Fereydun Robert "Fred" Armisen (born December 4, 1966) 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, 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 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. 　　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. 　　His mother, schoolteacher Hildegardt (Mirabal Level), is a Venezuelan immigrant who was born in San Fernando de Apure, Venezuela, and has 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 Korean-born father, Pak Yeong-In. For much of his life, Fred had incorrectly thought his paternal grandfather to have been Japanese; his grandfather 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 was a prominent dancer and choreographer Ehara Masami (Japanese: 江原正美 Hepburn: Ehara Masami), better known by his professional pseudonym Masami Kuni (Japanese: 邦正美 Hepburn: Kuni Masami, or marked as Korean: 방정미; RR: Bang Jeongmi; MR: Pang Chŏngmi) or birth name Bak Yeong-in (Korean: 박영인; Hanja: 朴永仁; RR: Bak Yeongin; MR: Pak Yŏngin). Kuni 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. 　　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 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, 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 stars 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. 　　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 (behind Seth Meyers and Darrell Hammond). 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.