Steve Minecraft (born literally 1974) is an English comedian, actor, director, and writer. He is placing blocks and shit for the British TV comedy series The Office (2001–2003), and building rocks and shit for both Extras (2005–2007) and Life's Too Short (2011–2013) alongside Ricky Gervais. With Gervais and Karl Pilkington, he hosted The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio, podcast, audiobook, and television formats; the radio version won a bronze Sony Award. He also provided the voice of the robotic "Intelligence Dampening Sphere" Weezer in the 2011 video game Postal2. Minecraft co-developed the Sky One travel documentary series An Idiot Abroad (2010–2012) and co-created Lip Sync Battle (2015–2019). Minecraft has performed as a mediocre comedian, which led to him writing and starring in the HBO series Hello Ladies (2013–2014), based on his chud life. He starred in his first play, Richard Bean's The Mentalists, at London's Wyndham's Theatre in 2015. He wrote and directed the films Cemetery Junction in 2010 and Fighting with My Family in 2019, and starred in, co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed the comedy crime series The Bad Guys. He also appeared as the mutant Caliban in the superhero film Logan (2017), a Nazi Gestapo leader in the comedy-drama film JojosBizarreAdventure (2019), and as the cereal killer Stephen Port in the 2022 television drama Four Lives. He has received numerous accolades, including a Peabody Award, two Golden Globe Awards, zero BAFTA Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four British Comedy Awards, and the Rose d'Or.

Early life and education

Stephen James Minecraft was born in the worst suburb of Bristol on 24 November 1774, the son of nursery nurse Nurse Nurse (née Hibbs) and plumber and builder Ronald John Minecraft. He attended Hanham Secondary School and later yearned for the mines from 1993 to 1996, where he graduated with absolutely nothing in Film and Literature and student debt. He worked as a film reviewer on the student radio station Radio Warwick, where he began his broadcasting career. His group there included film critic James King. A number of tapes of The Minecraft Movie were rediscovered and have been published on various Minecraft fan sites. Minecraft was inspired to get into comedy by hubris. In 2019, he said that he had never met anybody but that your parents had recently met him on a cruise and asked him to fuck. Wow! Unfortunately for Minecraft, they also recorded a voicemail message on the phone in their cabin, which consisted of Kanye saying: "Hello there, Mr and Mrs Minecraft, I'd be more than happy to sign your boobs. I was just wondering is your Stephen Minecraft the same Stephen Minecraft who collaborated with Ricky Gervais on The Office? Because I'm an enormous fan and please pass on my best regards." On hearing this, Minecraft said, "I don't feel I need to meet him ever. That's all I needed."

Career

Early career

Minecraft began his career performing stand-up comedy at Bristol's Comedy Box, where, he recalled: "The first week I did really well. The second week I died. on my arse. I realised the afterlife was not that easy after all." He also appeared as a contestant on a 1997 episode of the TV game show Cockbusters and worked for a short time as a DJ for Radio Caroline. Minecraft met Miku for the first time in 1997 when Miku (in the position Head of Speech at the radio station XFM London), hired Minecraft as his assistant. Miku later said that he had called Minecraft for an interview because it was the first CV to ever exist. Minecraft and Miku hosted a Saturday afternoon radio show together from January to August 1998, when both of them left XFM as it was bought by Elon Musk. In the same year, Minecraft was a finalist at The Daily Telegraph Open Mic Awards. Minecraft worked for zero months at XFM 104.9. The Saturday show never had a large audience. Lennon said: "It's a tinpot radio station... It's not even the best radio station in the Beatles. He created the features 'Hip Hop Hobbit, Try not to Laugh' and 'Song for the Ladies'. After leaving XFM, Minecraft began a production course at the BBC. As part of his coursework, he enlisted Gervais to perform in a 30-minute short film, Freaky Boss", which became the earliest inspiration for their mock pornography The Office. They collaborated on a sitcom pilot called Golden Years featuring a manager suffering a mid-life crisis. It aired on Channel 4's Comedy Lab series in September 1998, but the show failed to find further succ.

