Extras - Jonathan Ross - 11:30 pm Saturday, January 10 on BBC Three

Robert De Niro (Actor) .. Himself

Born: August 17, 1943 in New York

Best Known For: His films with Martin Scorsese.

Early-life: Born Robert De Niro Jr on August 17, 1943, in New York to artists Virginia and Robert De Niro Sr. They divorced when he was three. De Niro studied at the Little Red School House and the High School of Music and Art, but left high school at 16 to study acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the American Workshop - he'd been hooked on becoming an actor after playing the Cowardly Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz at the age of 10.

Career: De Niro made a handful of films in the 1960s and early 1970s, but it wasn't until 1973's Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets (his first collaboration with Martin Scorsese) that his career took off. He received an Oscar for The Godfather Part II a year later and was nominated Academy Awards for Taxi Driver and The Deer Hunter, and took home his second Oscar for Raging Bull. The King of Comedy, Once Upon A Time in America, Brazil, The Mission, Angel Heart and The Untouchables followed. Over the past few decades, De Niro has made crowd pleasers such as Cape Fear, Casino, Heat, Meet the Parents and Analyze This, as well as directing A Bronx Tale and The Good Shepherd. He gave a fabulous comic performance in the fantasy movie Stardust, before starring alongside fellow big-screen icon Al Pacino in cop thriller Righteous Kill. His more recent films have included Silver Linings Playbook and The Family.

Quote: "I think Hollywood has a class system. The actors are like the inmates, but the truth is they're running the asylum."

Trivia: De Niro has also been instrumental in the revival of Manhattan's TriBeCa district; not only has he invested in the area, he helped found its film festival in 2002.

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.

Robert Lindsay (Actor) .. Himself

Born: December 13, 1949 in Ilkeston, Derbyshire

Best Known For: Citizen Smith and My Family.

Early-life: Born Robert Lindsay Stevenson on December 13, 1949, in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. One of three children, his Second World War veteran father worked as a joiner and his mother was a cleaner. He failed his 11-plus exam and went to the Secondary Modern Gladstone Boys School. Despite having a miserable time there, his art teacher spotted his acting talent in a school production and encouraged him to take it up seriously. He originally intended to become a drama teacher, but worked in regional theatre companies after attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada).

Career: Lindsay's movie debut came in 1973's That'll Be the Day. His big break came in 1977 when he played would-be revolutionary Wolfie in John Sullivan's BBC sitcom Citizen Smith. After that he concentrated on serious roles. Theatre parts include Hamlet and Cyrano De Bergerac, but his biggest stage hit to date is musical Me and My Girl, for which he won numerous awards on both sides of the Atlantic. He made his Hollywood debut in the ill-received Bert Rigby You're a Fool in 1989, but Alan Bleasdale's TV series GBH put his career back on track. Since then, successes include Jake's Progress, The Wimbledon Poisoner, Brazen Hussies, Hornblower and My Family. More recently, he's starred in detective drama Jericho, played Tony Blair in A Very Social Secretary and The Trial of Tony Blair, traced his family on Who Do You Think You Are? and starred in Sky1 sitcom Spy.

Quote: "There's a huge entertainer in me, and I couldn't ignore it any longer. I wanted to be very serious, but I've paid my dues and should start enjoying my career."

Trivia: He supports Derby County.

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.

Jonathan Ross (Actor) .. Himself

Best Known For: His cheeky celebrity interviews.

Early-life: Jonathan Stephen Ross was born on November 17, 1960, in Camden, London. He is one of six children born to a lorry driver and his film extra wife (Martha Ross had a bit part in EastEnders for over 20 years). Jonathan appeared in TV ads as a child, but after completing a degree in modern European history at the University of London, he began his TV career as a researcher on such shows as Loose Talk and Soul Train.

Career: In 1987, Ross and his friend Alan Marke devised a format inspired by Late Night with David Letterman, and after struggling to find a suitable host, Ross stepped in. The resulting show, The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross, made him a star. Other major projects include his chat shows Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and The Jonathan Ross Show, and his stint as the reviewer of the BBC's Film programme. He's also a massive comic book fan; his first foray into the genre, Turf, was published in 2010. But he's also hit the headlines for various controversies over the years, including the notorious Sachsgate, which involved a prank call made by him and Russell Brand to actor Andrew Sachs in 2008.

Quote: "People like coming on my show because they know they'll have fun and they know I'm going to be respectful to them. I'm never, you know, mean-spirited."

Trivia: He's been married to screenwriter and author Jane Goldman since 1988. They have three children.

Regina Freedman (Actor) .. Mother of Joe

Corey J Smith (Actor) .. Joe

Paul Albertson (Actor) .. Maggie's date

Jennie Goossens (Actor) .. Date's mum

David McKail (Actor) .. Date's dad

Penny Ryder (Actor) .. Parent's friend

Sarah Preston (Actor) .. Make Up Woman

Lawry Lewin (Actor) .. BBC researcher

Cathy Murphy (Actor) .. Nurse

Charlie Hanson (Producer)

Extras: Jonathan Ross

11:30 pm - 11:55 pm, Saturday, January 10 on BBC Three (23)

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Jonathan Ross
Season 2, Episode 6

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