Fred Armisen began his career in 1988 when he moved from New York to Chicago to play drums for the punk rock band Trenchmouth. In the 1990s, he played background drums with Blue Man Group in Chicago, and in 1997, he toured with David Shouse of The Grifters' side band Those Bastard Souls, which also featured The Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd. Fred Armisen is also cast member of Saturday Night Live.

In 2008 he released an instructional drumming DVD called "Fred Armisen Presents: Jens Hannemann Complicated Drumming Technique."

Fereydun Robert Armisen is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He is best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2002 until 2013. He 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.