Franklin Leonard

Franklin Leonard is an American film producer. He created the Black List in 2004, an annual publication that ranks unproduced screenplays. He served as a development executive for Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment from 2010 to 2012, having previously served as Director of Development and Production at Universal Pictures from 2008 to 2010. In 2012, he began serving as an advisor for BoomGen Studios, as well as for Plympton, Inc. the following year. In 2017, he began serving as a board member for the art education non-profit Young Storytellers.

Career Franklin graduated from Harvard University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in social studies. He then began his career as the communications director for John Cranley's campaign for the United States House of Representatives in Ohio's first district. He went on to work as a columnist for the Trinidad Guardian, as an analyst for McKinsey & Company, and as an assistant for Creative Artists Agency. forwarding a spreadsheet to seventy-five fellow producers to collect the names of well-known but unproduced screenplays. Soon successful, The Black List was adapted into a website and has provided over two hundred screenplays which later became feature films. He currently serves on the board of directors for Young Storytellers, an arts education nonprofit organization.