Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais (born 1961) is a comic writer and performer who grew up in Reading, England. Gervais has recently enjoyed success with his award-winning BBC2 television programme The Office, which he co-wrote with Stephen Merchant. As well as writing it, Gervais also plays the lead role of David Brent, an office manager who believes he is popular and funny, but is in fact neither.

Gervais' father grew up in French Canada, 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 went to UCL in 1985 to study Philosophy. See UCL News Article

During the early 80s 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. However, in 1985 their track "More To Lose" became a massive hit in the Philippines. This came as a great surprise to the band, which had broken up the previous year. Gervais went on to briefly manage the UK group Suede (band) before taking a job at London radio station XFM where he is still a DJ on the Saturday afternoon slot.

He came to wider attention as an obnoxious persona in a slot which replaced Ali G on the Channel 4 comedy programme The 11 O'Clock Show. He later went on to present his own comedy chat show for Channel 4 called Meet Ricky Gervais. The show was poorly received.