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Stephen James Merchant (born 24 November 1974) is an English comedian, writer, director, and actor. 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 video games Portal 2 (2011) and Lego Dimensions (2015). Merchant co-developed the Sky One travel documentary series An Idiot Abroad (2010–2012) and co-created Lip Sync Battle (2015–2019).
Merchant has performed as a stand-up comedian, which led to him writing and starring in the HBO series Hello Ladies (2013–2014), based on his stand-up material. He starred in his first play, Richard Bean's The Mentalists, at London's Wyndham's Theatre in 2015. He wrote and directed the film Fighting with My Family in 2019, and starred in, co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed the comedy crime series The Outlaws (2021–2024). He also appeared as the mutant Caliban in the superhero film Logan (2017), a Nazi Gestapo leader in the comedy-drama film Jojo Rabbit (2019), and as the serial killer Stephen Port in the 2022 television drama Four Lives.
Merchant has received numerous accolades, including a Peabody Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three BAFTA Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four British Comedy Awards, and the Rose d'Or.
Merchant was inspired to get into comedy by John Cleese. In 2019, he said that he had never met Cleese, but that his parents had recently met him on a cruise and asked him to sign a book for Merchant; they also recorded a voicemail message on the phone in their cabin, which consisted of Cleese saying: "Hello there, Mr and Mrs Merchant, I'd be more than happy to sign your book. I was just wondering is your Stephen Merchant the same Stephen Merchant who collaborated with Ricky Gervais on The Office? Because I'm an enormous fan and please pass on my best regards." On hearing this, Merchant said, "I don't feel I need to meet him now. That's all I needed."
Merchant met Ricky Gervais in 1997 when Gervais (in the position of Head of Speech at the radio station XFM London), hired Merchant as his assistant. Gervais later said that he had called Merchant for an interview because it was the first Curriculum vitae handed to him. Merchant and Gervais hosted a Saturday afternoon radio show together from January to August 1998, when both of them left XFM as it was bought by the Capital Radio Group. In the same year, Merchant was a finalist at The Daily Telegraph Open Mic Awards.
Merchant worked for seven months at XFM 104.9. The Saturday show never had a large audience. Gervais said: "It's a tinpot radio station... It's not even the biggest radio station in the building." He created the features 'Hip Hop Hooray', 'Make Ricky Gervais Laugh' and 'Song for the Ladies'. After leaving XFM, Merchant began a production course at the BBC. As part of his coursework, he enlisted Gervais to perform in a 30-minute short film, "Seedy Boss", which became the earliest inspiration for their mock documentary The Office. They collaborated on a sitcom pilot called Golden Years featuring a manager suffering a mid-life crisis. It aired on Channel 4's Comedy Lab series in September 1998, but the show failed to find further success.
They took a break from the radio show in mid-2002 in order to film the second series of The Office, which aired that year; in addition to writing and directing the show, Merchant made a cameo performance in the episode "Charity" as a friend of Gareth Keenan's character and known by the name Oggy or Oggmonster. Merchant's father also appeared in multiple episodes as an office handyman named Gordon. Merchant also directed a sitcom pilot called The Last Chancers, which aired on Comedy Lab in November 2002 and became a five-part series broadcast in December on E4.
Merchant and Gervais continued to host The Ricky Gervais Show through 2003, taking another break to film The Office Christmas special, which aired that December. The radio show went off the air indefinitely in January 2004. During 2004, Merchant appeared in a recurring role as a chef on Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and in a cameo on Green Wing, and served as a script associate on the Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker sitcom Nathan Barley. The same year, The Office aired in the U.S. to critical acclaim. It went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy which both Merchant and Gervais accepted. This was followed in 2005 by a 4th series of the radio show, consisting of six episodes.
