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Greg Daniels was born on 13 June 1963 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for The Office (2005), Parks and Recreation (2009) and King of the Hill (1997). He has been married to Susanne Daniels since 15 September 1991. They have four children.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Bill Lawrence was born on 26 December 1968 in Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Scrubs (2001), Ted Lasso (2020) and Shrinking (2023). He has been married to Christa Miller since 27 November 1999. They have three children. He was previously married to Megyn Price.- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Ricky Dene Gervais was born in a suburb of Reading, Berkshire, to Eva Sophia (House) and Lawrence Raymond Gervais, who was a hod carrier and labourer. His father was born in Ontario, Canada, of French-Canadian descent, and his mother was English. He was educated at Ashmead Comprehensive School and went on to study at University College, London, where he gained a degree in Philosophy.
After university, Gervais attempted to pursue a pop career with Seona Dancing, a duo he formed with a fellow student. Similar to many groups in the early 1980s, they were a synth-pop act with a somewhat pretentious name and exhibiting a strong musical influence by David Bowie. Gervais adopted a vocal style that has often been compared to Bowie; comedian Paul Merton would later joke that Bowie nicked their music. Seona Dancing were briefly signed to a recording contract and released two singles, "More to Lose" and "Bitter Heart". The latter was slightly reminiscent of Queen's "Body Language" from a year earlier, featuring a similar synthesizer riff. The act failed to breach the UK top 75 and earn a place in the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, but clips have survived and they have been frequently used to tease Gervais in interviews. Despite his own lack of success, Gervais stayed within the music industry for a while and even spent time as the manager of Suede.
Gervais had to wait a long time before achieving the fame he had hoped would come with a pop career. In the 1990s he formed a writing partnership with Stephen Merchant. In 2000, he landed his own comedy chat show on Channel 4, Meet Ricky Gervais (2000), which attracted legendary guests such as Jimmy Savile, Michael Winner, Paul Daniels, Peter Purves, Stefanie Powers, Jim Bowen and Midge Ure. The series only ran for six episodes but a year later greater stardom came for Gervais with the debut of BBC comedy The Office (2001). Although it was not initially received to great acclaim or viewing figures, it is now often cited as one of the greatest comedy series of all time and has been credited with reinventing the sitcom. Gervais starred as the obnoxious and embarrassing office manager David Brent, who has since been voted in various polls one of the greatest comic characters. It also prompted an American remake, The Office (2005). Gervais had further success with another sitcom, Extras (2005), which attracted a series of celebrity guests, including Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson and his musical idol David Bowie. It served as a satire on the entertainment industry and leading stars were happy to play along by performing exaggerated versions of themselves.
Gervais has become one of the most popular and omnipresent comedy performers of the 21st century, hosting the Golden Globe awards, lending his talent to films, becoming a voice artist and appearing on numerous talk shows. He has become one of the best known British comedy figures in America. He is also regularly the subject of controversy due to his dark comedy. Some critics have called him insensitive and outrageous. Gervais has responded by saying "offense is the collateral damage of free speech", he has said that he doesn't aim for a mass audience, he's just pleased he's managed to get one, and he has compared his style of comedy and the audience he has acquired with being Iggy Pop in preference to being Phil Collins.- Producer
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- Actor
Stephen James Merchant is an English actor, comedian, director, presenter and writer.
Alongside Ricky Gervais, Merchant was the co-writer and co-director of the British TV comedy series The Office (2001-2003), and co-writer, co-director, and co-star of both Extras (2005-2007) and Life's Too Short (2011-2013). With Gervais and Karl Pilkington, he hosted The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio, podcast, audio-book, and television formats; the radio version won a bronze Sony Award. He also provided the voice of the robotic "Intelligence Dampening Core" Wheatley in the 2011 video game Portal 2. Merchant co-developed the Sky1 travel series An Idiot Abroad (2010-2012) and co-created Lip Sync Battle (2015-present). In 2021 he starred in, co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed the 12-part comedy crime series The Outlaws.
