Fereydun Robert Armisen (born December 4, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. With his comedy partner Carrie Brownstein, Armisen was the co-creator and co-star of the IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia. He also co-created and stars in the mockumentary IFC series Documentary Now! alongside Bill Hader and Seth Meyers as well as the Showtime comedy series Moonbase 8 alongside John C. Reilly and Tim Heidecker. He also voiced Speedy Gonzales on The Looney Tunes Show. Armisen is the bandleader and frequent drummer for the Late Night with Seth Meyers house band, The 8G Band. He is also well-known for being a cast member on the late-night sketch comedy and variety series Saturday Night Live from 2002 to 2013. Armisen has acted in comedy films, including Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003), The Ex (2006), and The Dictator (2012). He is also notable for his guest-starring appearances in television shows such as 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl, Broad City, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Difficult People, The Last Man on Earth, Toast of London and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album for Standup for Drummers in 2019. 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 has co-starred and acted as writer and executive producer on the Spanish-language series Los Espookys, which he co-created. Early life, education, and family history 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 on Long Island 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 excitement at seeing 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 he has family from both San Rafael de Atamaica and from Apure. His father, Fereydun Herbert "Fred" Armisen, who worked for IBM, was born in Soltau, Lower Saxony, Germany, to a German mother and a