Merchant returned to stand-up with a nationwide tour of the United Kingdom in September 2011, under the title Hello Ladies. The tour, which ended in New York, Profile, nytimes.com; accessed 8 March 2015. was later released on DVD-Video. In late 2012, it continued in Australia and New Zealand. Merchant performed his first-ever stand-up tour of Scandinavia in October 2014, performing in 11 different cities as part of a European festival circuit. Profile , comedyfesteurope.com; accessed 8 March 2015. In an interview with Marc Maron, Merchant listed Eddie Izzard, Stewart Lee, Ross Noble and Jimmy Carr as stand-up comedians he admired and John Cleese as his main comedic influence.
Later in 2010, Gervais and Merchant wrote, and had cameo roles in, Life's Too Short, a television show starring Warwick Davis. For television, Merchant and Gervais also produced An Idiot Abroad. In 2011, Merchant lent his voice to the CGI film Gnomeo & Juliet and had a role in the Farrelly brothers' comedy Hall Pass. In 2013 he starred in I Give It a Year as the best man.
On 18 October 2013, he hosted an episode of the panel show Have I Got News for You Merchant on twitter, twitter.com; accessed 8 March 2015. and was featured in Short Poppies. Merchant on YouTube (1), youtube.com; accessed 8 March 2015. In 2014 he made an appearance in Modern Familys "Las Vegas" episode.
In January 2011, Merchant appeared alongside many other comedians at the 'Free Fringe Benefit' at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London, in a show of stand-up to benefit the Free Fringe at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival.
Merchant is the voice of Wheatley in Valve's 2011 video game Portal 2, a role which earned him widespread acclaim among reviewers. He has stated that while the project was "exhausting", he is also "very pleased by the response people have had to it. What I was really pleased by how people seemed to respond to it in the way they do with a movie they've enjoyed, or a TV show they've enjoyed." In 2013, he reprised this role as the voice of the Ap-Sap in Team Fortress 2, a weapon based on the Wheatley core.
Merchant has provided the voice-over since 2009 of advertisements for Barclays and Waterstones. In 2014, he starred in two commercials for Newcastle Brown Ale and for the Cadillac 2015 ATS Coupe.
He is an executive producer for the Spike show Lip Sync Battle and, in July 2015, Merchant opened his first play, The Mentalists by Richard Bean, alongside Steffan Rhodri in London's West End. He appeared in three episodes of The Big Bang Theory as Dave Gibbs, a guy Amy dates after she breaks up with Sheldon.
He has portrayed George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on the Comedy Central series Drunk History.
He hosted a special celebrity edition of the cult UK game show The Crystal Maze, on Channel 4 on 16 October 2016, in aid of the network's Stand Up to Cancer campaign in partnership with Cancer Research UK.
In 2017, Merchant played Caliban in the X-Men movie Logan. Merchant, along with John Krasinski and Allyson Seeger, are executive producers of Dream Corp, LLC, an animated series created by Daniel Stessen on Adult Swim that ran for three seasons starting in 2016.
On 31 March 2018, Merchant was a guest announcer on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. On Christmas Eve 2018, Merchant appeared with Asim Chaudhry in odd-couple Christmas road-trip comedy Click & Collect on BBC One. Merchant also appeared as Nazi Gestapo leader Captain Deertz in director Taika Waititi's Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit.
In 2019, Merchant wrote and directed Fighting with My Family, a biographical sports comedy-drama film, based on the 2012 documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family by Max Fisher. The film depicts the career of English professional wrestler Saraya Bevis as she makes her way up WWE, and starred Florence Pugh and Jack Lowden, as well as Dwayne Johnson (who also served as a co-producer). Fighting with My Family grossed $41.5 million worldwide against a budget of $11 million.
In 2021, Merchant appeared in The Outlaws, a crime thriller comedy drama set in Bristol, which he also co-created, co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed. A second series aired in 2022 and a third in 2024.
Merchant portrayed serial killer Stephen Port in the 2022 BBC drama Four Lives.
