Ricky Dene Gervais is a British comedian, actor, writer, producer, director and musician. He co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British television sitcoms The Office (2001–2003), Extras (2005–2007), and Life's Too Short (2011–2013) with Stephen Merchant. He also created, wrote and starred in Derek (2012–2014) and After Life (2019–2022).
The Office is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as The Office in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as the boss and main character. The two series were broadcast on BBC Two in 2001 and 2002, totalling 12 episodes, with two special episodes concluding the series in 2003. A follow up movie starring Gervais and featuring his David Brent character was released in 2016.
The National Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.
Tim Canterbury is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom The Office, portrayed by Martin Freeman. He is a sales representative at the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg Paper Merchants. He has a self-deprecating and ironic sense of humour.
David Brent is a fictional character in the BBC television mockumentary The Office, portrayed by the show's co-creator, co-writer, and co-director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of the series. He is the general manager of the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg paper merchants and the boss of most other characters in the series. Much of the comedy of the series centres on Brent's many idiosyncrasies, hypocrisies, self-delusions, and overt self-promotion.
Stephen James Merchant is an English comedian, actor, director, and writer. He was the co-writer and co-director of the British TV comedy series The Office (2001–2003), and co-writer, co-director, and co-star of both Extras (2005–2007) and Life's Too Short (2011–2013) alongside Ricky Gervais. With Gervais and Karl Pilkington, he hosted The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio, podcast, audiobook, and television formats; the radio version won a bronze Sony Award. He also provided the voice of the robotic "Intelligence Dampening Sphere" Wheatley in the 2011 video game Portal 2. Merchant co-developed the Sky One travel documentary series An Idiot Abroad (2010–2012) and co-created Lip Sync Battle (2015–2019).
Gareth Keenan is a fictional paper salesman on the BBC's comedy The Office, portrayed by Mackenzie Crook. Gareth is a self-important team leader proud of his alleged Lieutenant status in the Territorial Army. He spends his days annoying his co-workers at Wernham Hogg with his rigid enforcement of the rules and sycophantic attitude towards David Brent, whom he views as a friend. Gareth describes his job title as "Assistant Regional Manager", but Brent often corrects this to "Assistant to the Regional Manager". His counterpart on the US series is Dwight Schrute. The character was originally meant to be a tough military character but, after Crook's audition, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant decided to reinterpret the character.
Stromberg is a German mockumentary comedy television series which is produced by Brainpool and broadcast on the commercial television channel ProSieben. The series stars Christoph Maria Herbst as Bernd Stromberg and is written mainly by Ralf Husmann. It has become one of the most popular comedy shows in German-speaking countries and was honored with many awards such as the Deutscher Fernsehpreis and Grimme-Preis. Its success also spawned other media such as a book and a feature film.
Karl Pilkington is an English presenter, actor, voice-artist, producer and author.
Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO, and written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. It follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his friend Maggie Jacobs and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-list sitcom star.
"Freelove Freeway" is a song written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who starred in the British comedy series The Office. Gervais first performed the song as David Brent in Series 1, Episode 4 of the show. From 2018, "Freelove Freeway" also appears in Freeview adverts in the United Kingdom.
"Golden Years" is the sixth episode of the second series of the British comedy anthology series Comedy Lab. It first aired on 8 September 1999 on Channel 4. Written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, it stars Gervais as the co-owner of a video rental company who has a David Bowie obsession. The episode follows him as he prepares for his appearance on the talent show Stars In Their Eyes.
The Office Christmas specials are the two-part series finale episodes of the British mockumentary comedy television series The Office. The specials were commissioned after the series' creators, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, announced that they would not write a full third series of the show. The first 45-minute part was broadcast on BBC One on 26 December 2003, and the second 50-minute part was shown the following evening. The episodes are presented in the style of "revisited" documentaries common on British television, in which series such as Airport are brought back for one-off specials several years after the series concluded. David Brent (Gervais), forcibly made redundant at the end of the second series, is now a travelling salesman of cleaning supplies. Tim Canterbury and Gareth Keenan are still working at the offices of Wernham Hogg, and former Wernham Hogg receptionist Dawn Tinsley, now living in Florida, is flown back to Britain by the documentary crew to reunite with her old colleagues.
Thomas William Basden is an English actor, writer and comedian. He is best known for co-creating and starring in Plebs, which won the Royal Television Society award for Best Scripted Comedy in 2014. He was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2007 Edinburgh Comedy Awards and is a member of the sketch group Cowards.
Life's Too Short is a British mockumentary sitcom created and written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and starring Warwick Davis, about "the life of a showbiz dwarf." Davis plays a fictionalised version of himself, and both Gervais and Merchant appear in supporting roles as themselves. The show began airing on BBC Two on 10 November 2011. Premium cable channel HBO, which co-produced the series with the BBC, has the US rights and aired the series from 19 February 2012.
The Ricky Gervais Show is a comedy animated series produced for and broadcast by HBO and Channel 4. The series is an animated version of the popular audio podcasts and audiobooks of the same name, which feature Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant along with colleague and friend Karl Pilkington, talking about various subjects behind the microphone. The TV series consists of past audio recordings of these unscripted "pointless conversations," with animation drawn in a style similar to classic era Hanna-Barbera cartoons, presenting jokes and situations in a literal context.
Derek is a British comedy-drama television series starring, written by and directed by Ricky Gervais. The pilot was produced by Derek Productions Ltd. for Channel 4 and aired on 12 April 2012. Channel 4 describes the show as "A bittersweet comedy drama about a group of outsiders living on society's margins".
David Brent: Life on the Road is a 2016 British mockumentary comedy film written, directed, and produced by Ricky Gervais and released by Entertainment One. The film stars Gervais as David Brent, a character he played in the BBC television comedy series The Office, who has a film crew that shadows him as he travels up and down the country living his dream of being a rock star. Gervais said, "This film delves much more into his private life than The Office ever did and we really get to peel back the layers of this extraordinary, ordinary man." He has emphasised that it is "not an Office film".
After Life is a British black comedy-drama television series created, written, executive produced, and directed by Ricky Gervais, who plays lead character Tony Johnson. It premiered on 8 March 2019 on Netflix. The second series premiered on 24 April 2020. The third and final series premiered on 14 January 2022.
