Ricky Gervais

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Ricky Gervais
Years active1999 — Present
Height5 ft 7 in (1.73 m)
Partner(s)Jane Fallon
(girlfriend since 1982)
Website"Ricky Gervais.. Obviously" (Official web site)

Ricky Dene Gervais (IPA: [dʒɜːˈveɪz]) (born June 25, 1961) is an Emmy, Golden Globe and BAFTA award-winning British comic writer and performer from Reading, Berkshire. Gervais found mainstream fame with his BBC Two television programme The Office and the series Extras which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and collaborator, Stephen Merchant. Besides writing and directing the shows, Gervais also played the lead roles of David Brent in The Office and Andy Millman in Extras.

Biography

Early life

As the youngest of four siblings, Gervais was raised in Whitley, Reading, Berkshire where his father Jerry had emigrated to whilst on foreign duty during Second World War from Quebec, Canada -- settling after meeting Gervais' mother Eva in a blackout.[1] In later admissions during XFM London's The Ricky Gervais Show and in further newspaper interviews with The Independent, Gervais noted that he believes he was the result of an accident because of the time that had elapsed between his youngest sibling's birth and his own, and that his mother had also told him he was a mistake,[2] albeit jokingly, and referred to his upbringing and childhood as trauma-free, with a high level of honesty and openness between his family within the household, describing it as "much like [how] The Waltons" made fun of each-other.[3]

Gervais was educated initially at Ashmead School, before moving on to University College London in 1979, where he originally studied Biology, and later changed to Philosophy, in which he received lower second class honours and also met his long-time girlfriend, Jane Fallon.

In his final year in 1983 as a student at UCL [4], Gervais alongside his friend Bill Macrae formed a New Romantic duo, Seona Dancing, (named after a friend and fellow student Seona Myerscough), and were signed by record label London Records, which released two singles - "More to Lose" and "Bitter Heart" which both failed to reach the top 40 UK singles charts; reaching only positions 117 and 70 in the United Kingdom. [5] However, a year later, the song "More to lose" was re-marketed as "Medium" by "Fade" and played by a DJ from 99.5 DWRT-FM in Manila, and gained major success and recognition by Filipino teenagers.

Gervais subsequently worked as an events manager for the University of London Union (ULU),[6] where he continued working until he was offered a similar job as "head of speech" at Xfm London.[7] After accepting the offer from Xfm, Gervais interviewed the first person whose Curriculum vitae he saw in a pile, which belonged to Stephen Merchant, and began to interview in a local pub -- asking Merchant to do "all the boring stuff" due to his experience in media studies whilst Gervais "mess[ed] around", to which Merchant agreed.[8]

Radio and broadcasting career

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 English rock group Suede in their pre-record contract days before taking a job at London radio station Xfm in 1996, though he was made redundant when the station was taken over by the Capital Radio group in 1998. He was also music advisor for the popular BBC drama This Life at this time thanks to the show's producer Jane Fallon. It was during his time at Xfm that he met Merchant, who would become his collaborator in much of his later work. The pair contributed sketches to BBC Radio 1's The Breezeblock in 1999 and 2000.

Gervais and Merchant returned to Xfm for a Saturday 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. They both also worked for the first time with Karl Pilkington, who produced the shows and later collaborated with them on their series of podcasts. 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 Pilkington and Merchant. He was also heard on BBC Radio 2 during Christmas 2005, sitting in for Jonathan Ross for two weeks.

Podcast

Main article: The Ricky Gervais Show
See also: List of The Ricky Gervais Show episodes

In November 2005, Gervais announced: "I want to do a radio show where I can say what I want, when I want and that's free for anybody who can be bothered to listen".[9] This resulted in 12 episodes of The Ricky Gervais Show, using a format similar to his Xfm radio show, and including Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant. The show, produced in conjunction with the Guardian Unlimited website (the website of The Guardian newspaper), is available exclusively online as weekly thirty minute podcasts, without music. Private Eye ran a few stories about the amount of promotion that the podcasts were receiving in the paper, with references often appearing in totally unrelated articles. The first episode was made available on December 5, 2005. By January 2006, it had become the world's most downloaded podcast,[10] as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records (Gervais had initiated a campaign for this within the podcast itself). With over 8 million downloads, the podcast became overwhelmingly popular. The general basis of the podcast is Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant interrogating Karl Pilkington, who "plays the part of the village idiot" according to an AP article on the subject. Ricky Gervais refuted these claims saying "He's really not playing the part, he actually is the village idiot". Some recurring segments in the show are Monkey News (stories about monkeys who do extraordinary things) and Karl's Diary (where Pilkington's personal journal recording many tedious aspects of his daily life are read aloud and laughed at by Merchant and Gervais). All podcasts are available for purchase from iTunes and Audible.com. Ricky returned to Guardian Unlimited in late 2006 for three more free podcasts together called "The Podfather Trilogy" and airing on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, which he said would be the last for a while.

