Barack Obama, 47 was raised by his mother and grandparents in Hawaii, Indonesia and New York. He graduated from Columbia University in 1983 and before going on to Harvard Law school he worked as a community organizer at a church-based organization in Chicago. At Harvard, he was the first African American president of the Law Review. After graduation in 1991, he returned to Chicago and practiced civil rights and constitutional law. Obama served eight years in the Illinois State Senate and was elected in 2004 to the U.S. Senate.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, have two children.