Stephen Merchant

Stephen Merchant
Stephen Merchant, March 29, 2007
Born	Stephen James Merchant 24 November 1974 (1974-11-24) (age 34) Bristol, England

Stephen James Merchant (born 24 November 1974) is a British Comedy Award-, BAFTA-, Emmy- and Golden Globe-award winning English writer, director, radio presenter, and comic actor. He may be best known as the co-writer of the popular British sitcoms The Office, as the co-writer and a co-star of Extras, and as the co-host of The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio (for which the show won a bronze Sony Award) and podcast forms.

Early life

Merchant was born in Bristol, England, the son of Jane Elaine (née Hibbs), a nursery nurse, and Ronald John Merchant, an insurance representative.^[1] He attended Hanham High School. As he has described in Xfm London shows and podcasts, Merchant was a very shy child, tending to focus more on school work as opposed to sport. His school yearbook predicted that he would enjoy success. Merchant has also described his relatively normal childhood, which is often contrasted with that of his associate Karl Pilkington.

Merchant is a graduate of the University of Warwick and a former film reviewer on the student radio station, Radio Warwick where he began his broadcasting career. The station's 1995/96 yearbook tipped him for great things:

Members of Merchant's posse included film critic James King, Dan Warren, and Geraint the Welshman. He graduated with a first class degree in Film and Literature in 1996.

Professional career

Early days

Merchant once appeared on Blockbusters. He began his career as a stand-up comedian at Bristol's Comedy Box; "The first week I did really well,’ he remembers. ‘The second week I died on my arse. I realised that stand-up was not that easy after all’". He got to be a finalist at the 1998 Daily Telegraph Open Mic awards before joining Radio Caroline as a breakfast DJ.

Merchant and long-time collaborator-friend Ricky Gervais, made Golden Years, a Comedy Lab pilot for Channel 4 about a manager with a mid-life crisis who decides to go on Stars In Your Eyes as David Bowie, a hero of Gervais’. The show wasn't a hit, but with the benefit of hindsight the seeds for The Office were apparently sown here. Nonetheless, it was enough to bring Gervais a slot on the Eleven O’Clock Show. In 1997, Merchant was hired by London radio station Xfm to work with the "Head of Speech", Gervais. In 1998, Merchant left Xfm to start a production course at the BBC before Xfm was bought out by the Capital Radio Group.

The Office and Extras

In mid-2001, the first series of The Office was broadcast on BBC 2. Also in 2001, Merchant and Gervais were rehired by Xfm and discovered Karl Pilkington.

Merchant made a cameo appearance as Oggy (also known as "The Oggmonster", although 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 documentary cameras whenever he walks into shot.

Merchant is also an executive producer for the American version of The Office. On 6 February 2006 it was announced that Merchant and Gervais were returning to The Office to write an episode for the third season of the American version of the programme.^[2] Titled "The Convict", it premiered on 30 November 2006. In 2008, Merchant directed an episode of the American Office entitled "Customer Survey".

The most recent Merchant-Gervais sitcom, Extras, premiered on BBC2 on 21 July 2005. Merchant stars as Darren Lamb, the incompetent agent of Andy Millman (Gervais), a role for which he won a British Comedy Award in 2006 for Best TV Actor.^[3]

Other roles

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. In 2005 Merchant starred as a radio football sports commentator in the sitcom No Skillz. In winter 2006, Merchant had a cameo role in the Fox series 24. He had a non-speaking 4-second role as an analyst sitting at a computer in the sixth season opener.

He also had small roles in 2007 films Hot Fuzz as Peter Ian Staker (P. I. Staker - Piss taker), a man who loses his swan and in Run Fat Boy Run as a man with a broken leg.

Merchant will be appearing alongside Dwayne Johnson in the 2010 film Tooth Fairy.

Merchant, along with collaborator Ricky Gervais, is currently working on a film called Cemetery Junction, set in working-class England in the 1970s.

In 2009, Merchant was the voiceover in the Barclays and Waterstones adverts in the UK.

