Stephen Merchant (born 24 November 1974 in Bristol) is an English Emmy, Golden Globe, British Comedy Award and BAFTA-award winning writer, director, and comedic actor. He is best known for his work with his friend Ricky Gervais in the popular British sitcoms The Office and Extras, as well as The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio and podcast forms. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 328th day of the year (329th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A blonde haired, very skilled worker with a 70s look. ... This article is about the English city. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Monarch Queen Elizabeth II... BAFTA Award The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, childrens film and television, and interactive media. ... The Office is the title of multiple television situation comedy shows created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. ... An Emmy Award. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Office is the title of multiple television situation comedy shows created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. ... is the 328th day of the year (329th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A blonde haired, very skilled worker with a 70s look. ... This article is about the English city. ... An Emmy Award. ... The Golden Globe Awards are American awards for motion pictures and television programs, given out each year during a formal dinner. ... The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. ... The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), is a British organization that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, childrens film and television, and interactive media. ... Ricky Dene Gervais (IPA: according to how Gervais pronounces it on The Ricky Gervais Show) (born June 25, 1961) is an Emmy, Golden Globe and BAFTA award-winning English comic writer and performer from Reading, Berkshire. ... A British sitcom is a situation comedy (sitcom) produced in the United Kingdom. ... The Office is the title of multiple television situation comedy shows created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. ... Extras is a British television sitcom about extras working on film sets and in theatre. ... The Ricky Gervais Show is a comedy audio show in the UK starring Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington. ...

Merchant is 6 feet 7 inches (2.00m) tall. He lives with his girlfriend ^[1] and his friend (and occasional radio co-presenter) Dan Warren in Hampstead, London. , Hampstead is a suburb of north London in the London Borough of Camden, located four miles (6. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

Background

As he has described in Xfm London shows and podcasts, Merchant was a very shy child, tending to focus more on school work as opposed to sport. His school yearbook predicted that he would enjoy success. Merchant has also described his relatively normal childhood, which is often contrasted with that of his associate Karl Pilkington. Stephen once appeared on Blockbusters and began his career as a stand up comedian at Bristol's Comedy Box; "The first week I did really well,’ he remembers. ‘The second week I died on my arse. I realised that stand-up was not that easy after all’". He got to be a finalist at the 1998 Daily Telegraph Open Mic awards before joining Radio Caroline as a breakfast DJ. Xfm London is a commercial radio station in the United Kingdom. ... Karl Pilkington (born September 23, 1972 in Manchester) is an English, Sony Award-winning radio producer and personality best known for producing and co-presenting The Ricky Gervais Show on the radio station XFM. On October 3, 2006, Pilkingtons first book The World of Karl Pilkington was released, featuring... A game in progress on the British Bob Holness-hosted version of Blockbusters. ...

Merchant is a graduate of the University of Warwick in Coventry and a former film reviewer on the student radio station, Radio Warwick where he began his broadcasting career. The station's 1995/96 yearbook tipped him for great things: The University of Warwick coat of arms The University of Warwick is one of the leading universities in the United Kingdom. ... Radio Warwick or RaW is the student radio station at the University of Warwick and winner of the 2000 and 2003 BBC Radio 1 Student Radio Association Best Station awards. ...

Members of Steve's posse included noted film critic James King, Dan Warren, and Geraint the Welshman. He graduated with a 1st class degree in Film and Literature in 1996. Gerard Adams (Irish Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh[1]; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish Republican politician and abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. ... This article is about the band Aerosmith. ... Rosemary Pauline West (born November 29, 1953 as Rosemary Letts) is an English serial killer, now an inmate at HMP Bronzefield, Ashford, Middlesex. ... Frederick Walter Stephen West (September 29, 1941 – January 1, 1995) was a British serial killer. ... Newman and Baddiel was a comedy partnership of the 1990s consisting of British stand-up comics Rob Newman and David Baddiel. ... James King is a BBC Radio 1 movie critic. ...

Professional career

Stephen Merchant, along with long-time collaborator Ricky Gervais, made Golden Years, a Comedy Lab pilot for Channel 4 about a manager with a mid-life crisis who decides to go on Stars In Your Eyes as David Bowie, a hero of Gervais’s. The show wasn't a hit, but with the benefit of hindsight the seeds for The Office were apparently sown here. Nonetheless, it was enough to bring Gervais a slot on the Eleven O’Clock Show – and the rest of his history has been televised. In 1997, Merchant was hired by London radio station Xfm to work with the "Head of Speech", Gervais. In 1998, Merchant left Xfm to start a production course at the BBC before Xfm was bought out by the Capital Radio Group. Channel 4 is a public-service British television station, broadcast to all areas of the United Kingdom (and also the Republic of Ireland), which began transmissions in 1982. ... David Bowie (IPA: []) (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, actor, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger and audio engineer. ... The Eleven OClock Show was a television comedy programme on Channel 4. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ... Capital Radios headquarters Capital Radio was, until May 2005, a London-based British radio group. ...

In summer 2001, the first series of The Office was broadcast on BBC 2. Also in 2001, Merchant and Gervais were rehired by Xfm and soon discovered the unique "talents" of Karl Pilkington. This is a list of television-related events in 2001. ... BBC Two (or BBC2 as it was formerly styled) was the second UK television station to be aired by the BBC. History The channel was scheduled to begin at 7:20pm on April 20, 1964 and show an evening of light entertainment, starting with the comedy show The Alberts and... Karl Pilkington (born September 23, 1972 in Manchester) is an English, Sony Award-winning radio producer and personality best known for producing and co-presenting The Ricky Gervais Show on the radio station XFM. On October 3, 2006, Pilkingtons first book The World of Karl Pilkington was released, featuring...

