Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, producer, writer and broadcaster.

Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator Stephen Merchant. Besides writing and directing the shows, Gervais played the lead roles of David Brent in The Office and Andy Millman in Extras. Gervais has starred in a number of Hollywood films, assuming leading roles in Ghost Town and The Invention of Lying. Gervais has performed on three sell-out stand-up comedy tours, written the best-selling Flanimals book series and starred with Merchant and Karl Pilkington in the most downloaded podcast prior to March 2009, The Ricky Gervais Show.

He has accumulated a multitude of awards and honours, including seven BAFTA Awards, four British Comedy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two Emmy Awards and the 2006 Rose dOr, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. In 2010 he was voted third greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Channel 4, behind Richard Pryor and Billy Connolly. In 2010, he was named on the Time 100 list of the worlds most influential people.