Franklin Leonard
Founder, The Black List
Franklin Leonard is the founder of the Black List, the yearly publication highlighting Hollywood’s most popular unproduced screenplays and the startup birthed to continue its mission. Over 250 Black List scripts have been produced as feature films earning more than 140 Academy Award nominations including three of the last five Best Pictures and seven of the last twelve screenwriting Oscars. Franklin has worked in development at Universal Pictures and the production companies of Will Smith, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, Leonardo DiCaprio, and John Goldwyn. Before Los Angeles and all things film related, Franklin was - at different times - a business analyst at McKinsey & Co., a weekly columnist for the Trinidad Guardian in Port-au-Spain, Trinidad, and the communications director for John Cranley's 2000 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in Ohio's first district. Since 2010, he has been named one of Hollywood Reporter’s 30 Under 30, Black Enterprise magazine’s “40 Emerging Leaders for Our Future,” AOL Black Voices “30 Black Hollywood Game Changers” and Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business.”