Merchant made a cameo appearance as Oggy (also known as "The Oggmonster", although his real name is Nathan), a friend of Gareth Keenan, in the second series of The Office in 2002. His father, Ron Merchant, also appears as a character named "Gordon", an office handyman who becomes transfixed by the pseudo-documentary cameras whenever he walks into shot. Gareth Keenan after cycling to Wernam-Hogg in The Office. ... This is a list of television-related events in 2002. ...

In 2002 Merchant directed a one-off comedy called The Last Chancers for Channel 4's Comedy Lab strand. In 2003, he had a recurring role in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace as a chef. In 2004, he worked as a Script Associate on the Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker sitcom Nathan Barley, and had a cameo in Green Wing. Merchant is also an executive producer for the American version of The Office. This is a list of television-related events in 2002. ... Channel 4 is a public-service British television station, broadcast to all areas of the United Kingdom (and also the Republic of Ireland), which began transmissions in 1982. ... This is a list of television-related events in 2003. ... The cast of Darkplace, from left to right: Todd Rivers/Dr. Lucien Sanchez, Dean Learner/Thornton Reed, Garth Marenghi/Dr. Rick Dagless and Madeleine Wool/Dr. Liz Asher. ... The year 2004 in television involved some significant events. ... Chris Morris (born September 5, 1965 in Bristol, England) is an English satirical comedian, writer, producer, director, actor and radio DJ. Morris began his career in radio before later moving into television. ... Charlie (Charlton) Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is a British comedy writer, cartoonist, reviewer and television presenter. ... Nathan Barley is a Channel 4 sitcom about a fictional twenty-something loathsome London media type, written by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris. ... Green Wing is an award winning British television comedy, set in a hospital. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Office is an Emmy Award and Peabody Award-winning[1] American television comedy that debuted on NBC as a midseason replacement on March 24, 2005. ...

The most recent Merchant-Gervais sitcom, Extras, premiered on BBC2 on July 21, 2005. Merchant stars as Darren Lamb, the incompetent agent of Andy Millman (Gervais), a role for which he won a British Comedy Award in 2006 for Best TV Actor.^[2] is the 202nd day of the year (203rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Darren Lamb (bottom) and Andy Millman Darren Lamb is the name of a fictional theatrical agent portrayed by Stephen Merchant on the BBC Two television sitcom Extras, written and directed by both Merchant and his frequent collaborator Ricky Gervais. ... Andy Millman is a character from the BBC/HBO co-production Extras. ... The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. ...

In 2005 Merchant starred as a radio football sports commentator in the sitcom No Skillz. Stephen Merchant stars as a hilarious regional radio sports commentator of a side-splitting football match in No Skillz, a comedy sitcom. ...

In 2006, Merchant and long-time comedy partner Ricky Gervais recorded a series of episodes of their podcasts, assisted by Karl Pilkington. The podcasts were a follow-up to their award-winning radio shows on Xfm, and were rated the #1 most downloaded podcast in the world. Following the success of the first 12 shows, offered for free, the trio went on to produce two more series. At the end of the third series, Gervais announced that they would be taking a break from podcasts, only to return weeks later, announcing three more free podcasts. Those aired at Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas 2006. Karl Pilkington (born September 23, 1972 in Manchester) is an English, Sony Award-winning radio producer and personality best known for producing and co-presenting The Ricky Gervais Show on the radio station XFM. On October 3, 2006, Pilkingtons first book The World of Karl Pilkington was released, featuring...

On February 6, 2006, it was announced that Merchant and Gervais were returning to The Office to write an episode for the third season of the American version of the programme.^[3] Entitled "The Convict", it premiered on November 30, 2006. The Convict is the ninth episode of the third season of The Office (U.S. version). ...

In winter 2006, Merchant had a cameo role in the Fox series 24. He had a non-speaking "blink and you'll miss it" role as an analyst (sitting at a computer) in the sixth season opener. 24 is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television series created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, and produced by Imagine Television. ...

He also had a small role in 2007 film Hot Fuzz as Peter Ian Staker (P. I. Staker - Piss taker), a man who loses his swan. Hot Fuzz is a 2007 British police action/comedy film written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. ...

Starting 14 January 2007, Merchant began a radio show on BBC 6 music, running Sundays from 3-5pm.^[4] The show focuses not on comedy but on music and particularly on "new music," which Steve defines as "Music you've not heard before." Presenters and listeners suggest songs to play which Merchant then may add to his playlist for future shows. Currently featured on the show are long-time friends of Steve's, including his housemate Dan Warren (a friend since university), Harry (a friend from youth in Bristol), and posh actor Rufus Wright (who appeared in an episode of Extras). After a spring search process, Merchant and his mates selected ex-Byker Grove actor Sammy T. Dobson^[5] to join them on air as their She-J. Extras is a British television sitcom about extras working on film sets and in theatre. ...

Notes

External links

• Steve's BBC 6Music site
• Stephen interviewed on BBC Radio Five Live
• Stephen Merchant Wiki and Forum - Pilkipedia
• Curriculum Vitae of Stephen Merchant
• 6Music homepage
• Xfm: Stephen Merchant Biography
• RaW: Radio Warwick
• Tall man, taller success story - interview in The Telegraph - August 8, 2005
• Stephen Merchant at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Barbara Ellen in The Observer Magazine - November 5, 2006
• Radar Online interview - January 11, 2007
• Merchant stars as a radio football sports commentator in comedy sitcom 'No Skillz'
• LankyGoggleEyedFreak.com, a Steve Merchant fansite - featuring Smerch Alerts, telling you what Merchant is up to