Stephen Merchant facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Stephen Merchant
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Merchant in 2012
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Stephen James Merchant
24 November 1974 Bristol, England
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| Alma mater | University of Warwick |
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| Years active | 1997–present |
| Height | 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) |
Stephen James Merchant (born November 24, 1974) is a famous English comedian, actor, director, and writer. He is well-known for creating the British TV comedy series The Office (2001–2003) with Ricky Gervais. They also worked together on Extras (2005–2007) and Life's Too Short (2011–2013).
Stephen Merchant, Ricky Gervais, and Karl Pilkington hosted The Ricky Gervais Show as a radio show, podcast, and TV series. The radio version even won an award! Stephen also voiced Wheatley, a robot in the popular 2011 video game Portal 2. He helped create the travel show An ... Abroad (2010–2012) and Lip Sync Battle (2015–2019).
Merchant has performed stand-up comedy, which led to his HBO series Hello Ladies (2013–2014). He also starred in a play called The Mentalists in London in 2015. He wrote and directed the films Cemetery Junction (2010) and Fighting with My Family (2019). More recently, he starred in, co-wrote, and co-directed the comedy crime series The Outlaws (2021–present).
Stephen Merchant has won many awards for his work. These include a Peabody Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three BAFTA Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four British Comedy Awards.
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Stephen Merchant's Early Life and Education
Stephen James Merchant was born in Hanham, a part of Bristol, England, on November 24, 1974. His mother, Jane Elaine, was a nursery nurse, and his father, Ronald John, was a plumber. Stephen went to Hanham Secondary School.
From 1993 to 1996, he studied at the University of Warwick in Coventry. He earned a degree in Film and Literature. While at university, he worked as a film reviewer for the student radio station, Radio Warwick. This is where he started his career in broadcasting.
Stephen Merchant was inspired to get into comedy by the famous comedian John Cleese. In 2019, he shared a funny story about how his parents met John Cleese on a cruise. Cleese recorded a message for Stephen, saying he was a "huge fan" of The Office. Stephen felt that message was all he needed and didn't feel the need to meet him in person after that!
Stephen Merchant's Career Journey
Starting Out in Comedy
Stephen Merchant began his career doing stand-up comedy at a place called Comedy Box in Bristol. He recalled that his first show went very well, but then he realized stand-up was harder than it looked! He also appeared on the TV game show Blockbusters in 1997. For a short time, he worked as a DJ for Radio Caroline.
Merchant first met Ricky Gervais in 1997. Gervais was the Head of Speech at the radio station XFM London and hired Merchant as his assistant. They started hosting a Saturday afternoon radio show together. They left XFM in August 1998 when the station was bought by another company.
After leaving XFM, Merchant took a production course at the BBC. For his course, he asked Gervais to act in a short film called "Seedy Boss." This film later became the first idea for their famous show, The Office. They also worked on a comedy show pilot called Golden Years. It aired on Channel 4 in 1998 but didn't become a full series.
Success with The Office and Radio
In mid-2001, BBC Two aired the first series of The Office. Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais co-wrote and co-directed it. Gervais starred as the paper sales office manager, David Brent. The show didn't get many viewers at first.
In September 2001, Merchant and Gervais returned to XFM. They hosted The Ricky Gervais Show again on Saturday afternoons. This is where they started working with producer Karl Pilkington. They took a break from the radio show in 2002 to film the second series of The Office. Merchant even had a small role in one episode as a friend named Oggy. His father also appeared in the show as a handyman.
The Office Christmas special aired in December 2003. The radio show then went off the air in January 2004. In 2004, Merchant appeared in other TV shows like Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and Green Wing. That same year, The Office became very popular in the U.S.. It won a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.
The Office in America
In March 2005, the American version of The Office started. Merchant and Gervais were executive producers. They also wrote an episode together called "The Convict." Merchant directed an episode in the fifth season called "Customer Survey."
Popular Podcasts
In December 2005, Merchant, Gervais, and Pilkington started a weekly podcast, also called The Ricky Gervais Show. It quickly became the most popular podcast in the world! It was even certified by Guinness World Records as the most-downloaded podcast of all time. They recorded more series and special episodes until Christmas Eve 2006. In 2008, they recorded more podcasts and audiobooks.