Standing tall with a lanky frame, Merchant once had his dance moves likened by Ricky Gervais to an "upright lizard being given electroshock treatment." Gervais also described him as a "stick insect with funny glasses" and Beaker from The Muppet Show.The Ricky Gervais Show – The Early Years/Part 3 Karl Pilkington described Merchant's dancing as a "bit of weird art"The Ricky Gervais Show. Episode No. 4, season 3. but has since "got used to him", while Russell Brand likened him to a "graceful grasshopper".BBC Podcast – The Russell Brand Show Merchant has said that he prefers to liken himself to footballer Peter Crouch, who is the same height, and he once impersonated Crouch in a BBC sketch broadcast as part of the pre-match build-up to England's quarter-final game against Portugal at the 2006 World Cup.
Before the 2010 UK general election, Merchant was one of 48 celebrities who signed a letter opposing the Conservative Party's policy on the BBC.
In December 2019, Merchant was the guest for an episode of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. His book choice was Roger's Profanisaurus by Roger Mellie from Viz, his luxury item was a piano, and his chosen record was "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen.
| +Key | Denotes works that have not yet been released |
| 2007 | Hot Fuzz | Peter Ian Staker | |||||
| Run Fatboy Run | Man with Broken Leg | ||||||
| 2009 | The Invention of Lying | Man at the Door | |||||
| 2010 | Tooth Fairy | Tracy | |||||
| Cemetery Junction | Dougie Boden | Co-written and co-directed with Ricky Gervais | |||||
| Jackboots on Whitehall | Tom | Voice role | |||||
| Burke and Hare | Holyrood Footman | ||||||
| 2011 | Gnomeo & Juliet | Count Paris | Voice role | ||||
| Hall Pass | Gary Putney | ||||||
| 2013 | Movie 43 | Donald | Segment: "Truth or Dare" | ||||
| I Give It a Year | Danny | ||||||
| 2017 | Logan | Caliban | |||||
| Beauty and the Beast | Monsieur Toilett | Deleted scene | |||||
| Table 19 | Walter Thimble | ||||||
| 2018 | Sherlock Gnomes | Paris | Voice role | ||||
| The Girl in the Spider's Web | Frans Balder | ||||||
| Click & Collect | Andrew Bennett | ||||||
| Fighting with My Family | Hugh | ||||||
| Good Boys | Claude | Uncredited cameo | |||||
| Jojo Rabbit | Captain Deertz | ||||||
| 2021 | Locked Down | Michael Morgan | |||||
| A Boy Called Christmas | Miika the Mouse | Voice role | |||||
| 2025 | Goodbye June | TBA | |||||
| 2026 | The Ark and the Aardvark | Croc | |||||
| 1999 | Comedy Lab | James (voice) | Episode: "Golden Years" | |||||
| 2000 | Meet Ricky Gervais | Various roles | Also writer | |||||
| 2001–2003 | The Office (UK) | Paul Shepherd (voice) / Nathan (aka "The Oggmonster", "Oggy") | 14 episodes and appeared in 3 episodes; co-created, co-written and co-directed with Ricky Gervais | |||||
| 2004 | Garth Marenghi's Darkplace | Chef | 2 episodes | |||||
| Green Wing | Lab Technician | Episode: "Tests" | ||||||
| 2005 | Bromwell High | Mr. Phillips (voice) | 13 episodes | |||||
| 2005–2007 | Extras | Darren Lamb | 13 episodes and appeared in 11 episodes; Co-created, co-written and co-directed with Ricky Gervais | |||||
| 2005–2013 | The Office (US) | American remake of his show The Office co-created with Ricky Gervais; directed episode: "Customer Survey" and co-wrote "The Convict" with Ricky Gervais | ||||||
| 2007 | 24 | CTU Technician | Episode: "Day 6: 6:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m." | |||||
