Fred Armisen Biography

Fereydun Robert "Fred" Armisen (born December 4, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, voice artist, screenwriter, producer, singer, and musician. Widely known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2002 until 2013, Armisen has portrayed characters in comedy films, including EuroTrip, Anchorman, 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 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.

Early life

Fereydun Robert 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.

His mother, schoolteacher Hildegardt (Mirabal Level), is Venezuelan, with family from San Rafael de Atamaica, Apure. His father, Fereydun Herbert "Fred" Armisen, who worked for IBM, was born in Soltau, Lower Saxony, Germany, to a German mother and a Korean-born father, Pak Yeong-In. Fred's paternal grandfather, a prominent dancer and choreographer known as , pen name |lead=yes}}, or birth name Bak Yeong-in () was actually born in Ulsan, Korea, and had adopted a Japanese name and persona because Korea under Japanese rule started when he was two; Fred had incorrectly believed him to have been Japanese for much of his life. Masami studied esthetics in Tokyo Imperial University and became professional dancer before moving to Germany. He worked for Joseph Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry in Nazi Germany.

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.

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 2015 album Leap Year.

Armisen is the bandleader 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 a 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.

Armisen stars in the IFC sketch series Portlandia alongside Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney); the first season debuted on January 21, 2011. He and fellow Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader write, produce, and star in the IFC mockumentary series Documentary Now!

In the Cartoon Network series The Looney Tunes Show, Armisen voices Speedy Gonzales. Armisen, along with Carrie Brownstein, appeared on the 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 band leader on Late Night with Seth Myers has won his deadpan comedy praise; especially in his interplay with the host.

Saturday Night Live

The following is a partial list of notable roles Armisen has played in Saturday Night Live sketches. At the time of his 2013 departure from the show, Armisen was the third-longest tenured cast member (behind Darrell Hammond and Seth Meyers), having been a member since Season 28. As of February 2015, Armisen had appeared in 856 SNL sketches, putting him second only to Kenan Thompson in appearances on the show, and had the third most distinct impressions of any SNL cast member with 99. Armisen hosted the season 41 finale on May 21, 2016, with musical guest Courtney Barnett.

Recurring characters

• 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.
• Nicholas Fehn - a political commentator whose mind wanders so much that he is incapable of finishing a sentence without starting a new one.
• Roger A. Trevanti - a greedy studio head and AMPTP member who rails against the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The character's only SNL appearance was on the last episode of season 33, before the show went on hiatus for the WGA strike, but he appeared in several Internet videos around the same time.
• Roger Brush - a producer of multiple "Dr. Phil"-type talk shows, each focused on a different topic (teen, marital, sexual, and pregnancy issues), who fills in when the hosts are sick. He repeatedly tells guests relating their problems to speak up, and, unable to relate to their problems, offers them either useless advice based on his experience or no help at all.
• Garth - part of Garth & Kat (with Kristen Wiig), a musical duo who appear on Weekend Update unprepared and make up songs on the spot.
• Giuseppe - the saxophone player for What's Up With That?
• Stewart - homeowner from The Californians, a soap opera parody featuring Armisen, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig and others as wealthy blondes with Valley Girl accents.
• One of the "Dictator's Two Best Friends from Growing Up" (with Vanessa Bayer) who come to Weekend Update to secretly trash-talk the various dictators (such as Muammar al-Gaddafi and Kim Jong-un) with whom they grew up.
• Regine - a pretentious and condescending woman who exhibits blatant euphoric and erotic facial expressions when touched on certain parts of her body.
• Ian Rubbish - A late-1970s/early-80s British punk rocker, a parody of Sex Pistols' John Lydon, who caught heat from his bandmates Derek Gash (played by Bill Hader) and Keith Grimshaw (played by Taran Killam) and fans for writing and performing songs supporting conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Celebrity impressions

Armisen's list of notable impressions has included:

• Barack Obama - recurring in Season 33 and Season 34 episodes as the Democratic presidential candidate (Season 33), the Democratic nominee, President-Elect, and President (Season 34), beginning on February 23, 2008. As of season 38, Jay Pharoah replaced Armisen as Obama.
• Prince - parody of the musician as the host of a talk show called The Prince Show, with Beyonc Knowles (played by Maya Rudolph) as his co-host. Armisen, a fan of Prince since childhood, created the sketch as a way of improving his chances of meeting the musician.
• Steve Jobs - Apple CEO who appears on Weekend Update to show off strange new technology. Armisen has stated that Steve Jobs is the celebrity he most enjoys portraying.
• Ira Glass - After seeing an unused SNL sketch, Glass invited Armisen to co-host a This American Life about doppelgngers.
• David Paterson - Governor of New York. Armisen's Paterson impression, much like his Obama impression, caught controversy as well, though in this case, it was David Paterson himself who spoke out against the impression, as he felt it was insensitive to the blind and visually-impaired.

