Stephen Merchant
Clearly pulled straight off the catwalk, Stephen Merchant is the backbone to Ricky Gervais, the more mature but just as funny partner who brought us the classic sitcoms The Office and Extras. Born in Bristol back on November 24th 1974, the 6"7 friendly giant is a Warwick university graduate who met Ricky Gervais while working with him at XFM Radio.
Hired at XFM back in 1997 where Ricky Gervais was 'Head of Speech' at the time, the pair were soon given their own Sunday afternoon radio show which features the typical XFM playlist and the duo's usual natterings. Although taking a voluntary redundancy in 1998 after XFM were bought out by The Capital Radio Group, the pair returned a few years later in 2001 where they came across the stupid but wickedly funny Karl Pilkington.
Providing many laughs for Ricky and radio listeners in the form of humorous anecdotes and responses, the witty Stephen Merchant has worked and made an appearance in many places, here is what would resemble his CV:
The Works of Merchant
The Office
- Co-directed and written with Ricky Gervais, The Office is a genius creation which gave us more laughs and more depth then any paper merchants could previously provide. A pseudo-documentary following an office and well-meaning but pathetically arrogant boss of a struggling sub-brand paper merchants. Steve makes a brief appearance on red nose day as Oggy, a friend of character Gareth Keenan in episode 5 of Series 2. More information in The Office section of the site.Extras
- Extras is a sitcom also co-written and directed by Stephen Merchant and follows Andy Millman, a struggling extra in productions who prefers to be known as a supporting artist and is forever in denial about how little he has accomplished in his 30 plus years of life. A supportive friend in the form of Maggie, living a similar life but is different in that she remains positive and helps Andy, if only in the way that knowing about her life allows him to view his own in a better light. Features appearances by some of the worlds biggest movie stars, view more information in the Extras section of the site.Ricky Gervais
Extras
The Office
Stand Ups
Media and Fun
Rickys Chums
AllGervais.com
