Ricky Gervais

Gervais was born on 25 June 1961 at Battle Hospital in Reading, Berkshire. Gervais's father, Lawrence Raymond "Jerry" Gervais (1919–2002), a Franco-Ontarian of French Canadian and Iroquois descent raised on a farm in Pain Court, Ontario, near Chatham, Ontario, emigrated to the UK while on foreign duty during the Second World War. He worked as a labourer and hod carrier before he met Gervais's English mother, Eva Sophia (née House; 1925–2000). They met during a blackout and settled in Whitley in Reading, having four children over a sixteen-year period. Eva died at age 74 of lung cancer. Ricky was the youngest child; his siblings are: schoolteacher Larry (1945–2019), Marsha, a teacher for special needs children (1948–), and painter–decorator Bob (1950–). Prompted by Bob, Gervais began to question the existence of God from about age eight.

Gervais has mentioned in interviews that, as an 11-year-old, he asked why his siblings were so much older than he was; his mother bluntly told him that he "was a mistake". Gervais has spoken of his appreciation for his family's extreme sense of humour. He told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs that he and his brother Bob spent most of their mother's funeral "crying with laughter". They had been asked by the vicar to tell him something about their mother prior to the service, with Gervais saying, "My brother, just winding up the vicar, said, 'She was a keen racist.' And the vicar said, 'I can't say that!' So Bob went, 'Oh, OK then... she liked gardening.'"

Gervais attended Whitley Park Infants and Junior Schools and received his secondary education at Ashmead Comprehensive School. After a gap year, which he spent working as a gardener at the University of Reading, he attended University College London (UCL) in 1980. He intended to study biology but changed to philosophy after two weeks, and was awarded an upper second-class honours degree in the subject from University College London in 1983. During his time there, he met Jane Fallon, with whom he has been in a relationship since 1982.