Armisen has also done impressions of political figures such as Hugo Chvez, Vicente Fox, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Barney Frank, George H. W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, Ben Bernanke, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Mike Gravel, Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak and Michael Bloomberg. He has also impersonated celebrities such as Martin Scorsese, Desi Arnaz, Corbin Bleu, Sam Waterston, Joy Behar, Tony Danza, George Carlin, Dov Charney, Howie Mandel, Alan Osmond, Ben Gibbard, Joey Lawrence, Harrison Ford, Liberace, David Gregory, Mick Jagger, Larry King, Penny Marshall, Kevin McHale (as Artie Abrams from Glee), Randy Newman, David Lee Roth, Gene Simmons, Ringo Starr, Lawrence Welk, Paul Lynde, George Lopez, Randy Newman, Thom Yorke, John Oates, and Ice-T.

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. 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 (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.

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 as 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 The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead.

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 currently resides in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Prior to his move he was a resident of Portland, Oregon's Pearl District. Armisen enjoys the work of outlaw artist Joe Coleman. He stated on Real Time with Bill Maher that he is an atheist.

Discography

The KGB

• The KGB (1984)
• The KGB [Re-release] (TBD)

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)

Crisis of Conformity

• Fist Fight! (2011)

Ian Rubbish and The Bizzaros

• The Best Of Ian Rubbish [EP] (2013)
• It's a Lovely Day [Single] (2013)

