Ricky Gervais

On this date in 1961, Ricky Dene Gervais, was born. He makes TV shows and books and movies, but mostly he makes people laugh, and he makes them think, freely. (He's an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and decided as a child that he was an atheist.) He grew up 40 miles west of London, England, in Reading, to working-class parents. He graduated from University College-London with a degree in philosophy and then worked in radio. What eventually brought him fame were his television series, "The Office," which debuted in 2001, and "Extras," in 2005. He co-wrote and co-directed both with Stephen Merchant, his friend and frequent collaborator. Gervais also played the lead roles of David Brent in "The Office" and Andy Millman in "Extras." "The Office" was remade for audiences in France, Germany, Quebec and the U.S., where "Extras" premiered on HBO in 2005. Gervais is a busy man creatively. He played leading roles in the movies "Ghost Town," "The Invention of Lying" and "Night at the Museum." He's had soldout standup comedy tours, wrote the best-selling "Flanimals" book series and starred with Merchant and Karl Pilkington in his podcast of "The Ricky Gervais Show."

He's received two Golden Globes for "The Office" (one for acting, one for the show itself), as well as numerous British Academy Television Awards and British Comedy Awards. He won a 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in "Extras." On his Web site, Gervais has a column titled "My Argument With God: How I went from Jesus-loving Christian to fun-loving infidel . . . in one afternoon." In it, he recounts an afternoon at home when he was about 8 years old. His mother was ironing and he was driving Jesus on the cross as part of his bible studies homework. His brother, Bob, 11 years older than Ricky, asked him why he believed in God, a question which mortified their mother. Gervais remembers thinking, "Why was that a bad thing to ask? If there was a god and my faith was strong, it didn't matter what people thought. Oh . . . hang on. There is no God. He knows it, and she knows it deep down. It was as simple as that. I started thinking about it and asking more questions, and within an hour I was an atheist."