent.
His Canadian Doppelganger
What is interesting when it comes to rumors about James Franco being Canadian is the fact that he does appear to have a Canadian doppelganger!
In 2013, the world discovered that a Canadian actor by the name of Tommy James Murphy was the spitting image of James Franco.
Rumor had it that the actor was actually impersonating James Franco at a few of the parties that followed the Toronto International Film Festival. Based on the photos we’ve seen of Tommy, we’re not surprised that he was able to pull this off so well. The two really do look identical!
In fact, this has also caused Franco fans to wonder if the two are related. It turns out that “James Fake-o” is not related, but he has been confused for the real James Franco on several occasions.
Once, while visiting Hollywood,Tommy was swarmed by fans who thought that they had caught a glimpse of James Franco. Another time, he was photographed by hundreds of people in a Toronto shopping mall.
We now know that James Franco was born in California, USA and has spent most of his life in the American state. We also know that he has a Canadian lookalike—who is ironically also an actor!