Richard was born in St John's, Newfoundland. He dropped out of High School before completing his diploma.
He first came to fame with a one man show: Show Me the Button, I'll Push It in 1990. He toured all over Canada. His next show was I've Killed Before, I'll Kill Again in 1992. It was also this year that he started his hugely popular television program "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" for the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC).
Among the things he did was to start an internet petition to have Canadian politician Stockwell Day change his first name to Doris. Each show had an unscripted two minute rant made directly to camera on a current issue. These became the program's most popular section. Another popular item was called "Talking to Americans" in which he interviewed American people exposing their ignorance of things Canadian. He even, in 2000, got presidential candidate George W Bush to talk about the Canadian Prime Minster Jean Poutine. A name that Rick had made up. Bush still refuses to be interviewed by anyone from CBC.
At the end of the 2000/2001 season he announced that he was leaving "This Hour Has 22 Minutes". It was rumoured because he could not get along with co-host, Mary Walsh. He started work on a new series for CBC: "Rick Mercer's Monday Report" when the program was moved to Tuesday night it became "The Rick Mercer Report". It is still running.
Rick has helped fund raise for the Spread The Net campaign which through UNICEF provides mosquito nets to help prevent the spread of malaria. He is also very active in AIDS campaigning and fund raising and is the National Spokesperson for the Walk For Life which raises money through sponsored walks for the Canadian AIDS Society.
His life partner is Gerald Munz the television producer.
