Ricky Gervais Biography, Net Worth, Age, Height, Weight, Girlfriend, Family, Fact, and More

Ricky Gervais Biography and Net Worth

Ricky Gervais is an English actor, standup comedian, director and writer. Born on June 25, 1961, Ricky Gervais began his career as a standup comedian during the late 90’s. Ricky Gervais is best known for his work in the comedy series The Office (2001-2003) which he co-developed, co-wrote and also acted in.

Ricky Gervais Early Life and Career

Ricky Gervais was born and raised in Readings, Berkshire. For his early education Ricky Gervais attended Ashmead Comprehensive School and then went on to study at University College, London, where he initially studied the biology program but switched his major and later graduated with a degree in philosophy. After completing his education, Gervais tried his luck by pursuing a career in pop industry. He formed a duo with a fellow student called Seona Dancing which was a techno-pop act featuring music that was strongly influenced by David Bowie. The duo, Seona Dancing signed a record deal and released two singles “More to lose” and “Bitter heart”. However, the two records failed to make an impression on the audience. After his failure as a musician, Gervais stayed in the music industry for a while and even served as a manager for Suede. After giving up his pop career, Gervais began his career as a writer and started working with Stephen Merchant in the late 1990s. In 2000, Gervais was given his own comedy chat show on Channel 4 called “Meet Ricky Gervais” where he interviewed various guests including Jimmy Savile, Micheal Winner, and Paul Daniels. The chat show only lasted for six episodes, but in 2001 Gervais acted in a comedy show he co-wrote called “The Office” and that show helped him prove himself in the entertainment industry. Gervais has also worked on radio at early stages of his career where he constantly contributed to Mary Anne Hobbs’s Radio 1 show by performing vox pop interviews. In 1998, Gervais also hosted a radio show with Stephan Merchant but it failed to get much attention. They also collaborated on a sitcom pilot which aired on Channel’s 4 “Comedy Lab” series. The pilot was titled “Golden Years”. In the year 2000, he worked for “Bruiser” which was a comedy sketch show and later that year he was made a series regular on a highly popular show called “The 11 O’clock”.

Commercial success and “The Office”

The idea for Gervais hit comedy series “The Office” came from “The Seedy Boss” which was a short film created by Stephen Merchant. “The Office” is mock documentary series set in an office that follows a manager, who is highly obnoxious and has a tendency to make insensitive jokes, called David Bret who was played by Gervais. The show followed the ups and downs of the stuff at Wernham Hogg, which was a fictional paper company. Although the first season the series wasn’t a big commercial success, still it was picked up for a second season. Following the release of its second season “The Office” became a huge success, so much so that Ricky Gervais was named ‘The powerful person in TV comedy’ by Radio Times. After the successful run of “The Office”, in 2004 the comedy series was awarded a Golden Globe for the best Television series (comedy or musical) and Gervais won a Golden Globe for best actor (comedy or musical), which helped him make his name in America as well. Gervais and Merchant also won numerous BAFTA awards for their work on the comedy series.

The mock documentary series that came from the minds of Gervais and Merchant has become a brand of its won with remakes that were made in various countries including, Sweden, Germany, France, India, Brazil, Israel, Poland, and America. Gervais and Merchant were also co-producers of the American remake of “The Office” and they also co-wrote some of the episodes for the show.

Ricky Gervais career following “The Office”

After making a name in the entertainment industry, Gervais pursued his career as a stand-up comedian and released his children book series by the name of “Flanimals” in 2004, which was a great success. He later acted in TV series called “Extras” (2005-2007) and won an Emmy award for his performance. From 2005-2006 Gervais hosted a podcast with Merchant and Karl Pilkington, called ‘The Ricky Gervais show’. Every episode of the podcast was downloaded by 500,000 listeners, making it the most downloaded podcast ever at the time. The podcast was later adapted into an animated series. Gervais has various acting credits to name his most recent being “After Life” (2019-2022) which is a hit Netflix series. In addition to this Gervais has also worked as a voice actor for various animated projects and has done various stand-up comedy tours. Gervais had also hosted Golden Globe awards five times. Gervais has become one of most popular British comedian in America. While his dark comedy is offensive to some, many find it refreshing which has earned him such a successful career.

Ricky Gervais Girlfriend

Ricky Gervais has been dating Jane Fallon since 1984. Jane Elizabeth Mary Fallon is an English author and TV producer who met Gervais when he was completing his graduation degree. The two haven’t got married because Gervais is an atheist and doesn’t believe in the concept of marriage.

Ricky Gervais Net worth

With various acting credits, stand-up comedy shows, and his career as a writer and author Gervais had a total net worth of almost 140 million dollars.