Naomi Grossman

Naomi Grossman is an American actress who also writes and produces. Born in Denver, Colorado, she performed in community theater in her early life and studied theater at Northwestern University before joining the Los Angeles improv and sketch group The Groundlings. She started out around 1990 in small television roles and also did commercials and stage work. She is known for her role as Pepper, a woman with microcephaly, on the FX horror series American Horror Story, and was cast as Pepper for the second season, Asylum, which premiered later in 2012; she shaved her head for the part. In 2014 she returned as Pepper in the fourth season, Freak Show, becoming the first actor to play the same character in two seasons of the show. In 2024 she performed a monologue at the Edinburgh Fringe.