Stephen James Merchant is an English comedian, writer, director, actor and presenter. Alongside Ricky Gervais, he 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, audiobook, 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 (2010–2011) and co-created Lip Sync Battle(2015–present).
For Disney, he voiced Paris in Gnomeo & Juliet, and voiced Monsieur Toilette in the 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast.