a student at University of Southern California as an intern at Overbrook Entertainment, working for Will Smith and James Lassiter. Upon graduation from USC, Franklin accepted a full-time position at Overbrook. Following this, he worked in Tracey Edmonds’ company Edmonds Entertainment as a junior executive. Studio positions Franklin made the transition into Hollywood’s studio system in 2003 when he took up a creative executive position at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In his book, Produced by Faith, Franklin describes his time at MGM as critical in reaffirming his passion for filmmaking thanks to the creative input his new role afforded him in helping contribute to projects like John Travolta's 2005 crime-comedy Be Cool. "Following my policy of trying to add value and contribute wherever possible, I managed to make an impact despite being the lowest man on the corporate ladder." His time at MGM, however, would be short-lived. In 2005, following months of rumors, Sony Pictures Entertainment bought out MGM. Following the sale, Franklin was offered a position and brought on as a Director of Development at Sony's Columbia Pictures. In his new role at Columbia, Franklin would oversee a number of the studio's hit films, like The Pursuit of Happyness, Hancock and Seven Pounds. Not only would his work on these projects lead to his eventual promotion to VP at Columbia, but they would also be a full circle moment of sorts for Franklin, who would collaborate with his former boss and mentor from Overbrook Entertainment, Will Smith, in making these movies. In an interview with Millennial Magazine, Franklin discussed how The Pursuit of Happyness showed him what was possible for his work within Hollywood and so drove him to make films that trigger audiences to go after something. He explained: “I want people’s hearts to be touched, their lives to be touched, and I want the evidence of that to show up at the box office.” During his time as VP at Columbia Pictures, Franklin supervised a variety of films. He helped produce The Pink Panther 2, the faith-based film Not Easily Broken, The Ugly Truth, and Whitney Houston's Sparkle (released in 2012). Not only did he champion box-office hits like The Karate Kid and Jumping the Broom, he was also recognized as one of the youngest and most influential executives under 35 years of age by The Hollywood Reporter. And he was given the title of a Top 10 Industry Impact