Television and film career

Gervais contributed to the BAFTA winning The Sketch Show (ITV) penning several sketches. His 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 featured 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 where his character used as many expletives as was possible. Two years later Gervais went on to present his own comedy chat show for Channel 4 called Meet Ricky Gervais which was poorly received and has since been mocked by Gervais himself.

Throughout this time Gervais also wrote for BBC sketch show Bruiser and The Jim Tavare Show, and had cameo rôles in Channel 4's sitcom Spaced; and it is speculated that the cameo is indeed The Office character David Brent. However both series of Spaced finished airing before The Office reached the screens, and it must be said that Gervais uses a very similar persona for each character he plays. Gervais also appeared in a few of Channel 4's 'Top 100...' list programmes, and voiced the character of Penguin in Robbie the Reindeer's Legend Of The Lost Tribe. His voice was redubbed for the US market.

It was in August 1999, while on a BBC production course, that Stephen Merchant had to make his own short subject. He chose to make a docu-soap parody, set in an office. This sketch formed the basis of the interview episode.[11] With a little help from Ash Atalla, Merchant passed this tape onto to the BBC's Head of Entertainment Paul Jackson at the Edinburgh Fringe, who then passed it onto Head of Comedy Jon Plowman who eventually commissioned a full pilot script from Merchant and Gervais.

Extras first aired from 21 July 2005 with an appearance by Ben Stiller. It features cameos from Patrick Stewart, Kate Winslet (who is also from Reading), Ross Kemp, Vinnie Jones, Les Dennis and Samuel L. Jackson. Gervais's main character, Andy Millman, is more self-aware and intentionally humorous than David Brent. The programme was not made in the style of a mockumentary like The Office, although it is also filmed without a laughter track.

In 2006 Gervais became the first guest star on The Simpsons to also receive a writing credit for the episode on which he guest-starred, "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", which aired on March 26, 2006 (April 23 2006 in the UK). Asked about how his idea for the episode (in which Homer swaps Marge on a game show) came about, Gervais replied: "I’ve always been fascinated with reality game shows but I think it was my girlfriend’s idea. We watch Celebrity Big Brother at the moment, we watch I’m a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here… we watch all those reality TV shows – The Office came out of those docu-soaps".[12] Gervais is a long-standing Simpsons fan and presented a segment to mark the show's 20th anniversary on BBC Two's The Culture Show on 16 June 2007.

The Office

Main article: The Office (UK TV series)

The first, six-episode series of The Office aired in the UK in July/August 2001 to little fanfare or attention.[13] But word-of-mouth, repeats and DVDs helped spread the word, building up huge momentum and anticipation for the second series, also comprising six episodes, in September 2002.[14] The second series topped the BBC Two ratings, and the show then switched to the larger BBC One channel in December 2003 for its final two special episodes.

In November 2003, bbc.co.uk reported that two 100-page scripts for the forthcoming Christmas specials of The Office had been "sent to the wrong address".[15] They fell into the hands of one Joanne Hiley, who announced her intention to sell them to "the paper which can bid the most". The scripts never appeared in the papers, and there were no follow-up reports explaining the situation's resolution. Harry Potter[16] and Eastenders[17] have also been the subjects of suspicious 'stolen script' publicity stunts.

Extras

Main article: Extras (TV series)

A twelve-episode sitcom about background artists working on movies. Written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, it aired in the UK in July 2005 on BBC and in the US in September 2005 on HBO. It starred Ross Kemp, Les Dennis, Patrick Stewart, Vinnie Jones, Samuel L Jackson, Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet and Francesca Martinez. A second series began on 14 September 2006 in the UK, featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Orlando Bloom, Sir Ian McKellen, Chris Martin, Keith Chegwin, Robert Lindsay, Warwick Davis, Ronnie Corbett, Stephen Fry, Richard Briers, Patricia Potter, Sophia Myles, Moira Stuart, David Bowie, Robert De Niro and Jonathan Ross.

