cast by season

Fred Armisen is in his seventh season on "Saturday Night Live." In his first year, Armisen scored with his character "Fericito." The Venezuelan comedian coached Senator John McCain through his opening monologue and brought big laughs to "Weekend Update" and now his own recurring sketch "Showbiz Grande Explosion" with his Latin style and catchphrase "I'm just keeeeeeding."

Armisen recently took on the role of presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama alongside "SNL" castmate Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton during the hotly contested Democratic primaries. Other characters include the vaguely European home design enthusiast "Nuni," the Native American comic Billy Smith, the non-plussed political comedian Nicholas Fehn and as Prince as the often-silent host of the musician's talk show "The Prince Show." Armisen has also contributed memorable impressions of Larry King, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad in the popular Digital Short "Iran So Far Away."

Armisen has landed on Rolling Stone's "Hot List" as well as twice on Entertainment Weekly's "Must List" (for his performance as a politically incorrect deaf comedian and his witty iTunes playlist). He'll soon appear in the feature "The Rocker" opposite Rainn Wilson and "The Promotion" with John C. Reilly. He has also appeared in the films "Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny" (with Jack Black), "The Ex" (with Zach Braff and Jason Bateman) as well as "Eurotrip" and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy."

Armisen began his career as a musician in the Chicago-based post-punk band Trenchmouth as well as playing with Blue Man Group. His transition to comedy came with the 1998 underground short film "Fred Armisen's Guide to Music and SXSW" which followed him through the Austin, Texas "South By Southwest Music Festival" posing as a music journalist. In 2006, he tried his hand at actual musical journalism, profiling the indie darling Cat Power for the influential music website Pitchfork.com. He married music and comedy becoming drummer Jens Hannemann and releasing an instructional DVD "Complicated Drumming Technique" in 2007.

He has made guest appearances on NBC's "30 Rock," the cable comedy shows "Human Giant" and "Tim & Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job." He's brought his characters to "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," the Chicago Comedy Festival and programs on British television. He has also appeared on HBO's music show "Reverb" and in his own eponymous interstitial series on "HBO Zone" as well as in the Wilco documentary "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart." Armisen lives in New York City.

His birthday is December 4.