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Ricky Gervais (born June 25, 1961) is an English comic writer and performer from Reading, England. After studying Philosophy at UCL in the early 1980s, Ricky had modest success as a singer in a New Romantic band, briefly managed Suede, and was appointed 'Head of Speech' at London radio station Xfm in 1998 which led to his own show with colleague Stephen Merchant. But it wasn't until 2001 that Ricky achieved mainstream fame as the star of the award-winning BBC2 sitcom The Office, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Steve. In 2005, Ricky and Steve returned with new sitcom, Extras. In spite of their other successes Ricky and Steve have continued to work in radio, and it was while presenting a weekly show in Xfm in 2001 that they happened upon the bizarre world of producer Karl Pilkington. The trio recently collaborated on two series of podcasts that proved so popular it earned them a Guinness World Record. Last month, Ricky became the first guest star on The Simpsons to also write an episode, "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", which aired 26 March 2006.