castName=Steve Coogan&castTitle=Phileas Fogg&
&bodyField=Born and raised in Manchester, England, Steve Coogan trained as an actor at the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre.   While studying, he saw stand-up comedy as a way of obtaining an Equity card and was discovered by a television scout and offered a spot on "First Exposure."  That led to many television appearances, including "The Prince's Gala Trust" for the Prince and Princess of Wales, "Stand-Up," "Up-Front," "Paramount City," "London Underground," and "Word in Your Ear." Coogan was also a regular on "Spitting Image" for several years.

In 1992 he won the Perrier Award for his show "Steve Coogan in Character With John Thompson," where he launched Paul Calf, a character who went on to became a regular on the TV series "Saturday Zoo."  It was during this series that Coogan introduced Paul Calf's sister Pauline.  Coogan went on to write and perform in "The Paul Calf Video Diaries," for which he received a BAFTA for his performance as Pauline Calf in the video diary "Three Fights, Two Weddings and a Funeral."  In 1994, he was awarded Top Male Comedy Performer and Top Comedy Personality at the British Comedy Awards.

While working on radio's "On The Hour," one of his most celebrated characters, Alan Partridge, was born.   On transferring to TV, the show became "The Day Today," which later spawned "Knowing Me, Knowing You," which went on to receive huge critical acclaim and numerous accolades including Best New Television Comedy at the British Comedy Awards.   The success of the character later led to two BAFTA awards for Best Comedy Series and Best Comedy Performance for the series "I'm Alan Partridge."

Film appearances followed in "Resurrected" and Paramount's "Indian in the Cupboard," as well as the series "Coogan's Run" for BBC2 and a role as Mole in director Terry Jones' production of "The Wind in the Willows."  He wrote and starred in a BBC Christmas special "Tony Ferrino's Phenomenon," for which he was awarded The Silver Rose of Montreux.  Coogan also completed a sell-out UK tour of his live show, "The Man Who Thinks He's It," which received a South Bank Show Award and broke all box office records for a comedy show in London's West End.

Coogan formed Baby Cow Productions three years ago with business partner Henry Normal and the team co-wrote "The Parole Officer," one of the UK's top-grossing films of that year, which John Duigan directed for producers Duncan Kenworthy and Andrew MacDonald.   April 2002 saw the release of director Michael Winterbottom's celebrated "24 Hour Party People," with Coogan in the lead role of Tony Wilson in the story of the Ô80s Manchester music scene and the rise and fall of Wilson and Factory Records.

Coogan's most recent film appearance, an uproarious exchange with Alfred Molina in Jim Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes," has earned him rave reviews. 
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