Franklin Leonard is an American

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

best known for founding The Black List, a yearly publication featuring Hollywood's most popular unproduced screenplays. After working as a development executive for

Overbrook Entertainment Overbrook Entertainment is an American production company based in Culver City, California. It was founded by partners Will Smith and James Lassiter in 1998, around the same time production for ''Wild Wild West'' (1999) was started. The name "Ov ...

and

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

, Leonard is currently an adviser to BoomGen Studios and

Plympton Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down river to Plym ...

. Leonard serves on the board of directors for

Young Storytellers Young Storytellers, formerly widely known as the Young Storytellers Foundation, is an arts education non-profit operating primarily in Los Angeles. Young Storytellers currently serves elementary, middle, and high school students in Southern Califor ...

Career

After graduating magna cum laude from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 2000 in Social Studies, Leonard began his career as the Communications Director for

John Cranley John Joseph Cranley (born February 28, 1974) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 69th Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio from 2013 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a member of the Cincinnati City Council and a partner o ...

's campaign for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

in Ohio's first district. He went on to work as a columnist for the ''

Trinidad Guardian The ''Trinidad and Tobago Guardian'' (together with the ''Sunday Guardian'') is the oldest daily newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago. The paper is considered the newspaper of record for Trinidad and Tobago. History Its first edition was published ...

'', an analyst for

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

, and an assistant for

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 emplo ...

. Beginning in 2004, Leonard worked as a development executive for John Goldwyn Productions, Appian Way Productions, and Mirage Entertainment. While working at Appian Way in 2005, he came up with the concept behind "The Black List," forwarding a spreadsheet to seventy five fellow producers to collect the names of well-known but unproduced screenplays. After becoming an instant success, The Black List was adapted into a website and has provided over two hundred screenplays which later became feature films. Leonard went on to become one of the youngest executives at Universal Pictures, serving as Director of Development and Production. Two years later, he was Vice President of Creative Affairs at

Will Smith Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his Will Smith filmography, acting career starring as Will Smith (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), a ...

's production company, Overbrook Entertainment. Leonard shared the title with Smith's brother-in-law Caleeb Pinkett, and later left the company after two years. Besides his full-time work on The Black List, Leonard is currently an adviser to Plympton, a literary studio that specializes in serialized fiction, and BoomGen Studios, where he assisted in developing the

transmedia Transmedia storytelling (also known as transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling) is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies. From a producti ...

graphic novel ''1001''. He is also a Judge on the Afrinolly Short Film Competition; Africa's most prestigious Short Film Competition with a $25,000 first place cash prize to winners. He currently serves on the board of directors for

, an arts education nonprofit organization. Franklin is also an executive producer of the film "Come as you Are", distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

References

External links

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Franklin Leonard
interview with Scripts & Scribes. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Franklin American film producers Living people Harvard University alumni African-American film producers African-American businesspeople Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American people Vanity Fair (magazine) people