Television writer, director and actor Stephen Merchant first made his mark as co-creator of the innovative BBC television show, “The Office” (BBC2, 2001-03), which became an instant comedy classic adapted into several international spin-offs. The multi-talented, unusually tall 6’7” lad from the West Country had enjoyed moderate success as a stand-up comic and radio personality prior to “The Office,” which marked the beginning of his creative partnership with fellow comedian, Ricky Gervais. The pair went on to create a wildly popular radio show – which evolved into a podcast – and a second TV comedy, “Extras,” for which Merchant received a British Comedy Award for Best Actor.
The future giant of comedy was born on Nov. 24, 1974, in Bristol, England to parents Ron and Elaine Merchant. The plumber and nurse would add a daughter Alexandria to the family four years later. From early on, young Stephen was obsessed with comedy, writing and radio. His hero was fellow tall man and local celebrity, John Cleese, and Merchant dreamed of someday writing a TV show as highly-regarded as “Fawlty Towers” (BBC2, 1975, 1979). Despite being a shy and bookish teenager who went through a six-month phase of wearing bow ties, Merchant was not shy about pursuing his talents. He participated in school theatrical productions and started working as mobile DJ when he was 16. At one point, the gangly teen decided that if people were going to be looking at and up at him all the time, it might as well be because he was on television.
Merchant enrolled at the University of Warwick in Coventry, where he studied film and literature and helmed his own comedy and music radio show which built up a considerable local following. After graduating from college in 1996, he returned to Bristol and began doing stand-up comedy, experiencing some success in the arena and eventually winning the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award. In 1997, he applied for a job at London’s alternative rock station Xfm – not to be confused with the satellite radio service xm – as an assistant to the Head of Speech, Ricky Gervais. Gervais hired Merchant after explaining that he had no idea what he was doing, and that if Merchant was willing to do all the work, he could get away with whatever he liked.
The two were an instant comedy duo – one, a round, cackling, prankster; the other, a lanky, reserved straight man with a high tolerance for Gervais’ irritating habits. A month into their working relationship, the radio station was bought out and the two accepted offers to leave voluntarily. Merchant enrolled in a TV production training course at the BBC, and for his short film project, he called upon Gervais to shoot a largely improvised 10-minute piece called “Seedy Boss.”This 1998 short was the basis for what would become “The Office,” both in its one-camera execution – which was born out of necessity of shooting a student film – and it is a main character — egotistical, self-proclaimed funnyman and boss David Brent.
Over the next few years, while Merchant went on to write for Sacha Baron Cohen’s “The Eleven O’Clock Show,” word of mouth had spread on the hilarious “Seedy Boss.” It made it’s way to the brass at BBC2, who requested a pilot episode. Merchant and Gervais began shooting in early 2000, but were unhappy with the initial result, as it did not yet capture their vision of coming off like a pieced-together documentary, rather than a standard sitcom with a beginning, middle, and end. They nailed it the second time around, so the BBC ordered a full season of the brilliant and subtle portrait of monotonous office life in a nowhere town.“The Office” debuted in the summer of 2001, going on to become one of the most successful comedies in BBC history, adapted into versions for American, French, German, Canadian, and Norwegian audiences.
The show earned two Golden Globe Awards, 3 BAFTA Awards, 3 British Comedy Awards, and an Emmy for the U.S. version of “The Office.” With this incredible “Office” success, was the even more amazing fact that Merchant achieved his childhood dream by the young age of 26. Following the end of the show’s two-year U.K. run and his subsequent involvement in launching NBC’s American version of “The Office,” Merchant directed an unaired comedy called “The Last Chancers” for Channel 4. Then the multi-talented Merchant stepped out from behind the camera for appearances in British TV comedies “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” (Channel 4, 2004) and “Green Wing” (Channel 4, 2004-’07). In 2004, he worked as a script consultant on the sitcom “Nathan Barley” (Channel 4, 2005), while he and Gervais developed their next critically acclaimed collaboration.
“Extras” (HBO, BBC2) premiered in July of 2005 and was a departure from “The Office” in more ways than one – not the least of which being that this time, Merchant co-starred onscreen with buddy Gervais in this sitcom about struggling actors. It still held true to their earlier “Office” vision of keeping its distance from traditional sitcoms, being stylistically more in line with HBO’s other near-cinematic offerings, “The Larry Sanders Show” (1992-98) or “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (2000- ). Like the former, “Extras” recruited top celebrities in guest roles where they each poked fun at their image. Merchant played Gervais’ ineffectual agent and a part time car phone salesman. For the first time, his acting chops were recognized with a Best Actor honor from the British Comedy Awards in 2006.
Throughout Merchant’s television career, he maintained an almost equally high profile in the U.K. as a radio personality. The same year that “The Office” hit in 2001, Gervais and Merchant – who were still performing stand-up – launched “The Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant Show” on their alma mater radio station, Xfm. The hilarious, rambling, conversational weekly program won several awards and earned legions of rabid fans and several fan sites. In 2005, the show began to be produced as a podcast, and purportedly ranked among the most downloaded programs in the world.
In January of 2007, Merchant began hosting his own music-oriented show on BBC 6 Music. He also turned down an offer to pose nude for Cosmopolitan magazine, refusing to believe that the offer was not meant to mock his unusual looks, despite the existence of several fan sites declaring devoted love to the untraditionally appealing Merchant. Later in 2007, Merchant was scheduled to appear in the highly anticipated British comedy flick, “Hot Fuzz,” as well as in the film, “Run Fat Boy Run,” directed by former “Friends” (NBC, 1994-2004) star, David Schwimmer.