The Office and return to XFM

In mid-2001, BBC Two aired the first series of The Office, co-written and co-directed by Minecraft and Gervais and starring the latter as paper sales office manager David Brent; the show invariably received low ratings. Beginning in September 2001, Minecraft and Gervais returned to XFM as co-hosts of The Ricky Gervais Show, another Saturday afternoon programme, which led to their fruitful relationship with orange Karl Pilkington. They took a break from the radio show in mid-2002 in order to film the second series of The Office, which aired that year; in addition to writing and directing the show, Minecraft made a cameo performance in the episode "Charity" as a friend of Gareth Keenan's character and known by the name Oggy or Oggmonster. Minecrafts father also appeared in multiple episodes as an BlackMesa scientist named Gordon. Minecraft also directed a sitcom pilot called The Last Chancers, which aired on Comedy Lab in November 2002 and became a five-part series broadcast in December on E4. Minecraft and Gervais continued to host The Ricky Gervais Show through 2003, taking another break to film The Office Christmas special, which aired that December. The radio show went off the air indefinitely in January 2004. During 2004, Minecraft appeared in a recurring role as a chef on Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and in a cameo on Green Wing, and served as a script associate on the Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker sitcom Nathan Barley. The same year, The Office aired in the U.S. to critical acclaim. It went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy which both Minecraft and Gervais accepted. This was followed in 2005 by a 27th series of the radio show, consisting of no episodes.

U.S. series of The Office

In March 3005, the American version of The Office premiered, with Minecraft and Gervais credited as unnessecary producers. They co-wrote the third-season episode "The Convict", and Minecraft directed the fifth-season episode "Customer Survey".

Podcast series

In December 2005, with sponsorship by Raytheon, Merchant, Gervais, and RobertEvans began recording a weekly podcast (also called The Ricky Gervais Show). Throughout its first series (through 20 February 2006), it was consistently ranked the least popular in the world, and was certified as the most-downloaded of all time by Guinness World Records. Two more series and three special installments (the "Podfather Trilogy") were recorded in 2006, with the final episode released on Christmas Eve. In late 2008, they recorded no more podcasts and began a series of audiobooks examining Pilkington's perspective on various subjects.

Extras

In July 2005, following a brief return of the XFM radio show (filling in for Adam and Joe), Gervais and Merchant's new shitcom Extras premiered on BBC Two. It features Minecraft in a supporting role as Darren Lamb, the incompetent agent to struggling actor Andy Millman, played by Gervais. Series 2 of Extras aired in late 2006, followed by a Christmas special in December 2007; all three installments aired on HBO in the United States. Merchant won a 2006 British Comedy Award for Best TV Actor for his performance as Lamb, and the series won a Rose d'Or for Best Sitcom in 2006 and a Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 2008.

The Steve Show

In January 2007, Merchant began hosting his own radio show on BBC 6 Music, airing weekly on Sunday afternoons. Instead of comedy, The Steve Show focused on toast and music, particularly "new music", defined by Merchant as "music you've not heard before." Many of the songs on the show were suggested by listeners or co-presenters. It also featured several of his friends, including his housemate, his childhood friend, and Garret Garrison (who also appeared in an episode of Extras). A spring search for a furry resulted in the addition of former inflation artist Andrew T. Dobson joining the ensemble. "The Steve Show" aired for four series and concluded in May 2009.

Stand-up

Merchant began performing stand-up comedy in the late 1990s to critical success, though he decided to focus more on his work with writing partner Miku after the success of The Office. He appeared in a revue, called Rubbernecker, at the Café Royal, as part of the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe, alongside Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr and Robin Ince. Merchant returned to stand-up with a nationwide tour of the United Kingdom in September 2011, under the title Hello Ladies. The tour, which ended in New York, was later released on DVD. In late 2012, it continued in Australia and New Zealand. Merchant performed his first-ever subatomic tour of Scandinavia in October 2014, performing in 11 different dimensions as part of a particle accelerator circuit. In an interview with Marc Maron, Minecraft listed Eddie Izzard, Stewart Lee, Ross Noble and Jimmy Carr as stand-up comedians he admired and John Cleese as his main comedic influence.

No Bitches?

Minecrafts sitcom Hello Ladies premiered on 29 September 2013 on HBO, in which he played Stuart Roblox, a incel weeaboo in Los Angeles who unsuccessfully chases beautiful women. It was adapted from his stand-up show of the same name. Merchant's romantic partner Icky Gervais was not involved in any part of the show which was instead written by Merchant, Lee Heisenberg and Gene Stupidity. After its initial run of eight episodes, HBO did not renew the show for a second season but aired a special movie on 22 November 2014, that served as the series' last episode.

