Al Franken

Franken was born in New York City to Joseph Philip Franken (1908–1993), a printing salesman, and Phoebe Geraldine Franken (née Kunst) (1918–2003), a real estate agent.

His paternal grandparents emigrated from Germany; his maternal grandfather came from Grodno, Russian Empire; and his maternal grandmother's parents were also from the Russian Empire.

Phoebe was from Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Both of his parents were Jews, and Franken was raised in a Reform Jewish home and attended Temple Israel in Minneapolis.

He has an older brother, Owen (b. circa 1946), who is a photojournalist, and his cousin Bob is a journalist for MSNBC.

The Frankens moved to Albert Lea, Minnesota, when Al was four years old.

His father opened a quilting factory, but it failed after two years.

The family then moved to St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis.

Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American politician, comedian, writer, actor, and media personality who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018.

Franken first gained fame as a writer and performer on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where he worked for three stints.

Franken graduated from The Blake School in 1969, where he was a member of the wrestling team.

Franken says that he scored 800 (out of 800) on the math section of his SATs and 662 on the verbal section.

He attended Harvard College, where he majored in political science, graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1973.

As a student, Franken wrote comedy and idolized comedians Dick Gregory and Lenny Bruce because they did acts about hypocrisy and corruption while making the audience laugh.

Franken began performing in high school, where he and his longtime friend and writing partner Tom Davis were known for their comedy.

The duo first performed on stage at Minneapolis's Brave New Workshop theater specializing in political satire.

They soon found themselves in what was described as "a life of near-total failure on the fringes of show business in Los Angeles".

He first served as a writer for the show from 1975 to 1980, and returned from 1985 to 1995 as a writer and, briefly, a cast member.

After decades as an entertainer, he became a prominent liberal political activist, hosting The Al Franken Show on Air America Radio.

Franken and Tom Davis were recruited as two of the original writers and occasional performers on Saturday Night Live (SNL) (1975–1980, 1985–1995).

In SNL's first season, the two apprentice writers shared a salary of $350 per week.

Franken received 15 Emmy nominations and five Emmy awards for his television writing and producing, while creating such characters as self-help guru Stuart Smalley.

As a result of this sketch, Silverman declined Lorne Michaels's recommendation for Franken to succeed him as the producer, and Franken left the show when Michaels did, at the end of the 1979–1980 season.

Another routine proclaimed the 1980s the Al Franken Decade.

Franken returned to the show in 1985 as a writer and occasional performer.

He has acknowledged using cocaine and other illegal drugs while working in television and stated that he stopped after John Belushi died of an overdose.

Franken and Davis wrote the script of the 1986 comedy film One More Saturday Night, appearing in it as rock singers in a band called Bad Mouth.

They also had minor roles in All You Need Is Cash and the film Trading Places, starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd.

On Weekend Update near the end of Season 5, Franken delivered a commentary called "A Limo for a Lame-O".

He mocked controversial NBC president Fred Silverman as "a total unequivocal failure" and displayed a chart showing the poor ratings of NBC programs.

In 1995, Franken left the show in protest over losing the role of Weekend Update anchor to Norm Macdonald.

In 1995, Franken wrote and starred in the film Stuart Saves His Family which was based on his SNL character Stuart Smalley.

The film was a critical and commercial failure and Franken later became depressed as a result.

Despite its aggregate rating of 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film received favorable reviews from The Washington Post and Gene Siskel.

Franken is the author of four books that made The New York Times Best Seller list.

Franken was elected to the United States Senate in 2008 as the nominee of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL, an affiliate of the Democratic Party), defeating incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman by 312 votes out of nearly three million cast (a margin of just over 0.01%) in one of the closest elections in the history of the Senate.

He was reelected in 2014 with 53.2% of the vote over Republican challenger Mike McFadden.

Franken resigned on January 2, 2018, after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him.

In September 2019, Franken announced he would be hosting The Al Franken Show on Saturday mornings on SiriusXM radio.

It covers global affairs, politics, and entertainment.