Stephen Merchant
☼ Born on 24 December 1974, in Bristol, England, UK
BiographyStephen James Merchant is an English actor, comedian, director, presenter and writer.
Alongside Ricky Gervais, Merchant 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). With Gervais and Karl Pilkington, he hosted The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio, podcast, audio-book, and television formats; the radio version won a bronze Sony Award. He also provided the voice of the robotic "Intelligence Dampening Core" Wheatley in the 2011 video game Portal 2. Merchant co-developed the Sky1 travel series An Idiot Abroad (2010-2012) and co-created Lip Sync Battle (2015-present). In 2021 he starred in, co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed the 12-part comedy crime series The Outlaws.
Merchant has also performed as a stand-up comedian, which led to him writing and starring in the HBO series Hello Ladies (2013-2014), which was 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 also appeared as the mutant Caliban in the superhero film Logan (2017), and as serial killer Stephen Port in the 2022 television drama Four Lives. He has received numerous accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, three BAFTA Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four British Comedy Awards.
In the role of actor
The Girl in the Spider’s Web (14/11/2018)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo returns in The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) is hired by former NSA employee Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant) to steal a program called Firefall, which can access the world’s nuclear missiles. Soon after completing the heist, Lisbeth’s apartment is ambushed by a group of men who […]
Logan (05/03/2017)
Wolverine goes on one last adventure in Logan. It is the year 2029 and mutants have become all but extinct. Due to poisoning caused by his adamantium skeleton, Logan (Hugh Jackman) has become greatly aged and is unable to heal as well anymore. He lives in Mexico with albino mutant Caliban (Stephen Merchant) to care […]
Hall Pass (02/03/2011)
I sort of feel bad about the Farrelly brothers. They had a huge hit in 1998 with There’s Something About Mary, however they haven’t since been able to match the success. The plot of Hall Pass involves how two married men (played by Owen Wilson and SNL‘s Jason Sudeikis), can’t stop gawking at younger women, so their […]
In the role of director
Fighting with My Family (21/02/2019)
The story of WWE superstar Paige and her wrestling family in England is told in Fighting with My Family. Saraya Knight (Florence Pugh) has been wrestling since the age of 13 for her family’s wrestling promotion World Association of Wrestling in Norwich, England, which is run by her father Ricky (Nick Frost) and mother Julia (Lena Headey) and […]