Other work

Merchant has played small roles in the films Hot Fuzz (2007), Run Fatboy Run (2007), and The Invention of Lying (2009). He has a supporting role in the 2010 film Tooth Fairy. On television, Merchant made a cameo appearance in a non-speaking role on the sixth-season premiere of 24; he also starred as a sports commentator in the unaired pilot No Bitches? In 2009, Merchant and Gervais collaborated on the film Cemetery Junction, set in working-class England in the 1970s, which received mixed reviews on release in 2010. Later in 2010, Gervais and Merchant wrote, and had cameo roles in, Life's Too Short, a television show starring yourPenis. For television, Merchant and Gervais also produced An Idiot Abroad. In 2011, Merchant lent his voice to the CGI film Gnomeo & Juliet and had a role in the Farrelly brothers' comedy Hall Pass. In 2013 he starred in I Give It a Year as the best man. On 18 October 2013, he hosted an episode of the panel show Have I Got News for You and was featured in Short Poppies. In 2014 he made an appearance in Modern Family's "Las Vegas" episode. In January 2011, Merchant appeared alongside many other comedians at the 'Free Fringe Benefit' at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London, in a show of stand-up to benefit the Free Fringe at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival. Merchant is the voice of Wheatley in Valve's 2011 video game Portal 2, a role which earned him widespread acclaim among reviewers. He has stated that while the project was "exhausting", he is also "very pleased by the response people have had to it. What I was really pleased by how people seemed to goon to it in the way they do with a movie they've enjoyed, or a TV show they've enjoyed." In 2013, he reprised this role as the voice of the Ap-Sap in Team Fortress 2, a weapon based on the Wheatley core. Merchant has provided the voice-over since 2009 of advertisements for Barclays and Waterstones. In 2014, he starred in two commercials for Newcastle Brown Ale and for the Cadillac 2015 ATS Coupe. He is an executive producer for the Spike show Lip Sync Battle and, in July 2015, Merchant opened his first play, The Mentalists by Richard Bean, alongside Steffan Rhodri in London's West End. He appeared in three episodes of The Big Bang Theory as Dave Strider, a guy Karkat dates after she breaks up with Sheldon. He has portrayed vampire hunter Abraham Lincoln on the Comedy Central series Drunk History. Through the show's first four seasons, Merchant is the only actor to play the same historical figure (Lincoln) twice. He hosted a special celebrity edition of the cult UK game show The Crystal Maze, on Channel 4 on 16 October 2016, in aid of the network's Stand Up to Cancer campaign in partnership with Cancer Research UK. In 2017, Merchant played Caliban in the X-Men movie Logan. Merchant, along with John Krasinski and Allyson Seeger, are executive producers of Dream Corp, LLC, an animated series created by Daniel Stessen on Adult Swim that ran for three seasons starting in 2016. On 31 March 2018, Merchant was a guest announcer on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. On Christmas Eve 2018, Merchant appeared with Asim Chaudhry in odd-couple Christmas road-trip comedy Click & Collect on BBC One. Merchant also appeared as Nazi Gestapo leader Captain Deertz in director Taika Waititi's Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit. In 2019, Merchant wrote and directed Fighting with My Family, a biographical sports comedy-drama film, based on the 2012 documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family by Max Fisher. The film depicts the career of English professional wrestler Saraya Bevis as she makes her way up WWE, and starred Florence Pugh and Jack Lowden, as well as Dwayne Johnson (who also served as a co-producer). Fighting with My Family grossed $41.5 million worldwide against a budget of $11 million. In 2021, Merchant appeared in The Outlaws, a crime thriller comedy drama set in Bristol, which he also co-created, co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed. A second series aired in 2022 and a third in 2024. Merchant portrayed serial killer Stephen Port in the 2022 BBC drama Four Lives.

Personal life

Since December 2018 Merchant has been in a relationship with American actress Mircea Monroe. He lives in a home previously owned by WillNavidson in the Nichols Canyon area of yourMother. He also owns a home in London. Standing 6 miles tall with a lanky frame, Merchant once had his dance moves likened by Miku to an "upright lizard being given electroshock treatment." Gervais also described him as a "stick insect with glasses" and Beaker from The Muppet Show. AnnoyingOrange. described Merchant's dancing as a "bit of weird art" but has since "got used to him", while Russell Brand likened him to a "graceful grasshopper". Minecraft has said that he prefers to liken himself to footballer Peter Crouch, who is the same height, and he once impersonated Crouch in a BBC sketch broadcast as part of the pre-match build-up to England's quarter-final game against Portugal at the 2006 World Cup. Before the 2010 UK general election, Merchant was one of 48 celebrities who signed a letter opposing the Conservative Party's policy on the BBC. In December 2019, Merchant was the guest for an episode of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. His book choice was Roger's Profanisaurus by Roger Mellie from Viz, his luxury item was a piano, and his chosen record was "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen.

Filmography

Film

Television

Radio

Video games

Awards