Senator Al Franken was born on May 21, 1951, and grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. He graduated from Harvard in 1973, where he met his wife Franni. They've been married for 34 years, and have two children: daughter Thomasin, 29, and son Joe, 25.

Before running for the Senate, Al spent 37 years as a comedy writer, author, and radio talk show host and has taken part in seven USO tours, visiting our troops overseas in Germany, Bosnia, Kosovo and Uzbekistan - as well as visiting Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait four times.

In 2008, Al was elected to the Senate as a member of the DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) Party from Minnesota, and was sworn in July of 2009 following a statewide hand recount. He currently sits on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee; the Judiciary Committee; the Committee on Indian Affairs, and the Special Committee on Aging.

Since being sworn in, Al has worked with his colleagues in the Senate to improve the lives of Minnesotans. Almost immediately, he introduced legislation providing disabled veterans with service dogs, working with Republican Sens. Johnny Isakson, John Ensign and Lindsey Graham. Shortly after he secured $2 million to begin providing these services. He has also worked to protect the rights of thousands of employees of defense contractors and with Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe to ensure that women in the military have the same access to emergency contraception that their civilian counterparts do. During the debate on health care reform, Al fought successfully to limit profits, administration and marketing costs in the health insurance industry and, with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, he secured funding for diabetes prevention. More recently, he has fought to end conflicts of interest in credit ratings, a key piece of Wall Street Reform.

Learn more about the Committees and Sub-Committees on which Al serves