Extras and The Steve Show
In July 2005, Gervais and Merchant's new comedy show Extras premiered on BBC Two. Merchant played Darren Lamb, the not-so-great agent for Andy Millman, played by Gervais. Extras was very successful. Merchant won a British Comedy Award in 2006 for his role as Darren Lamb. The show also won a Rose d'Or and a Golden Globe.
In January 2007, Merchant started his own radio show on BBC 6 Music called The Steve Show. It aired on Sunday afternoons and focused on music, especially "new music." The show also featured his friends. "The Steve Show" ran for four series and ended in May 2009.
Stand-up Comedy Tours
Stephen Merchant started doing stand-up comedy in the late 1990s. He was good at it, but decided to focus on writing with Ricky Gervais after The Office became a hit. He performed in a show called Rubbernecker in 2001 with Ricky Gervais and other comedians.
Merchant returned to stand-up comedy with a UK tour in September 2011, called Hello Ladies. The tour ended in New York and was later released on DVD. He continued the tour in Australia and New Zealand in 2012. In October 2014, he performed his first stand-up tour in Scandinavia.
Hello Ladies TV Series
Merchant's comedy series Hello Ladies started on HBO on September 29, 2013. In the show, he played Stuart Pritchard, a website designer in Los Angeles who tries to meet women but isn't very successful. The show was based on his stand-up comedy. Ricky Gervais was not involved in this show. After eight episodes, HBO did not make a second season, but they aired a special movie in November 2014 to finish the story.
Other Projects and Voice Acting
Merchant has had small roles in several films, including Hot Fuzz (2007), Run Fatboy Run (2007), and The Invention of Lying (2009). He also appeared in the 2010 film Tooth Fairy.
In 2010, Gervais and Merchant wrote and had small roles in Life's Too Short, a TV show starring Warwick Davis. In 2011, Merchant lent his voice to the animated film Gnomeo & Juliet and was in the comedy Hall Pass. He starred in I Give It a Year in 2013.
Stephen Merchant is the voice of Wheatley in the 2011 video game Portal 2. This role earned him great praise from reviewers. He said the project was "exhausting" but he was "very pleased" with how people reacted to it. In 2013, he voiced Wheatley again for a weapon in the game Team Fortress 2.
Since 2009, Merchant has provided voice-overs for advertisements for companies like Barclays and Waterstones. In 2014, he starred in commercials for Newcastle Brown Ale and Cadillac.
He is an executive producer for the show Lip Sync Battle. In July 2015, Merchant starred in his first play, The Mentalists, in London. He also appeared in three episodes of The Big Bang Theory as Dave Gibbs.
In 2017, Merchant played Caliban in the X-Men movie Logan. He is also an executive producer for Dream Corp, LLC, an animated series that started in 2016.
On Christmas Eve 2018, Merchant appeared with Asim Chaudhry in the comedy Click & Collect on BBC One. Merchant also played Captain Deertz, a Nazi Gestapo leader, in the Oscar-winning film Jojo Rabbit.
In 2019, Merchant wrote and directed Fighting with My Family. This film is a comedy-drama based on a true story about English professional wrestler Saraya Bevis. The movie starred Florence Pugh and Jack Lowden, and also Dwayne Johnson. Fighting with My Family was very successful at the box office.
In 2021, Merchant appeared in The Outlaws, a crime thriller comedy set in Bristol. He also helped create, write, produce, and direct the show. A second series aired in 2022, and a third in 2024.
Stephen Merchant's Personal Life
Since December 2018, Stephen Merchant has been in a relationship with American actress Mircea Monroe. He lives in a house in Los Angeles that used to belong to Ellen DeGeneres. He also owns a home in London.
Stephen Merchant is very tall, standing at 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 meters). His friend Ricky Gervais once joked that his dance moves looked like an "upright lizard being given electroshock treatment." Gervais also called him a "stick insect with glasses." Karl Pilkington described his dancing as "weird art." Merchant prefers to compare himself to the footballer Peter Crouch, who is the same height. He even pretended to be Crouch in a BBC sketch once!
In December 2019, Merchant was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs. He chose a piano as his luxury item and "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen as his favorite song.
Images for kids
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Stephen Merchant in January 2011
See also
In Spanish: Stephen Merchant para niños
