Al Krulick Biography

Al was born in Queens, N.Y., to a World War II veteran and a stay-at-home mom. Both parents were liberally educated New Yorkers, with extended families throughout the city.

He grew up in a post-war, lower-middle class community and is considered part of today’s baby boom generation. He attended to public school and public college. He played in public parks and playgrounds. He has an older brother, a retired businessman, entrepreneur and newspaper publisher, and a younger sister, a retired museum curator.

Al’s journey is one with a number of interesting curves, all of which have a common theme of creativity. He began a professional theater career as a teenager. Through the years, he worked as a stage actor, director, producer, commercial and industrial film actor, children’s theatre performer, school workshop leader, puppeteer, street performer and variety entertainer – jobs that took him all over the United States and the world. He also branched out into arts administration and served as chairman of an arts council for several years while living in the Boston area.

For nearly a decade he performed at Walt Disney World’s Disney/MGM Studios as a principal performer. It was at Disney that he joined the Actors’ Equity AFL-CIO and later served as an elected shop steward for his unit. He also was on the union’s contract writing committee.

Al also taught high school drama and video production before undertaking a five-year stint as cultural arts director at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando.

In the 1980s, Al decided to try politics. He became a political operative and organizer, working as a field director, special events manager, speech writer and volunteer coordinator for local, state and national campaigns over many years. He also served as an elected delegate to several Democratic Party state conventions in two states.

Ultimately, he twice ran for U.S. Congress as the Democratic nominee from Florida’s 8th Congressional District twice. And in 2010 he ran for Lieutenant Governor of Florida on an independent gubernatorial ticket with Michael E. Arth.

Al’s professional writing career started in 1997 when he began writing theater and movie reviews for The Orlando Weekly. He also wrote bi-monthly political columns for the paper for three years and in 2002 won the Sally Latham Memorial Award from the Florida Press Association for Best Column of the Year for a weekly with a circulation over 15,000.

Al wrote as a freelancer and as a marketer for various companies in Central Florida before joining Debt.org in 2012. He is married to a public school music teacher and has two college-aged daughters. The oldest is a college athlete (a diver) and the youngest will be (softball).