Stephen Merchant

British actor, writer, director and comedian. He is most famous for being the co-writer and co-director of the sitcom The Office.

TV and Radio Career

Stephen Merchant was born on November 24 1974 in Bristol. From 1993 to 1996, he studied Film and Literature at the University of Warwick, where he also hosted a student radio programme called The Steve Show. [1] In 2007, following his graduation at Warwick, he became Ricky Gervais’ assistant at the London-based radio station Xfm. [2]

Shotly afterwards, he became a trainee at the BBC and in 2003, as part of a directing exercise, Gervais and Merchant made the short film The Seedy Boss, which was a fake documentary. This film was later developed into the famous sitcom The Office. After the great success of The Office in the UK, Merchant and Gervais produced the US version of their award-winning series. [3]

Gervais and Merchant also wrote and directed the sitcoms Extras and Life’s Too Short together. [4]

Stand-up

Along with Jimmy Carr, Robin Ince, and Ricky Gervais, he did stand-up comedy at the the Edinburgh Festival for two weeks. Even though it went very well, Merchant took a break from stand-up comedy to focus on his and Gervais' TV work. [3] In 2011, after a 7-year-break, Stephen Merchant returned to stand-up comedy with his own new show Hello Ladies. [5] After a nationally and also internationally successful tour, Hello Ladies was made into a TV comedy series, staring Stephen Merchant as the main character Stuart Pritchard. The series, however, only ran for one season from September until November 2013 and it was wrapped up with a movie special. [6]

Acting

In July 2015, Stephen Merchant will celebrate his acting and West End debut at Wyndham’s Theatre, where he will share the stage with Steffan Rhodri from the series Gavin and Stacey. He will play the character Ted in The Mentalists, which was written by Richard Bean in 2002. [4]

References

1. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/alumni/ouralumni/notable2/merchant, accessed 16th May 2015

2. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/nov/02/stephen-merchant-interview, accessed 16th May 2015

3. http://www.stephenmerchant.com, accessed 16th May 2015

4. http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/feb/25/stephen-merchant-west-end-debut-the-mentalists-richard-bean, accessed 16th May 2015

5. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/arts/television/stephen-merchant-moves-from-gervaiss-shadow-to-stand-up.html, accessed 16th May 2015

6. http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/hello-ladies-cancelled-no-season-two-31327