Stephen James Merchant (born 24 November 1974) is an English comedian, actor, director, 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, 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–present).

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Reviews / Arts

Stephen Merchant

The show felt like catching up with a friend at the pub and simply listening to an extremely funny guy tell a bunch of extremely funny stories. Top notch.

Features / Arts

Hello Stephen

"I wanted people to go away from Hello Ladies thinking ‘Jeez, at least my dating life isn’t as bad as his!'"

Reviews / Arts

Stephen Merchant

Watching Merchant solo is a real pleasure and makes you wonder why he hasn’t stepped out of Gervais’s shadows sooner.

News / Music

The Office’s Stephen Merchant To Tour Australia

It will be his first stand-up Australian tour

News / Arts

The Brit Comedy Invasion Of HBO continues

UK comedians Stephen Merchant and Jo Brand are amongst the latest wave of Brit-com heading to US TV.