A strapping blond Canadian actor with chiseled good looks and an easygoing screen presence, Colin Ferguson started out as a standup comic while still in college. The Montreal-born performer won a public speaking contest at age 17 and refined his skills as a comedian and improv performer, eventually co-founding the troupe On the Spot, which has performed numerous times in the "Just for Laughs Festival". From a pool of some 2000 hopefuls, Ferguson was selected to initiate the Detroit satellite of the famed Second City, eventually withdrawing to complete his college education. Once graduated, he landed the lead in "Rowing Through" (1996) which led to his moving to Los Angeles.

After appearances in a handful of busted pilots, Ferguson garnered attention as amnesia victim Burke Andrew in the Showtime miniseries "Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City" (1998). That same year, he was seen in the flashback sequences as Lisa Kudrow's brother in the superior "The Opposite of Sex". After completing the indie "The Surprise Party" (lensed 1999), in which he starred as the birthday boy, Ferguson made his US TV debut as a series regular as the uptight lawyer and former husband of a book editor (Susan Floyd) who has begun a relationship with a much younger man in the ABC midseason sitcom "Then Came You" (2000).

Ferguson worked with television director Neill Fearnley on a pair of nostalgic, music-minded TV biopics: "Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story" (VH1, 2000), with Ferguson playing the fictionalized character Van Foreman (likely a composite of film director Bob Rafelson and producer Bert Schneider); and "Inside the Osmonds" (ABC, 2001), with Ferguson playing real-life recording executive Mike Curb. He next appeared as Dr. Witt in the much-praised HBO film "We Were the Mulvanys" (2002) based on the well-known Joyce Carol Oates novel, opposite Beau Bridges and Blythe Danner. The actor would at last have his opportunity to become a household name when he was cast as charismatic, cocky Patrick Bateman, the king of conquest amide the sexed-up sextet in NBC's "Coupling" (2003- ), an Americanized version of the hit BBC comedy that was touted as the Must-See TV successor to the departing "Friends."