Daniel Franzese (born May 9, 1978) is an American actor best known for his roles in the films '' Bully'' and ''

Mean Girls ''Mean Girls'' is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. It stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, and Fey. The film follows Cady Heron (Lohan), a naïve t ...

''. Franzese is the creator of several live comedy shows, including the 2011

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

''Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin' Rock Opera!'' and his one-man stand-up performance ''I've Never Really Made the Kind of Money to Become a Mess'' in 2013. After coming out as gay in 2014, Franzese became more active in the fight for civil and human rights in the

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

community; and through his portrayal of the

HIV-positive The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

character Eddie in the second season of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''

Looking Looking is the act of intentionally focusing visual perception on someone or something, for the purpose of obtaining information, and possibly to convey Interest (emotion), interest or another sentiment. A large number of Troponymy, troponyms ex ...

'', and its subsequent series finale television film, '' Looking: The Movie'', he has become a well known AIDS activist in the United States. In 2020, Franzese began hosting a weekly comedy and faith podcast, ''Yass, Jesus!'' with former

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN; legally Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN solicits donations on its Web site, a ...

host

Azariah Southworth Azariah Southworth (born May 13, 1986) is an American writer and former television presenter of ''The Remix -'' a Broadcast syndication, syndicated Reality television, reality show on the NRB Network, NRB, Trinity Broadcasting Network, TBN, JCTV, ...

Early life

Franzese was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, the son of Denise, a cafeteria worker, and Ralph "R. J." Franzese, a lounge singer. Franzese attended Piper High School in

Sunrise, Florida Sunrise is a city in central-western Broward County, Florida, Broward County, Florida, United States, and is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area. The population was 97,335 at the time of the 2020 census. History Early history In ...

from 1992 to 1996. After high school, he attended Florida School of the Arts in

Palatka, Florida Palatka () is a city in and the county seat of Putnam County, Florida, Putnam County, Florida, United States. Palatka is the principal city of the Palatka Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is home to 72,893 residents. The Palatka micropolitan ...

. He is of Italian descent.

Career

Acting

Franzese portrayed high school student Damian Leigh in the teen

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

'' (2004). ''Mean Girls'' grossed $130.1 million worldwide and has become a

cult classic A cult following is a group of Fan (person), fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some List of art media, medium. The latter is often cal ...

. In 2018, he was set to reprise his role as Damian in

Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as a pop icon and an influential figure in popular music, Grande is known for her four-octave vocal range, which extends into the whistle re ...

's music video for the song " Thank U, Next", but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. He was doing a comedy tour at the time. He has appeared in numerous feature films, including '' Bully'', '' Party Monster'', '' Bristol Boys'' and '' War of the Worlds''. He has also guest starred on several television series, including '' The Comeback'', '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', ''

Burn Notice ''Burn Notice'' is an American espionage television series created by Matt Nix, which originally aired on the USA Network for a total of seven seasons from June 28, 2007, to September 12, 2013. The show stars Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, ...

'', '' Party Down'', and the web series '' Foodies''. He had a main role in the 2010 film '' I Spit on Your Grave''. In 2015, he was cast as Eddie in

's comedy-drama television series ''

''; and in 2016, he landed the main role of Vern Testaverde in

ABC Family American cable television, cable and satellite television network Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through four different owners and six different name changes dur ...

's teen drama series '' Recovery Road''. In 2016 and early 2017, he portrayed Jackson Morrison in ABC's

legal drama Legal drama, also called courtroom drama, is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in wh ...

series ''

Conviction In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is Guilty (law), guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a ...

''. In November 2023, he appeared in a ''

''-themed Black Friday commercial for

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

alongside his original ''Mean Girls'' co-stars

Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, producer, and businesswoman. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at age three. She appeared as a regular on the soap opera ' ...

Lacey Chabert Lacey Nicole Chabert ( ; born September 30, 1982) is an American actress. One of her first roles as a child actress was the part of Bianca Montgomery, the daughter of Erica Kane, on ''All My Children'' from 1992 to 1993. She gained further pro ...

