Stephen Merchant

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Stephen Merchant - Comedy Giant

Stephen Merchant (born 24 November 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 Show podcast. He currently hosts a radio show on BBC 6Music. He lives in Hampstead Heath, London with his girlfriend.

Childhood

Steve was born and raised in Bristol. His parents are Ron and Elaine Merchant, and he has a younger sister Alex Merchant (who served as the art director on The Office).

During his childhood as described through the Xfm shows and podcasts, Stephen was shy and tended to focus on school work; his yearbook projected he would be highly successful. Stephen has also confessed that during his youth he was particularly shy around girls whom he had affection for. This was due to the fact he often developed an infatuation for them before formally speaking.

Steve has described his childhood as relatively normal. He leaned towards studies as opposed to sports, which is corroborated by the fact that he participated in Physical Education still wearing his spectacles.

On His Height

On an Xfm show, Steve reported that when he was 16 and at a New Year's Eve party, he was holding some balloons and two girls approached him. They asked him if he would be at the party for a while and excitedly, Steve said yes. The girls replied "Good, because we are planning to meet back at you in an hour."

Steve claims his height should be considered a disability as he is forced to buy larger and more expensive items, such as cars, furniture, clothes and shoes.

Troubles With Women

Steve has a long history of unrequited love affairs. Perhaps the most well-known anecdote about his troubles with women is the "Volvo and The Pig" story. Soon after passing his driving test, Merchant borrowed his parent's Volvo to go to a party with the intention of wooing a girl he was keen on. At the party, Steve followed the girl around to no avail. But when his friends suggested that they leave to "pick up Vera," he agreed to drive them because the girl was coming along. He was slightly annoyed, however, that another boy whom the girl apparently fancied was also coming with them. Steve and his friends eventually parked in a field, and his friends ran off to grab Vera: a Vietnamese potbellied pig. Not wanting to appear uptight in front of his crush, he 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. Steve began to panic, and feared that the only solution would be to call a helicopter with a magnet to lift the car free. It was at this point that Steve began to cry. The situation was rectified when the boy that the girl fancied got into the driving seat and freed the car, leaving Steve in the back of the Volvo, emasculated.

While in sixth form, Steve became infatuated with a girl with whom he was performing in a school play. He started reading the philosophical novel "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" during rehearsals to impress her. His plan proved unsuccessful, however, as the girl he fancied eventually wound up with Steve's rival Martin Wells -- a boy who was prone to walking around without his trousers on.

University

Original Steve Show flyer


Steve is a graduate of the University of Warwick where he was a film reviewer on the student radio station, Radio Warwick. The school's 1995/96 yearbook 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

  • As a teenager, Steve wore a bowtie for about 6 months to be distinctive. He says this made him feel like a P.G. Wodehouse character.
  • Steve is notoriously "careful" with his money. He was gutted when he discovered he could have saved 20 pounds on a video game system he had just purchased. He asked Ricky to give him 20 pounds to make him feel better.
  • Steve will not relieve himself in the ocean while wearing his swimming trunks.
  • He refuses to mosh at concerts for fear of losing his glasses. Steve also admits that if he were ever in a fight, the other person need only remove his glasses to win.
  • Steve admitted to once hiding in his garage because there was a gang of teens outside his flat.
  • He enjoys hip hop, which he often refers to as "hippity hop."

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.
  • In 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's 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]
  • Merchant and Gervais are Executive Producers for the American version of The Office, which stars Steve Carell.

Extras

  • Steve and Ricky also co-wrote and co-directed Extras. This time around however, Steve's role is bumped up as he appears in a number of episodes as Andy Millman's (Ricky Gervais) hapless agent Darren Lamb. Darren works part-time at the Carphone Warehouse and did not notice when the phone at the agency was unplugged for two days.

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

Bromwell High

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

Nathan Barley

No Skillz

  • In 2005 Merchant starred as a radio football sports commentator in comedy sitcom No Skillz. Steve's real-life flatmate and friend Dan Warren acted as the co-commentator.

Podcast

  • In 2005/2006, Merchant partnered with Gervais and Pilkington in a series of episodes of their podcasts. The podcasts are a follow-up to their award-winning radio shows on XFM, and were ranked the #1 most downloaded podcast in the world. Following the success of the first 12 shows, Steve, Ricky and Karl continued to produce the programme as a paid-for audiobook.

6 Music Radio Show

Hot Fuzz

  • In 2007, the film Hot Fuzz was released, featuring an appearance by Merchant who plays "Peter Ian Staker" (P. I. Staker - Piss taker), whose swan has run away.

External links

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