Fereydun Robert "Fred" Armisen (born December 4, 1966 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician best known for Saturday Night Live, Cop Out, and Portlandia. He is also the bandleader of The 8G Band for Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Armisen first entered the performing arts as a rock drummer, playing in the esteemed Chicago Post-Hardcore band Trenchmouth from 1988 to 1996. Afterwards he served as a percussionist and actor with Blue Man Group. His self-satirical interviews conducted at the South by Southwest festival put him on the radar of SNL producer Lorne Michaels.
Armisen is the show's second Asian-American cast member after Rob Schneider (even though he's also half-German on his father's side and Venezuelan on his mom's side) who, like Horatio Sanz, has family heritage in a South American country. Armisen's mother was originally from Venezuela. The "Fereydun" first name (which his father, "Fred" Herbert Armisen also has) is actually from an Iranian man that Fred's paternal grandmother married after her affair with his biological, allegedly Japanese but actually Korean grandfather.
Armisen's recurring characters and celebrity impressions on Saturday Night Live showcase his ability to play anyone and everyone, regardless of race or gender (with some characters and celebrities he played also reflecting Armisen's Venezuelan heritage and musical background). Armisen is one of four SNL cast members (joining Darrell Hammond, Kenan Thompson, and Bill Hader) as having the most celebrity impressions with 102. For an exhaustive list of Armisen's characters and celebrity impressions, click here
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He was in a relationship with Natasha Lyonne and was previously married to Sally Timms and Elisabeth Moss.
Film Roles
- Melvin Goes To Dinner as Vesa
- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy as Tino
- EuroTrip as Creepy Italian Guy
- Deck the Halls as Gustave
- Baby Mama as Stroller Salesman
- Confessions of a Shopaholic as Ryan Koening
- Cop Out as Russian Lawyer
- The Dictator as Death to Aladeen Restaurant waiter
- Battle of the Sexes as Rheo Blair
- The LEGO Ninjago Movie as Cole
- Jay and Silent Bob Reboot as Uber Driver
- The Mitchells vs. the Machines as Deborahbot 5000
- The Bubble
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie as Cranky Kong
- Spin Me Round as Ricky
- Thelma the Unicorn
- Unfrosted as Mike Puntz
Television Roles
- Reverb as Interviewer (1997-2001, 82 episodes)
- Saturday Night Live as Himself, various (2002-2013, 2018 229 episodes)
- 30 Rock as Raheem Haddad, Frank 2.0/Phone Lady (2 episodes)
- Portlandia as Various
- The Looney Tunes Show as Speedy Gonzales
- Up All Night as Gideon Kirk (1 episode)
- The Simpsons as Terrence (1 episode)
- The Awesomes as Stage Manager (1 episode)
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine as Mlep(clay)nos (4 episodes)
- Chozen as Various voices
- Difficult People as Garry Epstein (3 episodes)
- Documentary Now! as various
- New Girl as Brandon (1 episode)
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as Bobby Durst
- The Last Man on Earth as Karly Cowperthwaite (4 episodes)
- Forever as Oscar Hoffman
- Final Space as KVN
- Superstore as Kyle the Charity Worker (1 episode)
- Moonbase 8 as Michael "Skip" Henai (main character)
- Big Mouth as Dr Elliot Birch AKA William MacGregor
- Schmigadoon! as Howard Layton
- Los Espookys as Tico
- Centaurworld as Splendib, Bimbam
- Super Pumped The Battle for Uber as Erich England (1 episode)
- Our Flag Means Death as Geraldo
- Wednesday as Fester Addams
- Agent Elvis as Charles Manson
- Barry as Nestor Flores
- Fallout as DJ Carl
Podcasts
- Lem Can Help as Lem Bennings