On Saturday 10th June 2006, Gervais and Merchant were seen in a specially-filmed promotional sketch for Extras 2 - in the middle of BBC1's World Cup football coverage. This time, Gervais did not perform his famous dance. Instead, Merchant did - a take-off of the Crouch Dance, recently popularised by England striker Peter Crouch, as they are both tall men.

Gervais has acknowledged being influenced by Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Larry Sanders Show in making Extras, particularly in the format of celebrities making fools of themselves/subverting their public personas,[18] and the trademark Gervais joke of someone making inappropriate remarks in front of a member of a minority. He has interviewed both Larry David and Garry Shandling, creators of these shows, on Ricky Gervais Meets...

Stand-up

Gervais made a few abortive attempts at stand-up in the late 1990s, but his first official show took place at the Cafe Royal, as part of 2001's Edinburgh Fringe. Titled Rubbernecker, the show also featured Jimmy Carr, Robin Ince and Stephen Merchant.

Gervais later toured the UK in 2003 with his stand-up show Animals. The Politics tour followed a year later. Both of these shows were recorded for release on DVD and television broadcast. The third part of the themed live trilogy, Fame, hit the road in 2007. It started in Glasgow in January and ended in Sheffield in April. Blackpool reported selling out of tickets within 45 minutes of them going on sale.[19] More dates were added with them going on sale on Tuesday 16 January, Thursday February 15th and Tuesday February 20. On 20 February tickets were released for sale at 10am for a new date in Brighton on 4 April - these tickets sold out within 37 minutes.

Newsnight Review's panel saw Animals during its Bloomsbury run and covered it in January 2003. They were not favourable, with Private Eye editor Ian Hislop being the most explicit in his criticism.[20] After this, Gervais closed each show by calling Hislop "a little ugly pug-faced cunt". (Before the DVD release, Gervais called Hislop and secured his permission to use the insult.[citation needed]) Further coverage on Newsnight Review has been overwhelmingly favourable, with the panellists playing 'themselves' in promos for the second series of Extras. Panel regulars Germaine Greer, Mark Kermode and Mark Lawson also appeared as 'themselves' reviewing When The Whistle Blows in a series episode. Critic Lawson is a great admirer of Gervais and Merchant, having interviewed them extensively for television, print Front Row and the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Fame was the subject of some controversy in January 2007 when Gervais told a story, ostensibly about how people will do anything to become famous, to a shocked Scottish audience.[21] The story referred to a five-year old question once asked of Gervais by a reporter: what can you do to become famous? To which he replied, "Go out and kill a prostitute." He followed up with the punchline, "I won't do that bit in Ipswich," referring to the recent murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich, in December 2006. The joke even drew criticism from the father of one of the victims, Tania Nicol: “These days they want to make a joke out of anything. I feel he’s just being uncaring, quite honestly.” Gervais did not apologise, but did attempt to defend himself: "I do want people to know that that happened five years ago and is not related to anything now. That is the problem with comedy, a joke that is funny today can be a terrible faux pas tomorrow”.

He has performed stand-up in the US three times. He performed two warm up shows at the TriBeCa Performing Arts Center and headlined David Bowie's High Line Festival in May 2007.[22]

Books

The Office scripts were released in book form, with Series 1 issued in 2002, and the remaining episodes following in 2003. Gervais released a children's book in 2004, entitled Flanimals - illustrated by his friend Rob Steen - which used the familiar trope of nonsense animals. After the success of this book he released its sequel More Flanimals in 2005, with Flanimals of the Deep coming the next year. There is a wide range of Flanimals merchandise available, including dolls and gift cards. A six-part Flanimals TV series has been commissioned by ITV,[23] although Gervais had previously claimed signing a Hollywood movie deal[24] so that a franchise could be developed. "That way it stands a chance of being the next Dr Seuss or Mr Men".[25] In late 2006 the Extras scriptbook was released, as well as The World of Karl Pilkington presented by Gervais and Merchant. These were essentially transcripts of XFM/podcast routines performed by the three.

