Actors - Stephen Merchant

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	Actors - Stephen Merchant

Stephen Merchant (born November 24, 1974 in Bristol, England) is co-writer and co-director with Ricky Gervais of the popular British sitcoms The Office
and Extras, as well as being a co-host on Xfm London and the ricky gervais podcasts. He is often referred to in pejorative terms, due to the fact he is 6 feet 7 inches tall; something which he claims is a bit of a Physical disability. He currently lives in Finchley, London.

He is a graduate of the University of Warwick and a former film reviewer on the student radio station, Radio Warwick. The station's 1995/96 yearbook, which tipped him for great things:

:Merchant, Steve: The man behind the funniest show on W963, the "Steve Show", highlights of which included an inspired take-off of the IRN news ('we spoke to Gerry Adams...'), an advert for Coventry Library ('Coventry Library makes no claims to be infinite'), attempting to give away an Aerosmith video to people on the toilet in Rootes , telephoning the library bridge security post to ask if they had seen a lost ball, as well as a series of snippets entitled 'At home with Rose and Fred West'. This show stood out from the crowd, as it was actually genuinely good. It's only a matter of time before Steve and his posse follow in the footsteps of Newman and Baddiel.

History

Childhood

During his childhood, described through the Xfm shows and podcasts, Stephen was a very shy character, tending to focus more on school work; information in his yearbook projecting him to be highly successful. Stephen has also confessed that during his childhood, he was pathologically shy; particularly around girls whom he had affection for, due to the fact he often states he developed an infatuation for them before formally speaking.

He has described his relatively normal childhood, which often is referred to as exceptional in relation to Karl Pilkington's. He has noted that throughout his childhood, his priorities were leaning towards studies as opposed to sports; something made apparent when he revealed he participated in Physical Education still wearing his glasses.

Professional Career

In 1997, Merchant was hired by London radio station Xfm to work with the "Head of Speech", Ricky Gervais. Soon they were given their own slot on Sunday evenings. During one show, Gervais and Merchant attempted to bleep the Super Furry Animals song "Man Don't Give A Fuck" live by pulling down the fader and making a noise in place of each of the fifty-plus mentions of the word "fuck" in the song. However, the pressure became too much for Gervais, who messed up and swore in frustration. In 1998, Merchant and Gervais took voluntary redundancy after the Capital Radio Group bought out Xfm.

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.

Merchant appeared as the minor character "Oggy" (also known as "The Oggmonster", though 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.

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 was also credited as an executive producer for the American version of The Office
, which stars Steve Carell.

The new Merchant-Gervais sitcom, Extras, premiered on BBC2 on July 21, 2005. Merchant stars as Darren Lamb, the "useless" agent of Andy Millman (Gervais).

Merchant's latest and most current work involves partnering Ricky Gervais in the new series of episodes of their , assisted also by Karl Pilkington. The podcasts are a follow-up to their award-winning radio shows on XFM, and have lately been rated the #1 most downloaded podcast in the world. Following the success of the first 12 show; Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington have continued to produce the programme as a paid for audiobook.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Stephen Merchant ]

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