Steve Coogan - Early Life

Early Life

Coogan is one of seven children born to Kathleen (née Coonan), a housewife, and Anthony Coogan, an IBM engineer. He was born in his parents' house and brought up in Alkrington, an area of Middleton, in an Irish working-class family. Coogan was brought up as a Roman Catholic. Steve went to school at Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic High School, the same as Manchester United footballer Paul Scholes. He had a happy childhood growing up with four brothers and two sisters, and in addition his parents fostered children on a short-term basis, sometimes accommodating two or three foster children at a time. Coogan had a talent for impersonation, and wanted to go to drama school, despite being advised by a teacher that it could lead to a precarious profession.

He went to five interviews for drama school in London, and then – after gaining confidence by joining a theatre company in Manchester called New Music – gained a place at the Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre. Coogan's brother Martin was the vocalist and wrote the music for The Mock Turtles, a successful indie rock band in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

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