Boxing

In 2002, Gervais took part in a charity boxing match against entrepreneur Grant Bovey - known largely by the public due to his relationship with TV personality Anthea Turner. On his Saturday afternoon Radio show on Xfm London Gervais and partners Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington had discussions on both Ricky's attitude towards boxing and training in general, as well as his likelihood of victory against Bovey. Initially, writing partner Stephen Merchant had questions as to why Gervais was participating in the event, due to his dislike of slight pain and his inexperience with fitness in general.

According to Merchant the majority of Gervais' effort was solely involved with his attire and moniker for the large event. Originally Gervais jokingly told a BBC official that he would like to be named "Ricky the Gippo Gervais", in full knowledge of its position in the sphere of Political Correctness. He was only later, unsurprisingly, denied the use of this name after further research by BBC organisers. Other names supplied by Gervais were "Ricky Balboa Gervais", "Ricky Marciano Gervais" - both being questioned by his trainer, who suggested "Ricky Martin" due to his amateur appearance. This name was also to be supplied to the backing track California Love by 2Pac, and Dr. Dre, but this was later changed to Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J, after Stephen Merchant recommended it.

In the weeks before the event was scheduled to take place both Merchant and Pilkington voiced their doubts as to his fitness due to illness which he had sustained weeks before the event, somewhat comedically, by stating that both they and Gervais' family had written up a petition to the BBC stating "Please do not allow this man to box."

Gervais was trained for the three-round contest by famous boxing trainer brothers Frank and Eugene Maloney, at their Fight Factory gymnasium. It was the second televised charity boxing match, the first being Bob Mortimer against Les Dennis, for Comic Relief. The fight was televised by BBC, and Gervais managed to come out on top by a split decision verdict. Turner later claimed the only reason Gervais was awarded victory was because of his relationship with the BBC. Gervais later said that the experience was the 'most difficult thing' he had ever done. He donated his £5,000 prize money to the training of a Macmillan nurse.

Accolades

Awarding Body/Event Awarded
Writers Guild of America
  • 2007 Best Comedy Series "The Office" (U.S.)
Rose d'Or
  • 2006 Honorary Rose for Exceptional Contribution to the Global Entertainment Business
Emmy Awards
  • 2006 Best Writing for a Comedy "Extras"
  • 2006 Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series "The Office" (U.S.)
  • 2005 Best Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special “Office Special” (UK)
Golden Globe
  • 2004 Best Actor - Musical or Comedy (TV) “The Office” (UK)
  • 2004 Best Television Comedy "The Office" (UK)
Peabody Awards
  • 2004 Peabody Award “The Office” (UK)
BAFTA Awards
  • 2007 Best Comedy Performance
  • 2004 Best Comedy Performance
  • 2004 Best Situation Comedy “The Office” (UK)
  • 2003 Best Comedy Performance
  • 2003 Situation Comedy Award “The Office” (UK)
  • 2002 Best Comedy Performance
  • 2002 Situation Comedy Award “The Office” (UK)
Royal Television Society
  • 2003 Best Comedy Performance for: "The Office" (UK)
British Comedy Award
  • 2004 Writer of the Year Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant
  • 2002 Best Comedy Actor
  • 2002 Best Television Comedy “The Office” (UK)
  • 2001 Best New Television Comedy “The Office” (UK)
Broadcasting Press Guild Awards
  • 2003 Writer's Award for: "The Office" (UK)
  • 2002 Writer's Award for: "The Office" (UK)

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 British Academy Television Awards and British Comedy Awards, amongst others. His rise in the USA is largely attributed to his success at the Golden Globes. The show missed out on what was considered to be a definite Emmy Award nomination because there were not enough episodes broadcast in the USA before the deadline for consideration.[26]

On March 15, 2006, it was announced that Gervais would receive an honorary award at the annual Rose d'Or ceremony in Switzerland on April 29 2006. The award is given to "an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the global entertainment business".[27]

In July 2007, Gervais received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Extras.

