Riki Lindhome

Erika "Riki" Lindhome is an American actress, comedian, and musician born in 1978 or 1979. She is widely recognized as half of the comedic musical duo Garfunkel and Oates alongside Kate Micucci, for which she writes and performs songs. Over her career, she has established a versatile screen presence across television sitcoms, animated series, and feature films.

Lindhome was born in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, and raised in Portville, New York. She is of Scandinavian descent, primarily Swedish and Norwegian. After graduating from Portville High School in 1997, she attended Syracuse University, earning a degree in communications and film in 2000. During her high school years, she earned top honors in the JFK Profiles in Courage essay competition for writing about politician Carolyn McCarthy.

Her professional acting career began without talent representation, leading to early television bit parts in shows such as Titus and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In 2003, she joined the theater group The Actors' Gang and performed in the play Embedded. Her involvement in the production helped her secure a role in the 2004 feature Million Dollar Baby as the lead character's sister, Mardell Fitzgerald. She subsequently made guest appearances on series such as Gilmore Girls, Pushing Daisies, Criminal Minds, and The Big Bang Theory, where she portrayed graduate student Ramona Nowitzki.

Throughout the 2010s and 2020s, Lindhome appeared in diverse film and television projects. She co-created, wrote, and starred in the historical comedy series Another Period alongside Natasha Leggero from 2015 to 2018. Her film credits include the horror projects The Last House on the Left, Hell Baby, and The Wolf of Snow Hollow, as well as the 2019 mystery ensemble Knives Out. On television, she voiced Kimberly Harris in the animated series Duncanville, portrayed therapist Dr. Valerie Kinbott in Netflix's Wednesday, and took on guest roles in shows like Enlightened, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Muppets Mayhem.

Beyond acting, Lindhome gained major recognition through Garfunkel and Oates. The duo starred in their own self-titled series on IFC in 2014 and earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for their 2016 special Garfunkel and Oates: Trying to Be Special. She also hosted the Nerdist entertainment podcast Making It with Riki Lindhome from 2010 to 2013, created the one-woman musical Dead Inside, and was attached to write and executive produce the animated film Steps. In her personal life, Lindhome married Fred Armisen in 2022 and has a son born via surrogate that same year.