Fred Armisen


Fereydun Robert Armisen is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer and musician best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2002 until 2013. Armisen has portrayed characters in comedy films, including EuroTrip, and Cop Out. With his comedy partner Carrie Brownstein, Armisen is the co-creator and co-star of the IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia. Armisen founded ThunderAnt.com, a website that features the comedy sketches created with Brownstein, and is the bandleader and frequent drummer for the Late Night with Seth Meyers house band, The 8G Band.
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. 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. Since 2019, he co-stars and acts as writer and executive producer on the acclaimed Spanish-language series Los Espookys, which he co-created.

Early life and education

Armisen was born on December 4, 1966, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. 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 high school classmate of fellow SNL alumnus Jim Breuer. Armisen attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan before dropping out to begin a career as a rock drummer. He has mentioned watching the bands The Clash and Devo perform on television and wanting to be a performer since he was a child.
His mother, schoolteacher Hildegardt Mirabal Level, was born in San Fernando de Apure, Venezuela,, and has family from San Rafael de Atamaica, also in Apure. His father, Fereydun Herbert "Fred" Armisen, who worked for IBM, was born in Soltau, Lower Saxony, Germany, to a German mother and Korean-born father, Pak Yeong-in.
For much of his life, Fred thought his paternal grandfather was Japanese. However, his grandfather, Ehara Masami, better known by his professional pseudonym Masami Kuni or birth name Bak Yeong-in, was actually born in Ulsan, Korea, and had adopted a Japanese name and persona after the massacre of Koreans in 1923 when he was a high school student. Pak studied aesthetics in Tokyo Imperial University and became a professional dancer before moving to Germany. He worked for Nazi Germany during WW2 but was a spy for the Empire of Japan in Europe. Pak Yeong-in's family were members of the Korean aristocracy, who could verifiably trace their lineage 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 is the bandleader and frequent drummer of the 8G Band, the house band for Late Night with Seth Meyers, as of February 24, 2014.

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 status.
Armisen has landed several minor yet memorable roles that were defined by an interviewer as "feral foreigners" in comedy films such as Eurotrip, ', ', 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, 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 stars in the IFC sketch series Portlandia alongside Carrie Brownstein ; 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.
Armisen's recent work as bandleader on Late Night with Seth Meyers has won him praise for his deadpan comedy, especially in his interplay with the host.

''Saturday Night Live''

Armisen joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2002, and is the second Latino cast member. 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. 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.

Recurring characters

Armisen's list of notable impressions has included:
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 #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 has directed music videos for bands like 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. Fred 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, 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 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".
Along with Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis, Armisen voiced radio characters in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.
Armisen performed as a singer/drummer/comedic actor in the Blue Man Group's "How to be a Megastar Live!". He played the part of a salesman on TV who advertises for the Megastar Rock Manual. He also drummed in the performance and was a backup singer.
In late 2014, Armisen was featured on the popular comedy web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with host Jerry Seinfeld.
Armisen is a longtime fan of punk rock music and can be seen in the documentaries Salad Days and .
In 2015, Armisen was the recipient of Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award for Performing Arts.

Personal life

Armisen was married to English singer and songwriter Sally Timms from 1998 to 2004 and to actress Elisabeth Moss from 2009 to 2011. He has been in a relationship with actress Natasha Lyonne since 2014.
Armisen, as of March 2018, resides in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Prior to his move he was a resident of Portland, Oregon's Pearl District. He has stated that he is an atheist.
Armisen is a fan of the video game Red Dead Redemption. On a 2018 episode of Larry King Now, he described himself as being "very good" at the game. This prompted the studio Rockstar Games to cast him in the next installment of the series, Red Dead Redemption 2. He is also a fan of black metal and death metal.

Discography

As a member of Trenchmouth:

Film

Television

Video games