Other work

Gervais guest-starred in an episode of The Simpsons entitled "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", which aired on March 26, 2006 in the United States, on April 23, 2006 in the United Kingdom, and on July 18, 2006 in Australia. The episode was the highest rated in Sky One's history, arguably due to its extensive promotion. This revolved around the angle that Gervais was the episode's sole writer, but he clarified the extent of his input in a joint interview (with Christopher Guest) for Dazed and Confused magazine (January 2006): "No, all I did was put a down a load of observations on an email and they made it look like a Simpsons script. I'm going to get the credit, but I think everyone in the industry knows it was a joint effort." Criticisms of the episode include its blatant promotion of high definition television (Sky has just launched a HD service) as well as the alleged mediocrity of the script. This was not his first appearance in an animation, as he had provided the voice of "Bugsy" in the 2005 animated feature film, Valiant.

He also guest-starred in Alias (the season three episode "Façade") as an Irish terrorist. He has also appeared several times on The Late Show With David Letterman, making him the British comedian with the most appearances on the show. [citation needed]

At one point, Gervais was even tapped for a role in the Tom Cruise movie Mission: Impossible III, but it never came to fruition - Gervais cited reasons for this, on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross: "It was a bigger part than I first thought." He added: "I did an episode of Alias, and I can't watch it. Me being serious. I can't watch it." During a joint interview with Christopher Guest for For Your Consideration (January 2006), the interviewer asked of Guest: "If you were offered a role in Mission Impossible 3 or a remake of Magnum PI, which one would you take?". Gervais told a confused Guest, "Oh! They're the two films I turned down to do your film." [citation needed]

Gervais's film career has continued with small roles as a studio executive, as the voice of a pigeon in Valiant, his appearance in Night at the Museum, playing museum director Dr. McPhee, and as "Ferdy the Fence" in Stardust. His role in "Night at the museum" has proven to be one of Gervais's most popular roles, with the movie grossing $570 million worldwide.[28][29]

On 2 July 2005, Gervais appeared at the Live 8 event held in Hyde Park, where he performed his famous dance. He produced a series of short films for the cause, linked acts from the studio with Jonathan Ross and also introduced the group R.E.M.. On 5 January 2006, he interviewed Larry David, in a one off special, Ricky Gervais Meets... Larry David. On 25 December and 26 December of the same year, Channel 4 aired similar specials where he interviewed the actor/comedian Christopher Guest and infamously Garry Shandling. There are no plans for further episodes of "Meets...", although editions with John Cleese and Matt Groening were recorded in 2006, for broadcast in 2007. A source claimed "The Shandling experience put him off for good."[30][31]

On February 6, 2006, it was announced that Gervais and Merchant were to write an episode for the third season of the US version of The Office.[32] The episode, entitled "The Convict", aired on November 30, 2006 in the United States.

On 20 February 2006, after performing twelve free podcasts with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington, it was announced that all future episodes would be available from Audible.com at a "nominal fee". The reasons given for the commercialisation of the podcast were the significant cost of producing and online hosting for a weekly half hour show, despite the free podcasts already featuring adverts. The other reason was that Pilkington was out of a job after leaving his post as a production manager at UK station Xfm, although the Sony Award-winning producer has since worked for the BBC (including a run of Russell Brand shows on 6Music) as well as making and appearing in a couple of shorts for Channel 4. He is currently working on A Day in the Life of an Idiot for BBC 2.

On Sunday 1st July 2007, Gervais performed at the Concert for Diana in Wembley Stadium, a music event celebrating the life of the late Princess of Wales. Towards the end of the event - after a pre-recorded introduction from Ben Stiller - Gervais appeared along with fellow Office star Mackenzie Crook. They performed Freelove Freeway, a song previously heard in the fourth episode of series one of The Office. Due to a technical problem, Gervais then had to fill time until he was able to re-introduce Elton John to close the show, so he did the David Brent dance again, as well as, rather bizarrely, singing the Little Fat Man song as performed by David Bowie in episode two of the second series of Extras.

On Saturday 7th July, 2007 Gervais appeared at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London. Gervais introduced Rob Reiner appearing in the guise of spoof film director Marty Di Bergi, who in turn introduced Spinal Tap. At the start of the concert, Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles, who was acting as compere for part of the event, announced that Gervais would be appearing and performing an 'extended 25-minute set', which ultimately failed to happen. It's unclear whether this was meant as a joke, perhaps referring to the time Gervais had to fill at the Concert for Diana the previous Sunday, or if it was simply cut because of time constraints, but in an off-stage segment later Moyles actually expressed disappointment that it didn't occur. Gervais himself however did reference his appearance at the Diana concert the previous week, saying, 'Now listen, we're running late, so I'm gonna be off this stage in 30 seconds, whether Elton John is f***ing ready or not,' making him one of a number of people to swear on live TV at the event.

