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Al Franken

Al Franken’s career has rarely kept comedy, performance and politics in separate lanes. Born in Manhattan on May 21, 1951, he moved with his family to Minnesota at the age of four, first to Albert Lea and later to St. Louis Park. That Minnesota upbringing became the setting for his earliest work as a performer: while still in high school, Franken began developing comedy with his longtime friend and writing partner Tom Davis. The pair performed political satire at Minneapolis’s Brave New Workshop theater. Franken studied political science at Harvard College, graduating cum laude in 1973. As a student, he continued writing comedy and looked to Dick Gregory and Lenny Bruce, admiring the way they could take on hypocrisy and corruption while still making an audience laugh. It is a useful key to the shape of Franken’s own career, which has moved through writing, television, film, radio, journalism and public office without losing its interest in the overlap between humor and political argument. As a screen performer, Franken is part of a wider body of work rather than a conventional actor’s filmography. His experience as a comedian, screenwriter, television producer and radio personality has given his appearances a distinctly public-facing context, with performance and commentary often sitting close together. After leaving the Senate, Franken returned to broadcasting in May 2019 with The Al Franken Podcast. He also took a non-comedic podium show on tour, followed by the solo production The Only Former US Senator Currently on Tour Tour, which continued into 2022. In March 2023, he guest-hosted The Daily Show following Trevor Noah’s departure. In 2025, Franken returned to acting after 27 years in Netflix’s comedy mystery The Residence. Appropriately for a performer whose screen career has always been entangled with politics, he plays a U.S. senator.