Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais’s father was a French-Canadian stationed in the UK during WWII. After meeting Ricky's mother, he decided to settle down with her in the UK and raise a family. When it was time to go to college, Ricky headed for London, despite hardly ever having been there before (he grew up in Reading) It was there that he met his future partner, Jane Fallon, a successful producer at independent Tiger Aspect. After graduating he made a stab at pop stardom with a New Romantic band named Seona Dancing. This resulted in one released single and the need to find work.

His first job was running entertainment for the London students union. This was where he got his exposure to the world of stand-up comedy, for better, and often, for worse. Though he was fascinated with stand-up, it was only after the success of the office that he found the nerve to go on-stage.

Instead, Gervais next took a job the alternative radio station Xfm, where he hired comedy partner Stephen Merchant. Eventually he was given his own talk show and got noticed. When Ali G left, he was invited to fill in on Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show. That led to a one-off series Meet Ricky Gervais. In the meantime, Stephen Merchant produced a short film in fulfillment of his BBC producer’s training course. The film, Seedy Boss, in which the David Brent character first appeared. This got into the hands of the Head of BBC2 and the rest, as they say, is history!