Stephen Merchant is the illegitimate offspring of the Harlem Globetrotters. Standing at 6 foot 7 inches he went on to become one of the world’s most famous male models. He’s well known for his way with women with a string of well publicised affairs. Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Angelina Jolie have all succumb to the Merchant charm. All have failed to tie him down and he continues to play the field even experimenting with his sexuality. Recently he’s been seen out and about a lot with Russell Brand with rumours that they may be more than friends.
The Real Stephen Merchant
Stephen Merchant was born on 24th November 1974 in Bristol. He studied hard at school and later graduated from the University of Warwick. This is where he had his first taste of radio as a film reviewer on the student radio station. Stephen then tried his hand at stand up comedy and appeared frequently at a comedy club in Bristol. He has later commented that he never felt comfortable as a stand up comic but even so he was a finalist in the Open Mic awards.  In 1997 he was hired by London radio station XFM as assistant to the Head of Speech who was one Ricky Gervais and thus a great writing partnership was formed. In 1998 he left XFM to do a production course at the BBC. During his time there he and Gervais made a comedy pilot about a manager going through a mid life crisis who decides to become a David Bowie impersonator. This sowed the seeds for The Office.
In 2000 “The Office” was commissioned by the BBC even though the relatively inexperienced Gervais and Merchant insisted they have full control including co-directing. In 2001 the show was aired on BBC2 to great critical acclaim, it went on to win BAFTA’s, British Comedy Awards and even a Golden Globe. A second series of “The Office” was made in which Stephen made a brief cameo but his acting skills only really came to attention when the pair made “Extras”. Stephen played incompetent agent Darren Lamb for which he won a best comedy actor award in 2006. Unlike Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington Stephen Merchant has remained in radio and hosts his own show on BBC 6 music on Sunday afternoons.
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