Meet James Franco’s longtime girlfriend, actress Izabel Pakzad, after couple makes rare appearance

Izabel started directing after starring in the 2020 film, Birds of Prey, alongside Margot Robbie. She directed a short thriller, Don’t Worry, It’s Gonna Be Ok in 2022, showing the film at many festivals including the L.A. Film Festival, where it won “best short film.”

But the director wanted more. She created Find Your Friends, a thriller that follows a group of friends on a trip to Joshua Tree who face hostility from locals, per Deadline. “This is truly my biggest dream come true. I’ve put my heart & soul into this film for the past six years, fighting everyday to get it made. Something crazy happened to me in the desert a few years ago which inspired me to write this film and run wild with it. Making this movie has truly been the best experience of my life,” Izabel wrote to Instagram.

When James was a fresh faced 39-year-old, he started dating Izabel, when she was 21-years-old. The actor inadvertently confirmed their relationship to Variety as he shared the personal growth he’s seen in himself while they were dating.

“There was one instance,” James explained. “This old girlfriend was visiting me in New York. I had come out here for school. My cat had scratched her in the eye. I had so much work to get done for the next day, I didn’t take her to the hospital. I had my assistant take her.”

He went on: “That moment haunted me so much. What kind of selfish, self-centered boyfriend are you?”

Just after the couple began dating, James was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by five women in an article written by the Los Angeles Times. The actor’s attorney, Michael Plonsker, denied the women’s allegations to the Times, citing comments James made during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as his formal denial.

A year later, two of James’ former acting students filed a sexual misconduct lawsuit against him. Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal claimed he and his business partners “engaged in widespread inappropriate and sexually charged behavior towards female students by sexualizing their power as a teacher and an employer by dangling the opportunity for roles in their projects,” according to court documents obtained by People.

James stayed out of the Hollywood spotlight for sometime, but during an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Podcast podcast in 2022, he said: “There were people that were upset with me and I needed to listen.” He continued: “I would be willing to bet that [the situation] was very hard for [Izabel, but] she’s incredible. I’m so lucky that I found her.”

While the couple has made more and more appearances on red carpets, they are very private when it comes to their relationship. Izabel has an active social media presence, with 104k followers on Instagram, but she doesn’t share photos of James. 

Her boyfriend deleted Instagram years ago. “It’s very liberating,” James told Variety in 2017. “I just got rid of it. When I first got on, it just felt silly. I treated it like it was a joke. You get in that weird seductive space where it feels private, but it’s also public. And you get hooked on the reaction.”

The director shares her travels to Instagram, showing off trips to the Amalfi Coast, Rome, the Netherlands, and London. In August of last year, James’ cousin Betsy shared photos of her and the couple, along with James’ brother Dave and his wife Alison Brie, at a wedding in Croatia.