| 2010–2012 | The Ricky Gervais Show | Himself (voice) | 39 episodes; co-created with Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington | |||||
| 2010–2011 | An Idiot Abroad | Himself | 16 episodes | |||||
| 2011–2013 | Life's Too Short | 8 episodes; co-created with Ricky Gervais and Warwick Davis Co-written and co-directed with Ricky Gervais | ||||||
| 2011 | Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain | |||||||
| 2013 | Hello Ladies | Stuart Pritchard | 8 episodes; co-created and co-written with Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky | |||||
| 2013–2015 | Drunk History | Abraham Lincoln / George Washington | 3 episodes | |||||
| 2014, 2020 | Modern Family | Higgins | 2 episodes | |||||
| 2014 | Robot Chicken | Alfred Pennyworth / 210 Up Narrator / Kirk Fogg (voices) | Episode: "Stone Cold Steve Cold Stone" | |||||
| Stuart Pritchard | Television film; co-created and co-written with Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky | |||||||
| Short Poppies | Insurance Broker | Episode: "Terry Pole" | ||||||
| 2015 | The Big Bang Theory | Dave Gibbs | 3 episodes | |||||
| 2015–2019 | Lip Sync Battle | Himself | Appears in 2 episodes | |||||
| 2016 | The Simpsons | Conrad (voice) | Episode: "The Girl Code" | |||||
| Barron Hilton | Television film | |||||||
| American Dad! | Scientist (voice) | Episode: "The 200" | ||||||
| The Crystal Maze | Himself (host) | Television special | ||||||
| 2016–2020 | Dream Corp LLC | T.E.R.R.Y. | 28 episodes | |||||
| 2018 | The Good Place | Neil | Episode: "Janet(s)" | |||||
| Click & Collect | Andrew | Christmas TV special | ||||||
| 2020 | Count Rugen | 2 episodes | ||||||
| 2021–2024 | The Outlaws | Greg | 17 episodes; directed 3 episodes and wrote 9 episodes | |||||
| 2022 | Four Lives | Stephen Port | 3 episodes | |||||
| Big Fat Quiz of the Year | Panelist | With Richard Ayoade | ||||||
| 2024 | BAFTA TV Awards | Guest award announcer | ||||||
| 2025–present | The Paper | Follow-up and spinoff to the American remake of his show The Office co-created with Ricky Gervais | ||||||
| 2025 | Julian Chamberlain | Episode: "Costa da Morte" |
| + !Year !Title !Station !Role !Notes !Ref | |||||
| 1998 | The Ricky Gervais Show | XFM | Self, co-host | Presented with Ricky Gervais | |
| 2001–2005 | Presented with Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington | ||||
| 2007–2009 | The Steve Show | BBC Radio 6 Music | Self, host |
| 2013-2023 | RHLSTP with Richard Herring | Self | 3 episodes |
| 2014 | Dish | Episode: "Stephen Merchant, smoked mackerel with spinach baked eggs and a rosé" | |
| 2016 | Norm Macdonald Live | Episode: "Stephen Merchant" | |
| 2019 | Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard | Episode: "Stephen Merchant" | |
| 2021 | Office Ladies | Episode: "Customer Survey with Stephen Merchant" | |
| 2022 | Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend | Episode: "Stephen Merchant" | |
| 2024 | Russell Howard's Five Brilliant Things | Episode: "Stephen Merchant" | |
| 2025 | How to Fail with Elizabeth Day | Episode: "Stephen Merchant: ‘Most famous people are f**cked up’" | |
| 2025 | Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson & Woody Harrelson | Episode: "Stephen Merchant" | |
| 2025 | The Blocks Podcast with Neal Brennan | Episode: "Stephen Merchant" | |
| 2025 | The Romesh Ranganathan Show | Episode: "Stephen Merchant: Letting Go Of The Office & Being The Awkward Guy" |
| 2011 | Portal 2 | Wheatley |
| 2013 | Team Fortress 2 (uncredited) | |
| 2015 | Lego Dimensions |
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