Will Franken was born in Sedalia, Missouri. He has a degree in literature from Southwest Missouri State University.

He started performing comedy in the early 2000s in San Francisco, before moving to London in 2013.

His debut one-man show, 'Good Luck With It' was reviewed in The New York Times in 2005, Jason Zinoman wrote: "What elevates Mr. Franken above your garden-variety comedian is an erudite wit and a highly developed sense of the absurd."

Zinoman went on to say in summing up Franken's satire: "What is constant is a disgust with the mediocrity of contemporary culture, suburban living, and the hypocrisy of well-meaning liberals."

Franken was awarded "Best Comedian" of 2005 by the SF Weekly.

The New York Times praised his "erudite wit and the kind of highly developed sense of the absurd".

The SF Weekly awarded him "Best Comedian" and a few weeks later, the SF Bay Guardian gave him the award for "Best Alternative to Psychedelic Drugs." This same year he also received his first national press from both the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. A review of his 2012 Edinburgh fringe show praised the "vivacity of his characterisations" and wrote that he "baffles conventional thinking".

Press & Quotes:

"Will Franken is a master of delusion, an id unchained"
ROBIN WILLIAMS

"What elevates Mr. Franken above your garden-variety comedian is an erudite wit and a highly developed sense of the absurd."
THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Imagine a surreal-estate agent guiding you through some Escher-like architectural marvel, where each room is its own deeply funny, satirical dream, every passageway a verbal wormhole, and in the corner a shaggy high priest of nothing's-sacredness is fiddling with a bunch of knobs on what looks like an espresso maker. Suddenly you wake up and remember that the lanky comedic heavy-lifter who put the abs on absurdity with last year's Good Luck with It returns to the Marsh for a one-off.... The moral? Existence may be fleeting, but Franken is not to be missed.”
SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN

"The darkness of Franken's imagination is like Chris Morris ... you can't take your eyes off these inspired outpourings"
THE GUARDIAN

'Absorbing, silly, and perfectly paced ... a stonkingly good performer'
METRO

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