Profile of Ricky Gervais on Famous Like Me

Ricky Gervais (born June 25, 1961) is a comic writer and performer who grew up in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. Gervais has recently achieved mainstream fame, enjoying success with his award-winning BBC2 television programme The Office, which he co-wrote and co-directed with long-term friend and collaborator Stephen Merchant. As well as writing and directing the show, Gervais also played the lead role of David Brent. In 2005, Gervais returned to BBC Television with his new sitcom, Extras.

Background

Gervais's father is of Quebecois descent and grew up in Quebec, and came to the UK on duty during the Second World War, where he met his wife. Raised as the youngest of four brothers, Ricky Gervais has described his childhood as nice and "normal".

Gervais received his early education at Reading's Ashmead School. He then went on to University College London in 1979 to study biology, later switching to philosophy. During the early 1980s Gervais remained in London and met his long-term partner Jane Fallon. He was also the lead singer of the New Romantic group Seona Dancing. The group released two singles that failed to break the top 40 in the UK: "Bitter Heart", and "More To Lose", which became a massive hit in the Philippines in 1985. This came as a great surprise to the band, who had actually broken up the previous year.

Career

Radio

After various odd jobs, including working in an office, a stint as events manager at the University of London Union followed in the early 1990s. Through this, Gervais went on to briefly manage the British rock group Suede in their pre-record contract days before taking a job at London radio station XFM in 1996, though he was sacked when the station was taken over by the Capital Radio group. He was also music advisor for the popular BBC drama This Life at this time, thanks to the show's producer: Jane Fallon.

Gervais returned to XFM for a Saturday afternoon radio show that first went on the air in November 2001 and ran intermittently until January 2004 with breaks ranging between 1-3 months between new shows. After that, Gervais took 18 months off to work on his new television show Extras, write Flanimals, and perform his live show: Politics. He returned to the airwaves on 28 May 2005 to host the show once again with Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant. 42 episodes of the radio show are archived at xfm.co.uk/ricky.

Gervais is currently considering doing a run of new episodes similar to his XFM radio show (including Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant), as stated in an e-mail message sent from his official site on 7 September 2005. Plans are for the show to be made available exclusively online as weekly thirty minute podcasts, without music.

Television

Gervais' mainstream TV debut came in September 1998 as part of Channel 4's "Comedy Lab" series of pilots. His one-off show, "Golden Years", focused on a David Bowie-obsessed character called Clive Meadows. He then came to much wider national attention with an obnoxious, cutting persona featuring in a topical slot which replaced Ali G's segments on the satirical Channel 4 comedy programme The 11 O'Clock Show in early 1999. Gervais later went on to present his own comedy chat show for Channel 4 called Meet Ricky Gervais two years later which was poorly received and has since been mocked by Gervais himself.

Throughout this time, Gervais also wrote for the long-lost BBC sketch show "Bruiser", and cameoed in Simon Pegg's sitcom Spaced. A home-made pilot for The Office, made with Xfm cohort Stephen Merchant, surfaced in 1999/2000, and was bought up by the BBC. After that, Extras first aired from 21 July 2005 with an appearance by Ben Stiller. It features cameos from Patrick Stewart and Kate Winslet amongst others. Gervais's main character, Andy Millman, is more self-aware and intentionally humorous than David Brent, and the programme has not been made in the style of a mockumentary, as was The Office.

The Office

Main article: The Office

The first, six-episode series of The Office aired in the UK in July/August 2001 to little fanfare or attention, but word-of-mouth, repeats and DVDs helped spread the word, building up huge momentum and anticipation for the second series, also made up of six episodes, in September 2002. The second series topped the BBC2 ratings, and the show then switched to the larger BBC1 channel in December 2003 for its final two special episodes.

Extras

Main article: Extras (sitcom)

Gervais also toured the UK in 2003 with his stand-up show Animals, with one show recorded for DVD release and television broadcast. The Politics tour then followed a year later, and the third part of the themed live trilogy, Science, will hit the road in late 2005.

Accolades

In 2003, Gervais was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

Gervais has received a plethora of awards for his work on The Office, most notably two Golden Globes (one for acting, one for the show itself), as well as numerous BAFTAs and British Comedy Awards, amongst others. His rise in the USA is largely attributed to his success at the Golden Globes.

He also released a children's book, entitled Flanimals.

Future work

Gervais has also written an episode of The Simpsons (due to air February 2006), and has guest-starred in Alias (the season three episode "Façade"). He has also appeared several times on The Late Show With David Letterman, becoming the British comedian with the most appearences ever on the show. At one point, Gervais was even tapped for a role in the future Tom Cruise blockbuster Mission: Impossible III, but it never came to fruition.

Target of fraud

A gang of criminals attempted to defraud him of £200,000 in February 2004, but were detected by a bullion dealer. They had used a picture from the DVD of The Office to fake Gervais's identity. In March 2005, they were sentenced to between two and two and a half years in jail.

Controversy

In September 2005 Gervais caused controversy by recording a radio advert for a prostate cancer charity which was only allowed to be broadcast from 9pm to 6am because of its content. However, on the 3rd of October 2005, the Radio Advertising Clearance Centre made a u-turn and announced that the advert could be broadcast before 9pm, but stipulated that a "squish" noise should be removed.

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