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Guide to Music and South by Southwest	Various	Short film
1998	Fred Armisen's Guide to Dance and Self-Defense	Various	Short film
2002	I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco	Himself
2002	Like Mike	New Age Dad
2003	Frank International Film Festival	Frank	Short film
2003	Melvin Goes to Dinner	Vesa
2004	Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy	Tino
2004	Eurotrip	Creepy Italian Guy
2004	Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie	Tino
2005	Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo	Frenchman	Uncredited
2006	Deck the Halls	Gustave
2006	The Ex	Manny
2006	Griffin & Phoenix	Unknown
2006	Kiss Me Again	Professor Szabo
2006	Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny	Security Guard
2007	Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters	Time Lincoln (voice)
2008	Baby Mama	Stroller Salesman
2008	Christmas on Mars	Noachis
2008	The Promotion	Scott Fargas
2008	The Rocker	Wayne Kerr
2008	Bang Blow & Stroke	Kerr	Short film
2009	Confessions of a Shopaholic	Ryan Koening
2009	Post Grad	Guacanator Pitchman
2010	Cop Out	Russian Lawyer
2010	Our Family Wedding	Phillip Gusto
2010	Easy A	Pastor
2010	Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore	Freidrich
2010	Presidential Reunion	Barack Obama	Short film
2011	The Smurfs	Brainy Smurf (voice)
2011	The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol	Brainy Smurf (voice)	Short film
2012	The Dictator	Death to Aladeen Restaurant waiter	Cameo
2012	Fun World	Fred (voice)	Short film
2013	The Smurfs 2	Brainy Smurf (voice)
2013	The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow	Brainy Smurf (voice)	Short film
2014	Salad Days	Himself	Documentary
2015	Addicted to Fresno	Gerald
2015	Staten Island Summer	Victor
2015	Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run	Speedy Gonzales (voice)	Direct-to-video
2015	The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead	Himself	Documentary
2016	Zoolander 2	The VIP
2016	Ordinary World	Gary
2017	The Little Hours	Bishop Bartolomeo
2017	Take the 10	Driver
2017	Band Aid	Dave
2017	The House of Tomorrow	Tour Video Narrator (voice)
2017	Battle of the Sexes	Rheo Blair
2017	The Lego Ninjago Movie	Cole (voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997-2001	Reverb	Interviewer	82 episodes
1999	Fred	Himself, Various	TV Pilot
2001	Late Friday	Father Fred, Fericito	2 episodes
2001	Premium Blend	Sergeant Fred	2 episodes
2002	Next!	Various	TV Pilot
2002	Late World with Zach	Interpretive Bongos Wizard, Various	29 episodes
2002-13	Saturday Night Live	Himself, Various	220 episodes
2003-07	Crank Yankers	Chip Douglas (voice)	13 episodes
2004	Comedy Lab	Jeremy	Episode: "12.21"
2004, 2008	Aqua Teen Hunger Force	Poncho, Robot Husband (voice)	2 episodes
2005	New York Noise	Himself	Episode: "Beggars Group 10th Anniversary in NYC Party"
2005-08	Squidbillies	Miguel, Jesus, Hippie Killed with Chainsaw (voice)	4 episodes
2006	Freak Show	Various voices	3 episodes
2006	Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Event for Autism Education	Himself, Prince	TV special
2006	Tom Goes to the Mayor	Phillip Priest (voice)	Episode: "Jeffy the Sea Serpent"
2007, 2012	30 Rock	Raheem Haddad, Frank 2.0/Phone Lady	2 episodes
2007	Tim and Eric Nite Live!	Dr. Pat Gordon Hall	Episode: "1.3"
2007, 2008	Human Giant	Himself, Dr. Marker, Doctor	3 episodes
2007, 2010	Yo Gabba Gabba!	Himself, Larry the Treasure Hunter	2 episodes
2008	The Sarah Silverman Program	Taylor Magenheim	Episode: "Patriot Tact"
2008	Blue Man Group: How to Be a Megastar 2.0	Rod Popeil	TV film
2008-12	Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday	Various	8 episodes
2008, 2010	Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!	K.J. Nutt, Tennis Buddy, Sal & Al's Customer	2 episodes
2009	Parks and Recreation	Raul	Episode: "Sister City"
2010	Ugly Americans	Larry King (voice)	Episode: "So You Want to Be a Vampire?"
2011-present	Portlandia	Various	Also co-creator, writer, co-executive producer Peabody Award (2012) Writers Guild of America Award for Comedy/Variety (including talk) series (2013) Nominated"?Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series (2012-14) Nominated"?Writers Guild of America Award for Comedy/Variety (including talk) series (2014) Nominated"?Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (2014)
2011-13	The Looney Tunes Show	Speedy Gonzales (voice)	30 episodes
2011	The Soup	Himself, CARL	Episode: "Fred Armisen"
2012	Up All Night	Gideon Kirk	Episode: "Hey Jealousy"
2012, 2013	Late Night with Jimmy Fallon	Lady Hedith	5 episodes
2012	The Simpsons	Terrence (voice)	Episode: "The Day the Earth Stood Cool"
2012	Unsupervised	Martin (voice)	6 episodes
2013	Bob's Burgers	Tommy (voice)	Episode: "Nude Beach"
2013	Conan	Conan O'Brien	Episode: "Occupy Conan: When Outsourcing Goes Too Far"
2013	Kroll Show	Papi Jr	Episode: "Dine & Dash"
2013	Jimmy Kimmel Live!	Osama Bin Laden	Episode: "10.338"
2013	Out There	Terry Rosachristas (voice)	10 episodes
2013	The Awesomes	Stage Manager (voice)	Episode: "Pilot, Part 2"
2013, 2014	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Mlepnos	2 episodes
2014	Super Fun Night	Brian Headfoot	Episode: "Hostile Makeover"
2014	Broad City	Craigslist baby	Episode: "What a Wonderful World"
2014-present	Late Night with Seth Meyers	Himself	House band leader
2014	House of Lies	Vincent	Episode: "Comeuppance"
2014	Chozen	Various voices	Episode: "In a Pickle"
2014	Modern Family	Langham	Episode: "Las Vegas"
2014	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Himself	Episode: "Fred Armisen Wears Black Jeans & Glasses"
2014	Archer	Gustavo Calderon (voice)	5 episodes
2014	Mike Tyson Mysteries	Leprechaun (voice)	Episode: "Is Magic Real?"
2014	Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas	Chadwick (voice)	TV special
2015	30th Independent Spirit Awards	Himself (host)	TV special
2015	Man Seeking Woman	Tanaka	Episode: "Sizzurp"
2015	7 Days in Hell	Edward Pudding	Television film
2015	The Jim Gaffigan Show	Dr. Weiss	Episode: "Pilot"
2015-present	Documentary Now!	Various	Also co-creator, writer, executive producer
2016	New Girl	Brandon	Episode: "No Girl"
2016-2017	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Robert Durst	4 episodes
2016	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Fred Armisen/Courtney Barnett"
2016	Man Seeking Woman	Jesus	Episode: "Honey"
2016	Blunt Talk	Dr. Larry Simon	Episode: "Love Is Not Linear"
2017	Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special	Peter Salanz	Variety special
2017	Son of Zorn	Lord Vulchazor (voice)	Episode: "All Hail Son of Zorn"
2017	Animals.	Alabaster (voice)	2 episodes
2017	Comrade Detective	Orzan (voice)	Episode: "Two Films for One Ticket"
2017	Big Mouth	Elliot Birch / various voices	10 episodes

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2008	Grand Theft Auto IV	Pervert, Hotdog Vendor, Internet Nerd
2010	Red Dead Redemption	Pharmacist
2013	The Smurfs 2	Brainy Smurf
2013	Grand Theft Auto V	Hugh Harrison
2014	Scooby Doo and Looney Tunes: Cartoon Universe	Speedy Gonzales