Extras - Chris Martin - 10:30 pm Saturday, January 10 on BBC Three HD

Ricky Gervais (Actor) .. Andy Millman

Born: June 25, 1961 in Reading, Berkshire

Best Known For: Hit BBC sitcom The Office.

Early-life: Born Ricky Dene Gervais in Reading, Berkshire, on June 25, 1961. He's the youngest of four children. Early dreams of being a scientist led him to University College London to read biology, but he switched to philosophy instead. While studying, Gervais created his own band, Seona Dancing. They released two unsuccessful singles, although one of them was a hit in the Philippines. After graduating, Ricky became the entertainments manager at London University's student union.

Career: Gervais started out in radio on Xfm, where he met Stephen Merchant, who would become his writing partner. His first taste of stardom came via Channel 4's The 11 O'Clock Show. Tongue-in-cheek chat show, Meet Ricky Gervais, paved the way for BBC sitcom The Office. Extras, Life is Short and An Idiot Abroad (featuring his sidekick Karl Pilkington) have also been TV hits. He's also continued to work on radio, done stand-up, wrote the children's books Flanimals, worked on The Simpsons, appeared in various Hollywood movies and wrote and directed (with Merchant) as well as appeared in the film Cemetery Junction. Gervais has won many awards, including several Baftas, Emmys and Golden Globes. His most recent project is the Channel 4 comedy Derek, in which he stars as well as directing and writing each episode.

Quote: "Money gives me the creeps and mildly embarrasses me. I get paid too much anyway."

Trivia: He hosted the Golden Globe Awards in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Ashley Jensen (Actor) .. Maggie Jacobs

Born: August 10, 1969 in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

Best Known For: Playing Maggie in Extras.

Early-life: Ashley Jensen was born in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on August 10, 1969, and raised by her mother Margaret. She claims to have known from an early age that she wanted to be an actress, and enjoyed dressing up as a child. Jensen later joined London's National Youth Theatre before taking a diploma in speech and drama at Edinburgh's Queen Margaret College. After graduating, she worked with the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow and the Tron and the Traverse theatres in Edinburgh.

Career: Jensen's first TV role was in a Screen One film called Dreaming, which starred Billy Connolly. In the early 1990s, she appeared in shows such as Tickets for the Zoo, Down Among the Big Boys, May to December, Rab C Nesbitt and Roughnecks. A more prominent role came when she was cast as Angie Raeburn in Two Thousand Acres of Sky, but she reached a huge audience as Maggie Jacobs in BBC sitcom Extras. The actress has scooped a number of awards for playing the unlucky-in-love singleton, including a coveted Rose d'Or. She also starred with Patrick Stewart in ITV drama Eleventh Hour, and became well known in America thanks to her role as Christina in Ugly Betty. More recent projects include short-lived American sitcom Accidentally on Purpose, BBC comedy Nativity, ITV drama The Reckoning and providing voiceovers for animated films Gnomeo and Juliet, Arthur Christmas and The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Quote: "I know what I look like. I'm not a babe who's automatically going to be the leading-lady type. I think I would always be cast as the friend."

Trivia: Jensen married actor Terence Beesley in 2007.

Stephen Merchant (Actor) .. Darren Lamb

Born: November 24, 1974 in Bristol

Best Known For: Being Ricky Gervais' best friend, and sending Karl Pilkington around the world.

Early-life: Merchant was born in Bristol and attended Hanham High School. He graduated from University of Warwick with a first-class degree in Film and Literature.

Career: Before Merchant met Gervais, he was performing stand-up comedy. The pair worked together at London radio station XFM. Later, Merchant worked on a production course at the BBC, in which he enlisted Gervais' help for a short film called 'Seedy Boss' - which is when the idea of The Office arose, with both writing and directing the series. While The Office then enjoyed success Stateside, Gervais and Merchant also concentrated on BBC sitcom Extras. Then came Merchant's radio show for BBC 6 Music, The Steve Show. The comic is in the midst of nationwide tour of the UK, with a stop in New York, and continues to show up in movies and TV shows, including vehicles like An Idiot Abroad and Life's Too Short.

