Steve Franks
Steve Franks is an American screenwriter, director and musician based in Orange County, California. He is best known as the creator of the USA Network original series Psych.
Steve Franks

Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Steve Franks
- Birthplace
- United States
- Occupation
- Screenwriter, Director
- Spouse
- April McDonald
- Education
- University of California, Irvine (B.A.) Loyola Marymount University (M.A.)
- Born
- 1965 · Orange County.
- Languages
- English
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Steve Franks is an American screenwriter, director and musician based in Orange County, California. He is best known as the creator of the USA Network original series Psych.
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Steve Franks (born 1965) is an American film director, film producer and musician, among other activities. The film director was born in Orange County.
Steve Franks studied at Loyola Marymount University and University of California, Irvine. The film director lived in Orange County. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q3973335 · wikipedia · Steve Franks
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Steve Franks • Birthplace — United States • Occupation — Screenwriter, Director • Spouse — April McDonald • Education — University of California, Irvine (B.A.) Loyola Marymount University (M.A.)
Education
Education
Franks graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. He also attended a graduate program at Loyola Marymount University.
Career
Career
He devised the story for the 1999 comedy Big Daddy and wrote the screenplay with Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler. It went on to be the seventh highest-grossing film of 1999, and was Sandler's highest-grosser domestically until Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015). Franks created Psych, about a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observational skills" and impressive eidetic memory allow him to convince people that he solves cases with psychic abilities. Psych debuted on Friday, July 7, 2006. He also created the band The Friendly Indians, which recorded the show's theme song. He wrote several episodes of the series, and also directed many. Franks co-wrote and directed Psych: The Movie, a two-hour USA Network TV movie, which aired on December 7, 2017. On February 14, 2019, it was announced Psych: The Movie 2 was greenlit and all the main cast would return for the TV movie. It would be released as Psych 2: Lassie Come Home on July 15, 2020, on Peacock. Psych 3: This Is Gus was released on Peacock November 18, 2021. In 2014, it was announced Franks was to write and executive produce a pilot for Fox in collaboration with Weezer's lead singer Rivers Cuomo and former Psych writer Chris Henze called DeTour, a comedy inspired by the life of Cuomo. The show was not picked up. Franks was an executive producer and the showrunner on the CBS series Rush Hour, which was cancelled in May 2016.
Filmography (Psych)
Filmography (Psych)
• The extended "Pilot" • "Spellingg Bee" • "Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece" • "Woman Seeking Dead Husband — Smokers Okay, No Pets" • "From the Earth to the Starbucks" • "Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast" (with James Roday Rodriguez) • "American Duos" (with Rodriguez) • "65 Million Years Off" • "Black and Tan: A Crime of Fashion" (with Rodriguez) • "Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead" (Franks also directed) • "Ghosts" • "Six Feet Under the Sea" (Franks also directed) • "Tuesday the 17th" (with Rodriguez) • "Extradition: British Columbia" (Franks also directed) • "Bollywood Homicide" (with Anupam Nigam) • "A Very Juliet Episode" (with Tim Meltreger; Franks also directed) • "Think Tank" (with Andy Berman) • "The Head, the Tail, the Whole Damn Episode" (with Meltreger) • "Romeo and Juliet and Juliet" (Franks also directed) • "Extradition II: The Actual Extradition Part" (Franks also directed) • "In Plain Fright" (with Meltreger) • "Shawn Rescues Darth Vader" (Franks also directed) • "Indiana Shawn and the Temple of the Kinda Crappy, Rusty Old Dagger" (Franks also directed) • "Santabarbaratown 2" (with Bill Callahan) • "Psych: The Musical" (Franks also directed) • "Lock, Stock, Some Smoking Barrels and Burton Guster's Goblet of Fire" (with Kell Cahoon; Franks also directed) • "The Break-Up" (Franks also directed)
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Steve Franks”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q3973335: Steve Franks
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.USA Network. STEVE FRANKS, CREATOR/WRITER/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER. Psych.
- 2.Adam Sandler Movie Box Office Results. www.boxofficemojo.com.
- 3.Season 1, episode 11: "My heightened observational skills are considered a gift by many many people, but I'm here to tell you, they can be a burden."
- 4.USA Network. Psych: The Movie 2 Is Coming to USA Network Later This Year!. February 14, 2019.
- 5.Goldberg, Lesley. 'Psych' Creator Steve Franks Teaming With Weezer's Rivers Cuomo for Fox Comedy. The Hollywood Reporter. 2014-08-27.
- 6.Camp, Zoe. Weezer's Rivers Cuomo's TV Show Isn't Happening. But He Is Hosting Shakespeare Parties for Fans. Pitchfork. 2015-07-10.
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General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
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