Stephen Merchant

Stephen Merchant - Comedy Giant

Stephen Merchant (born November 24, 1974 in Bristol, England) is co-writer and co-director with Ricky Gervais of the The Office and Extras, as well as being a co-host on Xfm London and The Ricky Gervais Podcast. Steve is 6 feet 7 inches tall; something which he claims is a bit of a physical disability. He currently lives in Finchley, London.

Childhood

Steve was born and raised in Bristol.

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 spectacles.

The Volvo and The Pig

(As featured on Xfm show -19th January 2002)

When Steve was 17, soon after he passed his driving test, Merchant borrowed his parent's Volvo estate to go to a party with the intention of wooing a girl he was keen on. At the party, sober Merchant followed the girl around to no avail. But when his friends suggested that they 'pick up Vera', he agreed to drive them because the girl of his infatuation was coming along. However he was slightly annoyed that a boy who the girl had been speaking to, was also coming with them. While driving through the country lanes of Somerset, his friends told Steve to drive into a field. Not wanting to appear uptight in front of his crush, he obliged. Steve stopped the car and his friends ran into darkness shouting for Vera. Some time later his friends returned to Steve who had been alone in the car, with a Vietnamese Pot Belly Pig. Again, Steve bowed to peer pressure and allowed them to bring the pig into the car. When Steve attempted to turn the car around to go back to the party, he wedged the car horizontally in a country lane. After many attempts, Steve was unable to shift the car. Steve began to the panic, and the stolen squeaking pig in the back did not help. Especially when the local farmers arrived. Such was his terror, all Merchant could think was that they were going to have to send a helicopter with a magnet to lift the car free. It was at this point that Stephen Merchant began to cry. The situation was rectified when the boy that the girl fancied got into the driving seat and freed the car, while Stephen Merchant sat in the back gently sobbing.

University

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 hall of residence, 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 Rosemary 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.

Personality Quirks

• Steve occasionally will take up a unique habit, such as smoking a pipe or wearing a bowtie. Of the latter, he remarked that it made him feel like P.G. Wodehouse's creations, Jeeves and Wooster.

• Appears to have a running streak of unrequited love affairs, as evidenced in the above Volvo and the Pig story. Other instances include a Pygmalion-type of infatuation with a homeless girl, Britney Spears, and a young lady he tried to impress by reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A 2006 trip to Brazil provoked anger with all the beautiful women who wouldn't look at him.

• Steve is notoriously "careful" with his money.

• Has argued he never uses a Y-front properly. Also will not relieve himself in the ocean while wearing his swimming trunks.

Career

Xfm

• In 1997, Steve was hired by London radio station Xfm as the assistant to the "Head of Speech", Ricky Gervais. Soon they were given their own slot on Sunday evenings. In 1998, Steve and Ricky took voluntary redundancy after the Capital Radio Group bought out Xfm.

• Iin 2001, Steve and Ricky were rehired by Xfm to present a two hour show on Saturday afternoons. It was through this show they discovered the unique "talents" of their producer Karl Pilkington.

The Office

• After taking voluntary redundancy from Xfm, Steve enrolled in a production course at the BBC. To complete part of the course, Steve enlisted Ricky to act in a short film called 'Seedy Boss'. This 30min film became the impetus for 'The Office', with much of Ricky's improvisation making it into the script.

• In Summer 2001, the first series of The Office was broadcast on BBC 2. Though a co-writer and co-director, Steve didn't appear on screen, cameoing only as a voice in a loudspeaker telephone conversation. However, Steve did appear in the second series as the minor character "Oggy" (also known as "The Oggmonster", though his real name is Nathan). Steve' 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.

• On 6th February 2006, it was announced that Merchant and Gervais were returning to The Office to script an episode for the third season of the US version of the programme.[1]

Extras

• Like with the Office, Steve and Ricky co-wrote and co-directed Extras. This time around however, Steve's cameo role is bumped up as he appears in a number of episodes as Andy Millman's (Ricky Gervais) hapless agent.

The Last Chancers

• In 2002 Merchant directed a one-off comedy called The Last Chancers for Channel 4's Comedy Lab strand.

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

• In 2003, he had a recurring role in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace as a Chef.

Bromwell High

• Steve voices Mr.Phillips on the short lived Channel 4 cartoon, "Bromwell High". Merchant voices the gym teacher

Nathan Barley

• 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.

Podcast

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

External links

• Complete credits for Stephen Merchant, including Writing, Directing, Performance and Radio Credits
• Curriculum Vitae of Stephen Merchant
• Xfm: Stephen Merchant Biography
• StephenMerchant.com
• RaW: Radio Warwick
• Tall man, taller success story - interview in The Telegraph - August 8, 2005
• Stephen Merchant at the Internet Movie Database
• Man Alive! The Stephen Merchant Love Page
• Smerch picture collection on Flickr