Quote: "Ricky's quite happy to provoke opinion, to blur the line between his acting and his stand-up persona. He likes to be a little bit provocative. He takes pleasure from that and he's good at it, and to him it feels challenging. It feels important. That doesn't concern me."

Shaun Williamson (Actor) .. Himself

Born: November 04, 1965 in Maidstone, Kent

Best Known For: Playing Barry in EastEnders.

Early-life: Born November 4, 1965 in Maidstone, Kent. To pay the rent he worked for the Post Office; the Navy; a supermarket and as a holiday rep. Williamson created his own amateur theatre group and staged a production of A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg. The production won him Best Actor in the Kent Drama Festival. He completed a three-year acting diploma at The Webber Douglas Academy. In 1994 he landed the memorable part of lovable loser Barry Evans in EastEnders.

Career: Williamson stayed with the soap for 10 years and after leaving Albert Square featured in the pantomimes Snow White and Cinderella, and starred in the stage productions Saturday Night Fever, The Rocky Horror Show, Oliver and Guys and Dolls. He enjoyed a new wave of popularity when Ricky Gervais cast him as a comic version of himself in Extras. Also appeared in BBC drama Funland; the movie Daylight Robbery; Comic Relief does Fame Academy 2007; Holby City and BBC One's Fairy Tales.

Quote: "I don't mind portraying myself as someone who's a bit of a loser and who hasn't worked at all because I know it isn't the truth."

Trivia: In 2009, he played Norman Stanley Fletcher in a stage version of TV comedy Porridge.

Chris Martin (Actor) .. Himself

Born: March 02, 1977 in Exeter

Best Known For: Being Coldplay's frontman.

Early-life: Christopher Anthony John Martin was born on March 2, 1977, in Devon. His mother is a teacher, his father an accountant. He has four younger siblings. After attending Sherborne School, he enrolled at University College London, where he gained at first class degree in Ancient World Studies. Before finding fame he made ends meet working as a sign painter.

Career: Martin has been playing in bands since he was 15. He became friends with Will Champion, Guy Berryman and Jonny Buckland during their first week at university. Their mutual love of music prompted them to join forces, and Martin and Buckland began writing songs together. An impressive three-track EP and a concert in Manchester led to a record deal. Their first album, Parachutes, was a resounding success. By the time A Rush of Blood to the Head came out, the band were a hit across the globe. Their third album, X&Y, continued their success and the fourth, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, was equally successful after its release in 2008.

Quote: "It's hard for us sometimes because we are English and we do not like to admit that we think we are great."

Trivia: Martin has also written songs for such artists as Embrace and Jamelia.

Ronnie Corbett (Actor) .. Himself

Born: December 04, 1930 in Edinburgh

Best Known For: Being one half of The Two Ronnies.

Early-life: Born Ronald Balfour Corbett on December 4, 1930, in Edinburgh, the son of a baker. Corbett realised he wanted to be a performer after appearing in a pantomime at the age of 16, but first served in the Royal Air Force as a commissioned officer during his National Service. He later worked as a storeman and a bar manager to make ends meet before moving to London in 1951 to further his showbiz career, where he became Danny La Rue's straightman.

Career: In 1966, David Frost asked Corbett to join The Frost Report, where he met Ronnie Barker. Their on-screen chemistry proved so successful that their series, The Two Ronnies, ran from 1971 to 1987. After Barker's retirement, Corbett appeared in cabaret, in the Ray Cooney farce Out of Order and John Cleese's film Fierce Creatures, and featured in a variety of TV programmes, including The Ronnie Corbett Show and The Ben Elton Show. During his time on The Two Ronnies, he also had his own sitcom, Sorry!, which ran for seven years. His other TV credits included Love Soup, Extras, Little Britain and two-part documentary Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain. He revived some of his old Two Ronnies sketches together with new material in a special Christmas Day show The One Ronnie, which aired in 2010. He died on March 31, 2016 at the age of 85.

