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Ricky Gervais in The OfficeRicky Gervais (born June 25, 1961) is an English comic writer and performer from Reading, Berkshire, England. He grew up in Whitley, on a council estate. Gervais has recently achieved mainstream fame, enjoying success with his award-winning BBC2 television programme The Office, which he co-wrote and co-directed with long-term friend and collaborator Stephen Merchant. As well as writing and directing the show, Gervais also played the lead role of David Brent. In 2005, Gervais returned to BBC Television with his new sitcom, Extras
Background
Gervais's father is of Quebecois descent and grew up in Quebec, and came to the UK on duty during the Second World War, where he met his wife. Raised as the youngest of four brothers, Ricky Gervais has described his childhood as nice and "normal".

Gervais received his early education at Reading's Ashmead School. He then went on to University College London in 1979 to study biology, later switching to philosophy where he graduated with a 2:2. During the early 1980s Gervais remained in London and met his long-term partner Jane Fallon. He was also the lead singer of the New Romantic group Seona Dancing. The group released two singles that failed to break the top 40 in the UK: "Bitter Heart", and "More To Lose", which became a massive hit in the Philippines in 1985. This came as a great surprise to the band, who had actually broken up the previous year.

 

Radio
After various odd jobs, including working in an office, a stint as events manager at the University of London Union followed in the early 1990s. Through this, Gervais went on to briefly manage the British rock group Suede in their pre-record contract days before taking a job at London radio station XFM in 1996, though he was sacked when the station was taken over by the Capital Radio group. He was also music advisor for the popular BBC drama This Life at this time, thanks to the show's producer: Jane Fallon.

Gervais returned to XFM for a Saturday afternoon radio show that first went on the air in November 2001 and ran intermittently until January 2004 with breaks ranging between 1-3 months between new shows. After that, Gervais took 18 months off to work on his new television show Extras, write Flanimals, and perform his live show: Politics. He returned to the airwaves on 28 May 2005 to host the show once again with Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant. 42 episodes of the radio show are archived at xfm.co.uk/ricky.

Gervais is currently producing a run of new episodes similar to his XFM radio show (including Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant). The show, produced in conjunction with the Guardian Unlimited website, is available exclusively online as weekly thirty minute podcasts, without music. The first episode was made available on December 5, 2005. [1]

During Christmas 2005, Gervais was heard on BBC Radio 2 on Christmas Eve & New Years Eve alongside Stephen Merchant.

Television
Gervais' mainstream TV debut came in September 1998 as part of Channel 4's "Comedy Lab" series of pilots. His one-off show, "Golden Years", focused on a David Bowie-obsessed character called Clive Meadows. He then came to much wider national attention with an obnoxious, cutting persona featuring in a topical slot which replaced Ali G's segments on the satirical Channel 4 comedy programme The 11 O'Clock Show in early 1999. Gervais later went on to present his own comedy chat show for Channel 4 called Meet Ricky Gervais two years later which was poorly received and has since been mocked by Gervais himself.

Throughout this time, Gervais also wrote for the long-lost BBC sketch show "Bruiser", and cameoed in Simon Pegg's sitcom Spaced. A home-made pilot for The Office, made with Xfm cohort Stephen Merchant, surfaced in 1999/2000, and was bought up by the BBC. After that, Extras first aired from 21 July 2005 with an appearance by Ben Stiller. It features cameos from Patrick Stewart, Kate Winslet (who is also from Reading), and others. Gervais's main character, Andy Millman, is more self-aware and intentionally humorous than David Brent, and the programme has not been made in the style of a mockumentary, as was The Office.

The Office
Main article: The Office
The first, six-episode series of The Office aired in the UK in July/August 2001 to little fanfare or attention [2], but word-of-mouth, repeats and DVDs helped spread the word [3], building up huge momentum and anticipation for the second series, also made up of six episodes, in September 2002. The second series topped the BBC2 ratings, and the show then switched to the larger BBC1 channel in December 2003 for its final two special episodes.

Main article: Extras (sitcom)
A six-episode sitcom about extras working on movies. Written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Aired in the UK in July 2005 and the US in September 2005.

Stand-up
Gervais also toured the UK in 2003 with his stand-up show Animals, with one show recorded for DVD release and television broadcast. The Politics tour then followed a year later, and the third part of the themed live trilogy, Science, will hit the road in late 2005.

  "The Simpsons" (1989) TV Series (written by) (episode "Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife") (2006)
"Extras" (2005/I) TV Series (written by)
"The Office" (2005) TV Series (creator) (writer) (episode 1.01 "Pilot")
"Kelsey Grammer Presents: The Sketch Show" (2005) TV Series (writer)
Ricky Gervais Live 2: Politics (2004) (V)
"Stromberg" (2004) TV Series (creator "The Office")
Ricky Gervais Live: Animals (2003) (V)
"The Sketch Show" (2001) TV Series (writer)
"The Office" (2001) TV Series (written by)
"Meet Ricky Gervais" (2000) TV Series (writer)
"Bruiser" (2000/II) TV Series (additional material)
"The 11 O'Clock Show" (1998) TV Series (writer)
Golden Years (1998) (TV)