[[quoteright:262:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rickythrone1_7530.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:262:Modesty is ''not'' his strong-suit.]]
->''"You should make something. You should bring something into the world that wasn't in the world before. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it's a table or a film or gardening-everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, 'I did that.'"''

Richard Dean "Ricky" Gervais (born 25 June 1961) is a British writer, actor, comedian, singer, presenter, director, and children's novelist.

Ricky first appeared in the public limelight in 1983 where he and Bill Macrae, a university friend, formed Music/SeonaDancing, a "{{New wave|Music}}, {{synthpop}}, electropop" duo that released two singles, "More to Lose" and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXhSqmfRTfY "Bitter Heart"]], which respectively reached #117 and #70 in the UK charts.

Soon after, Ricky joined the radio presenter ranks of the unlicenced radio station ''XFM'' doing daily night-time sessions. This entailed a lot of effort, and he decided to get an assistant. He hired the first person to turn up after he agreed to do "all the boring stuff"; that person was Creator/StephenMerchant, who has since co-written with Ricky on multiple projects. After ''Capital Radio'' took over XFM and made Gervais redundant, he ended up working on several projects for the BBC on both the radio and TV.

Ricky then appeared a lot on Creator/{{Channel 4}} in shows including ''Golden Years'', ''The 11 O'Clock Show'' and ''Meet Ricky Gervais''. In 2001, a {{mockumentary}} sitcom he starred in, co-created, co-wrote and co-directed with Stephen premiered on the Creator/{{BBC}} under the title ''[[Series/TheOfficeUK The Office]]''. It has since become one of the most successful British comedy exports of all time, being sold to broadcasters in over 80 countries and inspiring the massively successful [[Series/TheOfficeUS American remake]]. Following the show's popularity, Ricky started the first of his stand-up comedy tours, along with writing his first book ''Literature/{{Flanimals}}''.

After this point, [[AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder it seems hard to keep track of all his projects]], which include ''Series/{{Extras}}'' (also co-written with Stephen), the podcast ''Radio/TheRickyGervaisShow'' with Stephen (and their long-suffering former XFM producer Creator/KarlPilkington, who was also in ''Series/AnIdiotAbroad'', which Ricky and Stephen produced), several more stand-up tours with new material, co-writing/directing and starring in several films and shows, voice-acting, and making countless cameos.
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