Quote: "People laugh when I arrive, without my even having to say a joke. There is, I suppose, something comic in the way I speak and move."

Trivia: In 2012, Corbett received a CBE to add to the OBE he was awarded in 1978.

Martin Savage (Actor) .. Damon Beesley

Sarah Moyle (Actor) .. Kimberley

Jamie Chapman (Actor) .. Brains

Andrew Buckley (Actor) .. Gobbler

Shaun Pye (Actor) .. Greg

Toby Longworth (Actor) .. Bafta executive

Julia Rayner (Actor) .. Telethon producer

Geraldine Alexander (Actor) .. Boutique saleswoman

Lee White (Actor) .. Sales assistant

Donna Berlin (Actor) .. Reporter

Patricia Porter (Actor) .. Andy's old flame

Perry Blanks (Actor) .. Security guard

John Peters (Actor) .. Holby producer

Marek Larwood (Actor) .. Autograph hunter

Richard Briers (Actor) .. Himself

Born: January 14, 1934 in Merton, Surrey

Best Known For: His role in The Good Life.

Early-life: Richard David Briers was born on January 14, 1934, in Raynes Park, London. The cousin of gap-toothed comic actor Terry-Thomas, Briers grew up in a flat above a cinema and attended RADA between 1954 and 1956. He has a sister and left school with no qualifications. He did, however, win a scholarship to Liverpool Playhouse, and soon became an accomplished stage actor. He moved to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry before making his West End debut.

Career: Briers' film career began in the 1960s with British features including Bottoms Up, Murder She Said, and The Girl on the Boat. He turned his attention to TV, gaining fame initially in the sitcom Marriage Lines, but it's probably for The Good Life that he will be best remembered. He teamed up again with its creators, John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, on the 1980s sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles. Briers went on to join Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company, taking on more classical and Shakespearean roles including King Lear and Uncle Vanya. He's also appeared in Monarch of the Glen, Peter Pan, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Torchwood. He voiced the cartoon Roobarb twice - in 1974 and 2005.

Quote: On growing old: "I want very little action. I'm one of those awfully boring people who likes David Attenborough and the news."

Trivia: Briers was married to actress Ann Davies from 1958 until his death in 2013. They had two daughters, Lucy and Kate.

Stephen Fry (Actor) .. Himself

Born: August 24, 1957 in Hampstead, London

Best Known For: His sharp wit.

Early-life: Stephen John Fry was born on August 24, 1957, in Hampstead, London. He grew up in Norfolk alongside an older brother and younger sister. His father, Alan, is a physicist. Fry attended public schools Stout's Hill and Uppingham (from which he was expelled), and spent time in a Young Offender's Institution after going on a spending spree with a stolen credit card. His writing and performing skills were honed at Cambridge University, where his contemporaries included Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery and Hugh Laurie.

Career: After graduating, Fry and Laurie enjoyed a successful comedy partnership. Fry was a millionaire by 30, thanks to a successful rewrite of the Noel Gay musical Me and My Girl. He has appeared in numerous films and TV projects, including Blackadder, Jeeves and Wooster, Wilde, Thunderpants, Kingdom and The Hobbit. He's also written several books, and is well-known as a charming raconteur. He made his movie debut as writer and director with Bright Young Things, based on Evelyn Waugh's book, Vile Bodies. Fry is the presenter of comedy quiz QI, he has also made several acclaimed documentaries, including ones about manic depression and Aids, and he is the reader for the British versions of JK Rowling's Harry Potter series of audio books.

Quote: "I don't need you to remind me of my age. I have a bladder to do that for me."

Trivia: His distinctive voice has also been featured in a number of video games, including Fable II and Fable III, and as the narrator in the LittleBigPlanet games.

Moira Stuart (Actor) .. Herself

Charlie Hanson (Producer)

Extras: Chris Martin

10:30 pm - 11:00 pm, Saturday, January 10 on BBC Three HD (107)

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Chris Martin
Season 2, Episode 4

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