Also in 2009, on 12 November, Merchant is appearing at Friends of the Earth’s LIVEstock 2009 comedy and music event in support of the green campaign group’s Food Chain Campaign for planet-friendly farming.

In 2010, Merchant will appear in a documentary called Weather Up Here in which he talks openly about his height issues in Northern England.

Merchant had a cameo in Ricky Gervais' 2009 film The Invention of Lying.

Podcasts

In 2006, Merchant and long-time comedy partner Ricky Gervais recorded a series of episodes of their podcasts,^[4] assisted by Karl Pilkington. The podcasts were a follow-up to their award-winning radio shows on Xfm, and were rated the most downloaded podcast of all time. Following the success of the first 12 shows, offered for free, the trio went on to produce two more series. At the end of the third series, Gervais announced that they would be taking a break from podcasts, only to return weeks later, announcing three more free podcasts. Those aired at Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas 2006.

Merchant also interviewed Jimmy Fallon and Chevy Chase for the Amnesty International Secret Policeman's Ball podcasts in October 2006.^[5]

In August 2008, Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington recorded a set of audiobooks running over 2 hours, which were released on the 16th of September. In December 2008 Merchant, Gervais and Pilkington released the first of a new series of topical audiobooks.

6 Music show

Starting on 14 January 2007, Merchant began a radio show on BBC 6 music, running Sundays from 3:30-5:30pm.^[6] The show focused not on comedy but on music and particularly on "new music," which Steve defined as "Music you've not heard before." Steve also regularly played classic hip-hop, which he referred to as "hippity hop". Presenters and listeners suggested songs to play which Merchant then added to his playlist for future shows. Also featured on the show were long-time friends of Steve's, including his former housemate Dan Warren (a friend since university), Harry (a friend from youth in Bristol), and posh actor Rufus Gerrard-Wright (who appeared in an episode of Extras). After a spring search process, Merchant and his mates selected former Byker Grove actor Sammy T. Dobson^[7] to join them on air as their "She-J".

After 4 seasons of 'The Steve Show' the final show was broadcast on May 3, 2009.

Personal life

Merchant spent two years dating digital advertising producer Claire Jones, although their relationship reportedly ended in 2009.^[8]

Appearance

Merchant's considerable height (6 ft 7ins or 2.01 m tall)^[9] has been a source of humour and teasing throughout his career. He made a cameo appearance in The Office, playing a character called the Ogg-Monster, whom David Brent called "a big lanky goggle-eyed freak" because of his size.^[10] His height, and also dance moves, have attracted comments from several sources. The Daily Mail newspaper described him as a "giant albatross hopping on stilts"^[11] as he danced in a London pub (although Merchant refuted this claim during an episode of the Ricky Gervais Show, stating that he did not take to the dance floor on that occasion). Friend and collaborator Ricky Gervais has likened him to an "upright lizard being given electro-shock treatment"^[12] and a "stick insect with glasses"^[12] or Beaker from The Muppet Show.^[13] Radio producer and co-host of Merchant, Karl Pilkington, has described his moves as a "bit of weird art"^[14] in the past, while British comic and broadcaster Russell Brand has likened him to a "graceful grasshopper".^[15] Merchant has commented that he prefers to liken himself to fellow tall man and English football player, Peter Crouch^[12] who is also six foot seven inches. Merchant impersonated Crouch in a BBC sketch broadcast as part of the pre-match build-up to England's opening game at the 2006 World Cup.

References

External links

• Stephan Merchant's Official Website
• A google knol on Stephen Merchant
• Stephen Merchant at the Internet Movie Database
• Steve's BBC 6Music site
• Stephen interviewed on BBC Radio Five Live
• Stephen Merchant Wiki and Forum - Pilkipedia
• 6Music homepage
• Xfm: Stephen Merchant Biography
• RaW: Radio Warwick
• Tall man, taller success story - interview in The Telegraph - 8 August 2005
• Interview with Barbara Ellen in The Observer Magazine - 5 November 2006
• Radar Online interview - 11 January 2007
• Merchant stars as a radio football sports commentator in comedy sitcom 'No Skillz'
• An Englishman abroad