Fred Armisen

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Fred Armisen
Fred Armisen at 2014 Imagen Awards.jpg
Armisen at the 2014 Imagen Awards
Birth name Fereydun Robert Armisen[1]
Born (1966-12-04) December 4, 1966 (age 57)
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, U.S.
Medium Stand-up, music, television, film
Nationality American
Years active 1998–present
Genres Character comedy, sketch comedy
Spouse Sally Timms (1998–2004)
Elisabeth Moss (2009–2011)
Notable works and roles Saturday Night Live
Portlandia
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Website fredarmisen.com

Fred Armisen (born Fereydun Robert Armisen;[1] December 4, 1966)[2] is an American actor, voice actor, screenwriter, producer, director, singer, musician, and comedian.

Widely known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2002 until 2013,[3] 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[4] 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[5] and one in 2011 for Portlandia.[6]

Early life

Armisen was born on December 4, 1966, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and moved to Manhattan, New York City, as a baby.[7] He was raised in Valley Stream, New York, on Long Island,[7] where he was a high school classmate of fellow SNL alumnus Jim Breuer.[citation needed] His mother, Hildegardt Mirabal, a schoolteacher, is from Venezuela.[8] His father, Fereydun (later "Fred") Armisen, who worked for IBM, was born in Germany, to a Japanese father and a German mother.[1][9][10][11][12][13] Armisen attended the School of Visual Arts (NYC)[14] before dropping out to begin a career as a rock drummer.[7] He has mentioned watching the bands The Clash and Devo perform on television, and wanting to be a performer since he was a child.[15]

Career

Music

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In 1984, Armisen played drums in a local band along with his high school friends in Valley Stream, New York, but the group ended soon after. Armisen began his career in 1988 when he moved from New York to Chicago to play drums for the punk rock band Trenchmouth.[16] In the 1990s, he played background drums with Blue Man Group in Chicago. As a child, he also learned to play guitar.

He plays drums on three tracks on Les Savy Fav's 2007 album Let's Stay Friends.[17]

He also played on the Wandering Lucy album Leap Year.

Armisen is currently the bandleader and drummer of the 8G Band on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Television and film

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. 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."[18]

Armisen's subsequent television work, such as some "memorable Andy Kaufman-esque appearances"[19] 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.[19] 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"[20] 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.[21]

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.[22][23]

Saturday Night Live

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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,[3] Armisen was the third-longest tenured cast member (behind Darrell Hammond and Seth Meyers), having been a member since Season 28.[24] 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.[25]

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 "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 band mates Derek Gash (played by Bill Hader) and Steve 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 Beyoncé 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.[18]
  • 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.[26]
  • Ira Glass – After seeing an unused SNL sketch, Glass invited Armisen to co-host a This American Life about doppelgängers.[27]
  • 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 Chávez, Vicente Fox, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Barney Frank, George H. W. Bush, 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 (actor) (as Artie Abrams from Glee), 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.[28] 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.[29] 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".[30] In 2010, Armisen briefly joined Joanna Newsom's tour for her album Have One on Me as his character Jens Hannemann.[31] 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.[32]

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.

Armisen is the bandleader of the 8G Band, the house band for Late Night with Seth Meyers, as of February 24, 2014.[33]

Personal life

Armisen was married to English singer and songwriter Sally Timms from 1998 to 2004[34] and to actress Elisabeth Moss from 2009[35] to 2011.[36] He is currently in a relationship with actress Natasha Lyonne.[37]

Armisen currently resides in the Silver Lake neighborhood in Los Angeles.[38] Prior to his move he was a resident of Portland, Oregon's Pearl District.[39] Armisen enjoys the work of outlaw artist Joe Coleman. He stated on Real Time with Bill Maher that he is an atheist.[40]

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[41] 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
2008 Blue Man Group: How to Be a Megastar 2.0 Rod Popeil TV 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 Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas Chadwick (voice) Holiday Television Special
2015 Addicted to Fresno Gerald
2015 Staten Island Summer Victor
2015 Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run Speedy Gonzales Direct-to-video
2016 Zoolander No. 2 The VIP Post-production

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1997–2001 Reverb Interviewer 82 episodes
1999 Fred Himself, Various Failed TV Pilot
2001 Late Friday Father Fred, Fericito 2 episodes
2001 Premium Blend Sergeant Fred 2 episodes
2002 Next! Various Failed TV Pilot
2002 Late World with Zach Interpretive Bongos Wizard, Various 29 episodes
2002–2013 Saturday Night Live Himself, Various 220 episodes
2003–2007 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"
2005–2008 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"
2008–2012 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 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)
2011–2013 The Looney Tunes Show Speedy Gonzales (voice) 27 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?"
2015 Man Seeking Woman Tanaka Episode: "Sizzurp"
2015 Documentary Now! Co-Creator, Writer, Executive Producer
2015 7 Days in Hell Edward Pudding Television Film

Video games

Year Title Role
2008 Grand Theft Auto IV Pervert, Hotdog Vendor, Internet Nerd (voice)
2010 Red Dead Redemption Local Population (voice)
2013 The Smurfs 2 Brainy Smurf (voice)
2013 Grand Theft Auto V Hugh Harrison (voice)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/saturday-night-live-political-satire-2008
  6. ↑ http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/portlandia
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ http://www.eluniversal.com/arte-y-entretenimiento/120327/un-venezolano-en-portlandia-imp
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Muther, Christopher. "'SNL' star Armisen drums up a career in comedy", Boston Globe, January 30, 2004 (fee required for full article)
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ "Fred Armisen: Biography," TV Guide, accessdate=2009-11-10.
  15. ↑ Heisler, Steve. "Devo Made Saturday Night Live’s Fred Armisen Want to Be on TV", New York Magazine, February 11, 2011
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Armisen interview, The A.V. Club, January 2006.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lavery, Lisa. Interview: "Whaddya mean you've never heard of....Fred Armisen?" at the Wayback Machine (archived September 27, 2007) Cult Cargo, November 16, 2006.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Portlandia at IFC.com, 2010.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Smooching Deadlines, The Austin Chronicle, November 5, 1998.
  29. ↑ [1] Archived March 6, 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  30. ↑ Jens Hannemann "COMPLICATED DRUMMING TECHNIQUE" on Drag City Educational Music DVD
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Borrelli, Christopher. "Fred Armisen: The Chicago Years", The Chicago Tribune, January 11, 2012. Accessed February 5, 2012.
  35. ↑ "Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss Marries SNL's Fred Armisen", People, 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
  36. ↑ "Elisabeth Moss, Fred Armisen divorce official" May 19, 2011, MSNBC
  37. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe-aRdMa9Pg
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-20086-voices_2013_fred_armisen.html
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Fred Armisen's Guide to Dance and Self-Defense, YouTube, includes interview with Butch Vig at 14:36

External links

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