[20] In November 2023, he appeared in a Mean Girls-themed Black Friday commercial for Walmart alongside his original Mean Girls co-stars Lindsay Lohan, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyfried and Rajiv Surendra.

[22] Franzese has written, directed and performed several live comedy productions, including his one-man Off-Broadway 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,[23][24] and his 2011 rock opera Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin Rock Opera!, which also premiered in New York at The Fringe Festival[25][26] before its run in Los Angeles at the Hayworth Theatre.

[27] 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.

[39][40] When he became an official ambassador for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, organizations such as GLAAD invited Franzese to host their 2015 gala in San Francisco.

During his time on the series, Franzese used his celebrity to promote messages of acceptance and understanding for people living with HIV[43][44] at special events, through media appearances, and a speeches at college campuses, including the University of Wisconsin in April 2016.

[47][44] In September 2019, Franzese was an ambassador and the host for the AIDS Walk Atlanta & 5K Run,[48] 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.

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.