Fereydun Robert "Fred" Armisen (born December 4, 1966) is an American comedian, actor, musician, and television writer. With his comedy partner Carrie Brownstein, he co-created and co-starred in the IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia. He also co-created and starred in the mockumentary IFC series Documentary Now! and the Showtime comedy series Moonbase 8.
Armisen was the bandleader and frequent drummer for the Late Night with Seth Meyers house band, the 8G Band, from 2014 to 2024. He was a cast member on the late-night sketch comedy and variety series Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 2002 to 2013. He voiced Speedy Gonzales on The Looney Tunes Show (2011–2013). He also works as a voice actor in films, such as The Smurfs (2011), The Smurfs 2 (2013), The House of Tomorrow, The Lego Ninjago Movie (both 2017), The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021), The Super Mario Bros. Movie, The Contestant (both 2023), Thelma the Unicorn (2024) and Fixed (2025).
Armisen has acted in comedy films, including Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003), EuroTrip (2004), The Ex (2006), and The Dictator (2012). He is also notable for his guest-star appearances in television shows such as 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl, Broad City, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Difficult People, The Last Man on Earth, Toast of Tinseltown, Our Flag Means Death, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Modern Family, and Barry.
Armisen received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album for Standup for Drummers in 2019. He has also won two Peabody Awards, one in 2008 as part of the Saturday Night Live political satire cast and one in 2011 for Portlandia. From 2019 to 2022, he co-starred and served as writer and executive producer on the Spanish-language series Los Espookys, which he co-created.
Contents
Early life
Fereydun Robert Armisen was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on December 4, 1966, the son of schoolteacher Hildegardt Mirabal Level and IBM employee Fereydun Herbert Armisen. He moved with his family to New York as a baby, and briefly lived in Brazil in his youth. He was raised in Valley Stream, New York, where he was a classmate of fellow SNL alumnus Jim Breuer. He attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan before dropping out to begin a career as a rock drummer. He said that he was inspired to perform after seeing the Clash and Devo perform on television, and wanted to be a performer since he was a child.
Armisen's mother was Venezuelan, born in San Fernando de Apure, while his father was born in Soltau, Germany, to a German mother and Korean father. Armisen's paternal grandmother briefly dated an Iranian man after becoming pregnant with his father and gave his father a Persian given name, Fereydun, though he had no Persian heritage himself. Armisen was then named after his father. For much of his life, Armisen thought his paternal grandfather Masami Ehara (Japanese: 江原正美, Hepburn: Ehara Masami, better known professionally as Masami Kuni) was Japanese. However, Ehara was actually Korean and came from Ulsan; he was born Pak Yeong-in (Korean: 박영인, RR: Bak Yeongin, MR: Pak Yŏngin) and adopted a Japanese name and persona after the massacre of Koreans in 1923 when he was a high school student. Pak studied aesthetics at Tokyo Imperial University and became a professional dancer before moving to Nazi Germany, where he was part of Goebbels' cultural propaganda machine while also spying for Japan. After the war, he returned to Japan, and formed a premier modern dance company. He eventually immigrated to the US, where he taught dance at what is now Cal State Fullerton from 1964 to 1975. Pak Yŏng-in's family were members of the Korean aristocracy, and his Korean lineage can be verifiably traced back to the 1600s.
Career
Music
In 1984, Armisen played drums in a local band along with his high school friends in Valley Stream, New York, but the group soon ended. In 1988, he moved to Chicago to play drums for the punk rock band Trenchmouth, and in the 1990s he played background drums with Blue Man Group.
Armisen played drums on three tracks for Les Savy Fav's 2007 album Let's Stay Friends, as well as tracks for Matthew Sweet's 2011 album Modern Art and Wandering Lucy's 1996 album Leap Year.
Armisen has served as the music director and frequent drummer of the 8G Band, the house band for Late Night with Seth Meyers, since February 24, 2014. The band was laid off at the end of the 2023–2024 season due to budget cuts from NBC.
In 2018, Armisen played drums as part of Devo at John Waters' Burger Boogaloo festival in Oakland, California.
In July 2021, he performed at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.