Criticisms

The Independent newspaper has described Gervais as "obsessed by his own celebrity," but adds, "Who wouldn't want to be Peter Lawford in a comedy Rat Pack?" in reference to Ricky Gervais Meets...; the article, however, also describes him as "a very funny man" who "created one of the great sitcoms".[33] The Guardian's Chris Tryhorn explained the "few gripes" he had with Extras, "particularly in the second series". "You can forgive Gervais a certain arrogance after the success of The Office, but..." He remarks on the confused tone of the series, taking in the clash between the broad comedy of characters Barry (Shaun Williamson) and Darren (Stephen Merchant), and the apparent parody of this style with When The Whistle Blows, and "given their total indulgence of Gervais, the BBC is portrayed as interfering, its comedy department run by a rather crudely stereotyped gay couple".[34] In July 2007, following Gervais' widely criticised appearance at the memorial concert for Diana, Princess of Wales, in which he had to fill time after a technical hiccup, in which time Gervais was not allowed to use any material from his stand-up show Fame for legal reasons and was therefore left with little he could actually perform to keep the crowd entertained for a prolonged period of time, the Guardian ran a column by Daily Mirror television critic Jim Shelley entitled "Call Me Crazy... But Has Ricky Gervais Lost It?"[35] The web-based version of the column attracted hundreds of comments, many of them substantially in agreement that Gervais had become a "tiresome embarrassment." The following week, the Guardian noted that Gervais had responded to such criticism with "an exhiliratingly foul-mouthed tirade" on his website, concluding with the words "Yes I am resting on my laurels you cunt!", in this video Gervais was obviously joking as he mocked Jim Shelley typing the words "Resting on his laurels" as Ricky jokingly lashed out by stating he was resting on his laurels and that he was not going to make another show for television and saying "What's the point? Who is there to beat?"[36]

In September 2005 Gervais caused mild 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.[37] However, on October 3 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.[38]

Personal life

Gervais is an atheist. In an interview given to John Humphrys he said, "Being an atheist makes someone a clearer-thinking, fairer person... They [atheists] are not doing things to be rewarded in heaven; they're doing things because they're right, because they live by a moral code". He also added that, although he doesn't believe, God (if he exists) would like him [3].[39]. Andy Millman, the character he plays in his and Merchants sitcom Extras, also holds this view.

He cannot drive, as stated in his radio show and his Politics DVD commentary. He has a second-floor office in Tottenham Court Road, London. This is where he records his podcasts with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington.[40] Gervais has a pet cat, named Ollie (given to him by Jonathan Ross), and a salamander named Tel.[41]

A gang of criminals stole £200,000 from his bank account by pasting a picture of him from his Office DVD onto a dead man's passport and using an insider from the bank to transfer the funds. When they tried to use the money to buy gold bullion, they were apprehended by police, and subsequently arrested. They were later sentenced to between two and two and a half years in prison.[42]

In 2006 he bought a £2.5 million mansion in the Hampstead neighbourhood of north London, which happens to be near good friend Jonathan Ross, on his fame tour he claims it cost £3.5 million.[43] Gervais is very good friends with chat show hosts Richard and Judy, Jonathan Ross and Jon Stewart[44] and is a frequent and popular guest on their various radio and TV shows.

