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Ricky Gervais (born June 25, 1961) is a comic
writer and performer who grew up in the
England|English town of Reading,
Berkshire|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, an office manager who firmly believes he is
popular and funny, but is in fact neither.

== Background ==

Gervais's father is of French Canadian descent and
grew up in French Canada, and came to the UK on
duty during the WWII|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 went to University College London|UCL in
1985 to study biology, later switching to
philosophy.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Development/alumni/membership
/famousalumni/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/ar
ts/2002/02/09/bfdc09.xml

During the early 1980s Gervais was 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. One of the tracks, "Bitter Heart",
completely sank, but the 1985 tune "More To Lose"
became a massive hit in the Philippines. This came
as a great surprise to the band, who had actually
broken up the previous year.

== Career ==
=== Radio ===
Following 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 (band)|Suede
in their pre-record contract days before taking a
job at London radio station XFM, 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 his long-term partner, and This Life
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
(sitcom)|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
http://xfm.co.uk/sectional.asp?id=4159
xfm.co.uk/ricky.

=== Television ===

Gervais 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 1999. He 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 all this, in the late 1990s, Gervais
had quietly tried his hand at sitcom and sketches,
working with Stephen Merchant on a one-off for
Channel 4 called "Golden Years" and writing for
the BBC sketch show Bruiser (TV series)|Bruiser
for example. He also appeared in Simon Pegg's
Spaced. A home-made pilot for The Office surfaced
in 1999/2000, and was bought up by the BBC.  After
that, Extras aired on 21 July 2005 with an
appearance by Ben Stiller.   It will feature
future 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 will
not be made in the style of a mockumentary, as was
The Office.

==== The Office ====
Main article: The Office

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

Gervais also toured the UK in 2003 with his
stand-up comedy|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.

== Awards ==

In 2003, Gervais was listed in The Observer as one
of the Observer's 50 funniest|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.

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 (TV series)|Alias (the
season three episode
"Alias_episodes_%28Season_3%29#Fa.E7ade|Façade").
He has also appeared several times on The Late
Show With David Letterman.

== Target of fraud ==

A gang of criminals attempted to fraud|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.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4376583.
stm

==External links==

*http://www.rickygervais.com/ RickyGervais.com
Official Site
*imdb name|id=0315041|name=Ricky Gervais