In September 2025, Armisen released an album of sound effects titled 100 Sound Effects on the independent record label Drag City. The album features contributions from Mary Lynn Rajskub, Amber Coffman, Tim Heidecker, and Riki Lindhome. Armisen dedicated the album to the late Steve Albini.
Television and film
While not playing with the band Trenchmouth, Armisen's interests switched to acting. In a January 2006 interview, he said, "I wanted to be on TV somehow. For some reason, I always thought it would be an indirect route; I didn't know that it would be comedy and Saturday Night Live. I just wanted to do something with performing that would lead me there."
Armisen's subsequent television work, such as some "memorable Andy Kaufman–esque appearances" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, as well as work for Crank Yankers and Adult Swim, led to a role in 2002 as a featured player in the cast of Saturday Night Live. In the 2004 season, he was promoted to repertory cast member.
Armisen has landed several minor yet memorable roles that were defined by an interviewer as "feral foreigners" in comedy films such as Eurotrip, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Deck the Halls, The Ex, The Promotion, The Rocker, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, and Confessions of a Shopaholic.
Further television work included an appearance on Parks and Recreation in the 2009 episode "Sister City". For the Cartoon Network series The Looney Tunes Show (2011–2014), Armisen voices Speedy Gonzales. He and fellow Saturday Night Live alums Bill Hader and Seth Meyers write, produce, and star in the IFC mockumentary series Documentary Now! which premiered in 2015.
Armisen starred in the IFC sketch series Portlandia alongside Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney); the first season debuted on January 21, 2011. With Brownstein, he appeared on the 2012 Simpsons episode "The Day the Earth Stood Cool", in which they play the Simpsons' new neighbors, who encourage everyone to be cool like them.
For his work on Portlandia, Armisen was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 2012, 2013, and 2014 and for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2014.
In 2021, Armisen was executive producer on the documentary Charm Circle, directed by Nira Burstein. In 2022, he appeared in Wednesday as Uncle Fester. In the same year, he appeared in the first season of Our Flag Means Death as Geraldo, a barkeep in the Republic of Pirates and one of Spanish Jackie's husbands. Spanish Jackie was played by Leslie Jones.
Saturday Night Live
Armisen joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2002. He was promoted to a repertory player in 2004. After 11 years as a cast member, he decided to leave the show. At the time of his 2013 departure from the show, Armisen was the third-longest-tenured cast member (behind Seth Meyers and Darrell Hammond), and he appeared in the second-highest number of sketches (856) of any cast member. Since then, Armisen has come back for multiple cameo appearances on the show, including when he hosted the season 41 finale on May 21, 2016, with musical guest Courtney Barnett.
The following is a partial list of notable roles Armisen has played in Saturday Night Live sketches.
Billy Smith – a Native American stand-up comedian who tells Native-American-themed jokes that no one understands.
Fericito – a Venezuelan nightclub comedian who has his own TV show, Show Biz Grande Explosion with sidekick Manuel (Horatio Sanz).
Gunther Kelly – a student at George Washington University who performs songs on Weekend Update with his brother Patrick (played by Will Forte).
Leonard – the strange European host of the foreign music show Club Traxx.
Mackey – a senile drummer who often does rimshots at inappropriate moments and appears in the "Rialto Grande" sketches.
Nooni Schoener – a quirky, foreign art dealer who appears with his wife Nuni Schoener (played by Maya Rudolph) in "the Schoeners" sketches.
Frondi – a mentally challenged character who criticizes Ben Affleck's movie Gigli to Ben himself.
Manuel Ortiz – host of The Manuel Ortiz show on Television Dominicana where he "helps with whatever it is" his audience members are going through.
Other work
In 1998, he posed as a music journalist for the short film Fred Armisen's Guide to Music and South by Southwest. It was filmed by then-girlfriend Sally Timms and featured Armisen's "pranking musicians and industry types" during the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. In various segments he asked self-described "stupid" questions, pretended to be German, and also acted blind. A year later, Armisen starred with alternative rock legend Steve Albini in Chevelle's Point No. 1 EPK.