References

Notes

  1. ^ The Independent, et al. (2005). -- "His father, Jerry, was a French-Canadian ... soldier stationed here during the war. He met Eva, the comedian's mother, during a blackout and they settled in Reading."
  2. ^ The Independent, et al. (2005). -- "Ricky Gervais was born 44 years ago, a mistake. "My mum told me that," he says. "She went 'You was an accident'. I went 'Cheers!' Ha ha! A lot of honesty in my family"
  3. ^ Independent,et al. (2005). -- "The youngest, by some way, of four brothers, his childhood was trauma-free. Like The Waltons, he says, "If the Waltons took the piss out of each other. You had to be able to answer back." The first time he did, he got a laugh and, his family reasoned, "He'll be alright.""
  4. ^ Thomas, S., et al. (1983).
  5. ^ The Independant, et al. (2005). -- "Aged 21, he was in a band himself, new romantics Seona Dancing. Their singles reached 117 and 70. The video for one, "Bitter Heart", was set in a blacksmith's."
  6. ^ The Observer, et al. (2005). -- "'Not at all,' he says. 'When I was working at ULU I never thought, "This is shit" or "The money is bad." I thought: "This is quite a good job." I suppose if all this had not come along I might now have been a 43-year-old entertainments manager. But that never worried me at the time."
  7. ^ The Observer, et al. (2005). -- "Instead of a stand-up career, Gervais moved from ULU to a job as head of speech at the alternative radio station Xfm."
  8. ^ The Observer, et al. (2005). -- "Merchant was his deputy. Instead of worrying too much about being heads of speech, they mostly worked on little routines. Merchant was sometimes obliged to wheel his boss around the office in his executive chair. 'I remember going out for a drink with Steve early on,' Gervais says. 'I said to him, "You've done media studies, you can do all the boring stuff, all the filing, I'll mess around." He said: "OK." And that was that."
  9. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4479230.stm
  10. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/rickygervais
  11. ^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010824/ai_n14404548
  12. ^ "Interview at UKULA".
  13. ^ - The big cheese, The Telegraph, 18/09/2002
  14. ^ FUNNY BUSINESS
  15. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3244882.stm
  16. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/4608999.stm
  17. ^ http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1280774,00.html
  18. ^ [1]
  19. ^ What a sell-out, Huge demand for Gervais tour
  20. ^ BBC News, January 13, 2003
  21. ^ Entertainment Wise
  22. ^ http://www.eonline.com/news/article/?uuid=6ebf9375-149d-4a10-b113-858958b80614
  23. ^ http://www.flanimals.com/
  24. ^ http://old.chortle.co.uk/news/nov04/flanimals.php
  25. ^ http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article321354.ece
  26. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0315041/news
  27. ^ [2]
  28. ^ Green, Graeme. (2007). "60 SECONDS: Ricky Gervais" Retrieved on 22 July, 2007 from http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/interviews/article.html?in_article_id=35340&in_page_id=11 METRO Newspaper
  29. ^ Green, Graeme. (2007)., -- "[Green:] After having your own Simpsons episode and working with Robert De Niro, are there any other big ambitions left to fulfil? [...] [Gervais:] I get offered 50 diversions a day. I could be the guest on every panel show or the butler in loads of films. But when The Simpsons calls or Robert De Niro calls, you say ‘yes’ to them and ‘no’ to the other 49."
  30. ^ Deedes, Henry. (2007). "PANDORA: By George, we salute you for your indefatigability" Independent News and Media Limited Retrieved on 22 July, 2007 from http://news.independent.co.uk/people/pandora/article2125389.ece Independent News and Media Limited
  31. ^ Deedes, Henry. (2007)., -- "While critics condemned the Guest interview as fawning, they were even less kind about the encounter with Shandling, who proved a more than awkward subject. At one point, Shandling told Gervais he didn't think the Extras star "was happy casting Jews" in his shows."
  32. ^ http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=190702006
  33. ^ http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2152792.ece
  34. ^ http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2006/09/extras_work_needed_ricky.html
  35. ^ http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/07/call_me_crazy_but_has_ricky_ge.html
  36. ^ http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/07/ricky_gervais_resting_on_my_la.html
  37. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4298076.stm
  38. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4305944.stm
  39. ^ Humphrys, John. The Radio Times
  40. ^ http://www.rickygervais.com/pilkington_gu_guide.php
  41. ^ http://www.rickygervais.com/gqapr06.php
  42. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4376583.stm
  43. ^ http://www.rickygervaisnow.com/news_0001.html
  44. ^ http://www.ifilm.com/video/2806025/show/17676

Interviews

  1. The Independant, et al. (2005). Ricky Gervais: My life as a superstar [Electronic Version] Independent News Media: United Kingdom
  2. The Guardian Newspaper, et al. (2005). "Second Coming" Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007: United Kingdom
  3. Thomas, S., et al. (1983). More to lose - everything to gain [Electronic Version] Retrieved on 8 July, 2007 from [4] New Music Express : London

http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/content/articles/2007/03/30/ricky_gervais_review_280307_feature.shtml

See also

Preceded by Golden Globe - Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
for The Office
2003 		Succeeded by

Template:Simpsons writers

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