Merchant has also performed as a stand-up comedian, which led to him writing and starring in the HBO series Hello Ladies (2013-2014), which was based on his stand-up material. He starred in his first play, Richard Bean's The Mentalists, at London's Wyndham's Theatre in 2015. He also appeared as the mutant Caliban in the superhero film Logan (2017), and as serial killer Stephen Port in the 2022 television drama Four Lives. He has received numerous accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, three BAFTA Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four British Comedy Awards.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Vera Mindy Chokalingam is an Indian-American actress, comedienne, producer, writer and director from Cambridge, Massachusetts known for playing Kelly Kapoor in The Office, Disgust in Inside Out, and creating The Mindy Project. She also appeared in Wreck-It Ralph, Despicable Me, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Ocean's 8, and Monsters at Work. She has two children.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Paul Bevan Lieberstein is a Jewish-American writer, director, producer and actor from Connecticut who is known for his work on The Office and King of the Hill. In The Office, he also played Toby Flenderson, a frequently bullied HR department head who is targeted by Michael Scott at Dunder Mifflin Scranton.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
B. J. Manaly Novak is a Jewish-American actor, writer and director from Newton, Massachusetts known for playing Ryan Howard from The Office. He wrote several episodes for the show. He also acted in Saving Mr. Banks, Knocked Up, Reign Over Me, The Internship, Inglorious Basterds, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Founder and The Smurfs duology.- Producer
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- Additional Crew
- Producer
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- Actor
Michael Schur was born on October 29, 1975 in West Hartford, Connecticut, USA as Michael Herbert Schur. He is a TV series creator, a writer, and producer known for series such as The Office (2005), Parks and Recreation (2009), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013) and The Good Place (2016). He has been married to J.J. Philbin since October 9, 2005. They have two children.- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Writer/Director Peter Gould was born and raised in the Chelsea neighborhood of Lower Manhattan where he was expelled from a number of tony, non-conformist private schools. After graduating with a B.A. in English from Sarah Lawrence College, Peter became a fixture on the New York Indie scene, working in every conceivable job on films ranging from the retro punk angst of Scott and Beth B. to the joyous exploitation of Troma ("The Toxic Avenger"). Finally landing in the semi-respectable world of television commercials, Peter quickly decided that he wanted to make films of his own. Moving west to the USC Graduate Production program, Peter devoted himself to writing and directing. Peter's memories of unhappy prep school experiences, Luis Buñuel movies and an abiding interest in women's feet percolated through his unconscious: the result was the short film script DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS. DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS is the story of a self-hating foot-fetishist who works as a department store trainee. The hero is forced to confront his worst fears and his greatest desires when he's assigned to ladies' shoes. Clearly, this was a film that Peter was destined to make since one of his earliest memories is of spying on his first grade teacher's toes during reading circle. Needless to say, Peter was kicked out of second grade. Through blood, sweat and some clever political maneuvering, Peter managed to get the unusual film concept past a skeptical USC faculty committee and selected out of a pool of several hundred scripts to be one of the year's major graduate productions. Peter was also granted the then-rare privilege of directing his own script. The finished film garnered a shelf-full of awards including the Nissan Focus Award and the Cine Golden Eagle. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS "...displays a delicious sense of dark humor... painfully funny!" Peter and his film were selected to represent the university at the CILECT Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, where the film won the Audience Award and was given the unique privilege of being both screened on Czech television and satirized in other student films. Additionally, Dirty Little Secrets won the Hiroshima International Film Festival and was featured on Entertainment Tonight. In the wake of all this attention, Peter was now officially "flavor of the month", complete with dueling talent agencies competing to represent him and an appearance in PREMIERE magazine. Peter was deluged with every low-budget low-concept T & A script in Hollywood. Dissatisfied with the quality of the material, Peter returned to screenwriting, turning out a series of highly-regarded, eccentric scripts. Peter's credits as a screenwriter include DOUBLE DRAGON, a $20 million action film that set off the video-game movie trend. He has also directed music videos and wrote and directed a best-selling home video for children. For the past five years, he has taught film production in the prestigious Peter Stark Producing Program at the U.S.C. School of Cinema-Television. He has also taught at the Art Center in Pasadena. Currently, Peter is preparing to direct his first feature film, a dark, quirky comedy that is scheduled to shoot in early 1997.- Producer
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- Director
George Vincent Gilligan Jr. (born February 10, 1967) is an American writer, producer, and director. He is known for his television work, specifically as creator, head writer, executive producer, and director of Breaking Bad and its spin-off Better Call Saul. He was a writer and producer for The X-Files and was the co-creator of its spin-off The Lone Gunmen.
Both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul have received widespread critical acclaim, with Gilligan winning two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Writers Guild of America Awards, two Critics' Choice Television Awards and Producers Guild of America Awards, one Directors Guild of America Award and a BAFTA. Outside of television, he co-wrote the screenplay for the 2008 film Hancock.
Gilligan was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Gail, a grade school teacher, and George Vincent Gilligan Sr., an insurance claims adjuster. His parents divorced in 1974 and he and his younger brother, Patrick, were raised in Farmville and Chesterfield County, and attended the laboratory school run by Longwood College. Growing up, Gilligan became best friends with future film editor and film title designer Angus Wall. His interest in film began when Wall's mother, Jackie, who also taught alongside Gilligan's mother, would lend her Super 8 film cameras to him. He used the camera to make science fiction films with Patrick. One of his first films was entitled Space Wreck, starring his brother in the lead role. One year later, he won first prize for his age group in a film competition at the University of Virginia.
Jackie would take Wall and Gilligan to Richmond and drop them off at Cloverleaf Mall to see films, and encourage both of them to pursue a career in the arts. "I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for Jackie. She was a wonderful lady and a real inspiration," he recalls. Gilligan was recognized for his talents and creativity at an early age. George Sr. described him as a "kind of a studious-type young man, and he liked to read, and he had a vivid imagination". He introduced Gilligan to film noir classics, as well as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood Westerns on late-night television. Gilligan won a scholarship to attend the prestigious Interlochen Center for the Arts. After eighth grade, he moved back to Chesterfield to attend high school.
After graduating from Lloyd C. Bird High School in 1985, Gilligan went on to attend NYU's Tisch School of the Arts on a scholarship, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film production. While at NYU, he wrote the screenplay for Home Fries; Gilligan received the Virginia Governor's Screenwriting Award in 1989 for the screenplay, which was later turned into a film. One of the judges of the competition was Mark Johnson, a film producer. He was impressed by Gilligan, saying he "was the most imaginative writer I'd ever read".