Ricky Gervais was born on June 25, 1961 in Reading, England.

Gervais is best-known for co-writing, co-directing and above all starring as David Brent in the BBC sitcom series The Office and similarly creating and acting in Extras.

Earlier in his career Gervais had appeared in The 11 O'Clock Show, and his own talk-comedy show, Meet Ricky Gervais.

The 11 O'Clock Show was a brave attempt to blend current affairs with comedy and featured the excellent Iain Lee. In their different ways, both The 11 O'Clock Show and The Office crossed genres.


In his early days Ricky Gervais had spent several years as an entertainments manager for a student union, and for a while managed Suede.

He also tried stand-up comedy, which he says he found "just too hard". However 2004 saw Ricky Gervais back on stage, with his show Politics.

The Office was a hit both in terms of ratings and with the critics. Gervais won the Bafta award for best comedy performance for three years in a row, while The Office took two Golden Globes in Hollywood in January 2004, including Gervais winning 'Best Actor' for his role as David Brent - the first UK star to win a TV comedy acting prize at the US Golden Globe awards.

Jo Whiley of the BBC asked Ricky Gervais what was the silliest rumour he'd heard about himself, to which he replied:

"That I was a pizza delivery boy and I knocked over an old lady. It was put on my biography on the 11 O Clock Show and someone picked up on it. And the twins...

"Someone asked me what three things I would save if my house was on fire. I said my cat, my salamander and one of the twins. Later a journalist asked how are the twins?"

In 2004 Ricky Gervais's first children's book, Flanimals was published. He followed up with More Flanimals, and Flanimals of the Deep.

Flanimals was nominated for the children's book award at the Galaxy British Book Awards.


Ricky Gervais was cast as a Hollywood studio boss in a film called For Your Consideration, however he turned down parts in Mission Impossible 3 and The Da Vinci Code because, he told Sunday magazine, "I don't want to see me for two minutes on screen knowing I've spent six months in a Winnebago filming it."

The BBC has a funny audio clip of Ricky Gervais and Christopher Guest talking about For Your Consideration.