Phil Bredesen (born Philip Norman Bredesen, Jr. on November 21, 1943) is the 48th Governor of Tennessee and a Democrat, first elected in 2002. He previously served as the fourth mayor of Nashville and Davidson County from 1991 to 1999.

Bredesen was born in Oceanport, New Jersey. His parents were (née Norma Lucille Walborn) and Philip Norman Bredesen. His father, a captain in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, was stationed at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey at the time of Bredesen's birth. The family lived in various locations during Bredesen's early childhood, including Canandaigua, New York and Arlington, Massachusetts.

When his parents separated in 1951, Norma moved with her two sons, Phil and his younger brother Dean (1947-2006), to her family home in Shortsville, New York, where they lived with Bredesen's maternal grandmother, a widow. Shortsville is the community Bredesen considers to be his hometown, and he lived there until he left for college. He attended the Red Jacket Central Elementary and Secondary School, located in the adjoining village of Manchester.