Armisen is part of ThunderAnt, a comedy duo with Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein. The duo specializes in creating comedic short skits often about independent vocations such as one-man shows, feminist bookstores, and bicycle rights activists. Armisen founded ThunderAnt.com, a website that features the comedy sketches created with Brownstein.
Armisen has directed music videos for bands such as the Helio Sequence. Armisen also had a role in the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, which featured footage from his stint opening for front man Jeff Tweedy's 2001 solo tour. He also appeared in video segments on Blue Man Group's How to be a Megastar Tour 2.0. Armisen occasionally writes for Pitchfork Media and interviewed Cat Power for that company. He appeared as Jens Hannemann on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 19, 2007, promoting a 28-minute DVD called Fred Armisen presents Jens Hannemann: "COMPLICATED DRUMMING TECHNIQUE". In 2010, Armisen briefly joined Joanna Newsom's tour for her album Have One on Me as his character Jens Hannemann. On SNL, Armisen often plays musical instruments in sketches, has two recurring characters who are musicians (Mackey the drummer from the Rialto Grande and Ferecito from Showbiz Grande Explosion), or impersonates famous figures in the music world such as Liberace, Phil Spector, Lou Reed, and Prince.
Armisen appeared in the official music video for Man Man's song "Rabbit Habits", playing a man who charms his blind date (Charlyne Yi) but runs away after she turns into a werewolf.
In 2013, Armisen appeared in the official music video for Portland, Oregon-based band Red Fang's song "Blood Like Cream". In 2021, he appeared as the protagonist in the official music video for the 2020 mix of George Harrison's song "My Sweet Lord".
Personal life
Armisen was married to English singer Sally Timms of the Mekons from 1998 to 2004, and American actress Elisabeth Moss from 2009 to 2011. In 2014, Moss described their time together as "extremely traumatic, awful and horrible". "One of the greatest things I heard someone say about him is, 'He's so great at doing impersonations. But the greatest impersonation he does is that of a normal person,'" Moss added. During a later interview with Howard Stern, Armisen said, "I think I was a terrible husband. I think I'm a terrible boyfriend. [...] I feel bad for everyone I've gone out with."
Since working together on ThunderAnt, Armisen and Carrie Brownstein developed what Brownstein has called "one of the most intimate, functional, romantic, but nonsexual relationships [they have] ever had". According to Armisen, their relationship is "all of the things that I've ever wanted, you know, aside from like the physical stuff, but the intimacy that I have with her is like no other".
From 2010 to 2011, Armisen dated fellow Saturday Night Live cast member Abby Elliott. He started dating actress Natasha Lyonne in 2014. Lyonne confirmed that they had ended their relationship in April 2022: "We love each other just about as much as two people can love each other and we're still talking all the time." Armisen began dating and married actress, comedian and musician Riki Lindhome later that year, and they purchased a home together in Los Feliz.
Armisen is a fan of the Red Dead video game franchise, and voiced characters in Red Dead Redemption (2010) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018). He is also a fan of black metal and death metal and has mentioned bands such as Immortal, Beherit, Liturgy, Myrkur, Absu, Xasthur, Sumac, Deafheaven and Abysmal Dawn to be some of his personal favorites.
Armisen is an atheist.
Discography
As a member of Trenchmouth:
Snakebite (EP, 1989)
Kick Your Mind And Make It Move (EP, 1991)
Construction of New Action (1991)
Trenchmouth / Circus Lupus (split, 1992)
Inside the Future (1993)
The Position of the Right Hand: Trenchmouth / Bliss (split, 1993)
Achtung Chicago! Zwei (compilation, 1993)
Trenchmouth vs. The Light of the Sun (1994)
The Broadcasting System (1995)
Volumes, Amplifiers, Equalizers (1995)
More Motion: A Collection (2003)
As a member of Crisis of Conformity:
"Fist Fight!" (single, 2010)
As a member of the Blue Jean Committee:
Catalina Breeze (EP, 2015)
As a comedian:
Standup for Drummers (standup comedy album, 2018)
Singles & EPs:
Portlandia with Carrie Brownstein (2011)
KFC Nashville Hot Record (2016)
