Stephen James Merchant (born in Bristol, England, on 24 November 1974) is a British actor, comedian, radio host, writer and director. He is best known for his work writing The Office (UK) and Extras with Ricky Gervais, and playing a recurring character in the latter, as well as Neil in The Good Place. He also has had a pretty successful career in voice acting, including voicing Paris in Gnomeo & Juliet, Mr. Phillips in Bromwell High, and Wheatley in Portal 2.
Merchant often works with Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington.
He is currently on a stand-up tour and starred in the HBO sitcom Hello Ladies and in 2017, Merchant made his first foray into the comic book movie genre with the release of Logan, playing the role of Caliban. He also voices the Crite President in Critters: A New Binge. He has also recently wrote and starred in the show The Outlaws.
Tropes associated with Stephen Merchant:
- Berserk Button: He also seems to hate being called an "invalid" as one episode of The Ricky Gervais Show indicates.
- Catchphrase: "Man alive!"
- Fat and Skinny: He is often seen with fellow comedian and friend Ricky Gervais, which of course only makes his height and skinniness more obvious.
- Game Show Appearance: Was on Blockbusters before he made it big.
It was incorporated into a scene in The Office (UK) with Ricky the intern, who had also been on Blockbusters. - Gentle Giant: He's 6 feet 7 inches tall, and yet he's said to be quite shy, possibly because of it. Not many people to talk to up there, eh Steve?
- Height Angst: He's said on The Ricky Gervais Show that being as tall as he is can become a bit of a disability. He complains about it a few times throughout the show.
- Motor Mouth: If he wants to, he can really let the words fly.
- The Other Darrin: Icelandic actor Tómas Lemarquis played Caliban in X-Men: Apocalypse the year before Merchant did in Logan. The two movie crews didn't ask each other about the issue of using the same character.
- The Scrooge: His tightness with money is often made fun of by Ricky Gervais, and even Karl Pilkington will sometimes get a dig in at him regarding this.
- Shaking the Rump: His appearance on Lip Sync Battle included a rendition of Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty" which involved a lot of this. It's worth noting the outfit he was wearing during said performance...