Amanda Seyfried Amanda Michelle Seyfried ( ; born December 3, 1985) is an American actress and singer. She began acting at 15, with a recurring role as Lucy Montgomery in the CBS soap opera ''As the World Turns'' (1999–2001). She came to prominence for he ...

and

Rajiv Surendra Rajiv Surendra (born 1985 or 1986) is a Canadian American actor, artist, content creator, and writer. He is known for his portrayal of high school student Kevin Gnapoor in the 2004 teen comedy film ''Mean Girls'' and for his 2016 memoir, ''The ...

. He portrayed his original ''Mean Girls'' character Damian Leigh in a second commercial for Walmart titled "Cady's Wednesday", released on November 15, 2023.

Comedy

Franzese has written, directed and performed several live comedy productions, including his one-man

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

show, ''I've Never Really Made the Kind of Money to Become a Mess'', which premiered in New York in 2013 at The Players Theater, and his 2011 rock opera ''Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin Rock Opera!'', which also premiered in New York at The Fringe Festival before its run in Los Angeles at the Hayworth Theatre. Franzese is also an emerging stand-up comedian, and has performed on stages across America at clubs like Stand Up Live in Phoenix and the Comedy Store in Hollywood. Franzese has been a guest panelist on the Logo TV comedy game show ''Gay for Play Starring RuPaul'' and was the host of ''Gay Skit Happens'', a comedy sketch show, also on Logo TV. Franzese's stand-up comedy tour, ''Yass You're Amazing!'', found success at colleges, clubs and theaters. He has also headlined The Burbank Comedy Festival, The Ruby LA Queer Comedy Festival. In 2019, Franzese performed his hit New York comedy show ''Danny Franzese and The House Of Glen Coco'' at SF Sketchfest featuring his pick of the best and brightest in queer comedy.

Personal life

Daniel Franzese at LA DragCon 2022 by dvsross

In 2016, Franzese proposed to his boyfriend of two years, stylist Joseph Bradley Phillips, at a

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood and district in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, El Portal Theater, several art galleries, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Th ...

. They called off their engagement in July 2018.

Activism

After penning a

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

letter to his ''Mean Girls'' character Damian in 2014, in which the actor spoke of his admiration for the courage Damian displayed as an openly gay teenager and referring to him as an icon for gay youth, Franzese became an influential voice in the LGBTQ community. When he became an official ambassador for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, organizations such as

GLAAD GLAAD () is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization. Originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals in the media and entertainment industries, it has since ...

invited Franzese to host their 2015 gala in San Francisco. He also presented the GLAAD playbook on HIV and AIDS to MSNBC on behalf of the organization. His reputation as an activist grew after he was awarded the role of Eddie, an HIV-positive activist for a non-profit organization, in the HBO series ''Looking''. During his time on the series, Franzese used his celebrity to promote messages of acceptance and understanding for people living with HIV at special events, through media appearances, and a speeches at college campuses, including the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

in April 2016. Franzese is also an ambassador for LAMBDA Legal, which is dedicated to decreasing the stigma associated with people living with HIV, and changing current HIV-related laws. In September 2019, Franzese was an ambassador and the host for the AIDS Walk Atlanta & 5K Run, a fundraising and awareness campaign that raises funds to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to provide critical social services and healthcare for people living with HIV. He was also the captain of his team for the event: Team Glen Coco. In addition to his advocacy on behalf of HIV patients, on March 22, 2019, Franzese partnered with Lonely Whale and Bacardi in their efforts to stop pollution of the oceans with discarded plastic. They generated #thefuturedoesntsuck campaign to persuade the Unicode Consortium to remove all single-use plastic straws, which endanger marine wildlife, from drink icons in its emoji catalog.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Franzese, Daniel 1978 births 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American male actors American gay actors American LGBTQ comedians American male comedians American male film actors American male stage actors American male television actors American people of Italian descent Comedians from Brooklyn Comedians from Florida Gay comedians LGBTQ people from Florida LGBTQ people from New York (state) Living people Male actors from Brooklyn Male actors from Florida People from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn Piper High School (Florida) alumni