Coogan, Steve

Born 14 October 1965 in Manchester, England (UK), Steve Coogan is an actor and comedian. He is one of six children of Irish immigrant parents. Born and raised in Middleton, Manchester, Coogan started out as a stand-up comedian, as well as doing voice over work for adverts and impressions on the TV programme ‘Spitting Image’.

One of Coogan’s most famous creations is the fictional character Alan Partridge. A former chat show host has been divorced by his wife, has distanced himself from his children and ends up living in a Tavern. He is reduced to doing local radio broadcasts very early in the morning (4 to 7 am on the fictional BBC Radio Norwich in a slot called ‘Up With the Partridge’) and making corporate appearances for various relatively low profile firms.
Another fictional character created by Coogan is Tony Ferrino, a hugely successful Portuguese singer.

In 2005, he starred in a film of the “unfilmable” self-referential novel Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. In the film, Coogan plays a fictional, womanising version of himself. Coogan’s most acclaimed work to date is the drama-comedy ‘Philomena’, which he co-wrote, produced, and starred in with Judi Dench. This performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination, among many other nominations (and some wins).

In March 2008, it was confirmed that Coogan would return to doing stand-up comedy as part of his first stand-up tour in ten years. The tour, named ‘Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge and other less successful characters’, saw the return of some of his old characters including Paul Calf and Alan Partridge.

In 2018 he starred in the movie Stan & Ollie as the titular Stan Laurel in a biographical comedy-drama about Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.