Carl Franklin is an accomplished filmmaker and television director. After studying history and dramatic arts at UC Berkeley, Franklin spent several years working as an actor both on the New York stage and in series television before returning to school to study filmmaking at the American Film Institute. 

Armed with his experience in front of the camera, Franklin successfully transitioned behind it with his 1992 breakthrough independent feature One False Move. Named the #1 and #2 film of the year by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert respectively, the film garnered major critical acclaim and Franklin earned several awards, including Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards, Best New Filmmaker at the MTV Movie Awards, and the New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Carl quickly diversified his resume with the award-winning HBO miniseries Laurel Avenue.  More critical success came with Carl’s follow-up film, the moody neo-noir Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) starring Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle.  He next went on to direct Renée Zellweger, William Hurt, and Meryl Streep in her Academy Award-nominated performance in One True Thing (1998). Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman starred in his thriller High Crimes (2002), and he teamed up again with Denzel Washington, along with Eva Mendes and Sanaa Lathan, for the quirky caper Out of Time (2003). Shot on location in New Mexico, Carl’s indie film Bless Me, Ultima (2012) brought Rudolfo Anaya’s classic Latino coming-of-age tale to the screen.

Carl has also built a remarkable body of work in streaming and prestige TV, directing projects as diverse as HBO’S The Pacific, Rome, The Newsroom, and The Leftovers. His work on the game-changing Netflix streamer House of Cards was nominated for an Emmy and won an NAACP Award for Directing. He took home the NAACP Award for his directing on Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and was again nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his work on the sensational Netflix series Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Carl is up for another NAACP Award this season for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Currently, Carl is writing a new neo-noir series set in Paris, developing a limited series at Netflix on the Black Panther Party, and working on a documentary focused on ancient Nile Civilization.