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.
Stephen Merchant was born on November 24, 1974 in Bristol, England. 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]1
Following his graduation at Warwick, he first went back to Bristol to work before Ricky Gervais accepted his job application at the London-based radio station Xfm.
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 Boss, which was a fake documentary. This film later developed into the famous sitcom The Office.
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. [2]2
References
1. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/alumni/ouralumni/notable2/merchant, accessed 16th May 2015
2. http://www.stephenmerchant.com, accessed 16th May 2015