After starting his career in the UK with music, comedy, and theatre, Ferguson moved to the US, where he appeared in the role of Nigel Wick on the ABC sitcom The Drew Carey Show (1996–2004).

[7][8][9] When he was six months old, he and his family moved from their Springburn flat to a Development Corporation house in the nearby New Town of Cumbernauld, where he grew up "chubby and bullied".

[10][11] They lived there as Cumbernauld was rehousing many Glaswegians away from the poor housing conditions and damage to the city from World War II.

[13] At age 16, Ferguson left high school and began an apprenticeship to be an electronics technician at a local factory of American company Burroughs Corporation.

[15] His younger sister, Lynn Ferguson Tweddle, is also a comedian, presenter and actress, who voiced Mac in the 2000 stop-motion animation film Chicken Run.

[20] Ferguson's entertainment career began as a teenager, drumming for Glasgow punk bands such as the Night Creatures and Exposure.

[21] Following that, he joined punk band The Bastards from Hell, later renamed the Dreamboys, and fronted by vocalist and future actor Peter Capaldi.

[21] After a nerve-wracking first comedy appearance, he decided to create a character he described as a "parody of all the über-patriotic native folk singers who seemed to infect every public performance in Scotland,"[10] using the name "Bing Hitler" borrowed from Peter Capaldi.

At the press launch for an alternative pantomime of Sleeping Beauty (which he co-wrote with Capaldi),[23] he said, "You can't write for just one character forever.

[36] In 1994, he played Father MacLean in production of Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom at the Union Chapel in London.

[41] His first US role was as baker Logan McDonough on the short-lived 1995 ABC comedy Maybe This Time, which starred Betty White and Marie Osmond.

"[42] In his comedy special "A Wee Bit o' Revolution", he specifically identified James Doohan's portrayal of Montgomery Scott on Star Trek as the foundation of his "revenge".

(At the end of one episode, though, Ferguson broke the fourth wall and began talking to the audience at home in his regular Scottish accent.)

His character was memorable for his unique methods of laying employees off, almost always "firing Johnson", the most common last name of the to-be-fired workers.

During the production of The Drew Carey Show, Ferguson devoted his off-time as a cast member to writing, working in his trailer on set in between shooting his scenes.

He has performed two stand-up television specials on Comedy Central, both released on DVD: A Wee Bit o' Revolution in 2009 and Does This Need to Be Said?

Beginning in 2010, a robotic skeleton named Geoff Peterson and two silent performers in a pantomime horse costume were added to the show.

[55] His contract was set to expire in June 2014, but a six-month extension was agreed on to provide a more graceful exit and give CBS more time to find a replacement host.

[57] CBS Entertainment Chair Nina Tassler said, following the announcement, that in his decade as host Ferguson had "infused the broadcast with tremendous energy, unique comedy, insightful interviews and some of the most heartfelt monologues seen on television.

The title is a reference to a Benjamin Franklin political cartoon published in the Pennsylvania Gazette on 9 May 1754, which Ferguson had tattooed on his forearm after becoming an American citizen.

[citation needed] From 2007 to 2010, Ferguson hosted the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on 4 July, broadcast nationally by CBS.

He headlined in the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal and in October 2008 Ferguson taped his stand-up show in Boston for a Comedy Central special entitled A Wee Bit o' Revolution, which aired on 22 March 2009.

Ferguson briefly appeared in Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup" music video released on 10 October 2011.

[75] In September 2013, Ferguson guest-starred on the season finale of Hot in Cleveland as a priest/tabloid journalist who turns out to be the father of Joy's (Jane Leeves) son.

In January 2023, Sony Pictures Television (SPT) announced a new, half-hour syndicated late night talk show with Craig Ferguson as host.

A pilot for Channel Surf with Craig Ferguson was shot in the UK this month at Dock10 studios, and SPT will take the show out to potential buyers in Los Angeles.

[85] Ferguson wrote a short story for In Sunlight or in Shadow (2017, Pegasus Crime), an anthology edited by Lawrence Block and featuring works inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper (1882–1967).

[94] Ferguson wrote in his book American on Purpose that he and actress Helen Atkinson-Wood were in a romantic relationship prior to his going sober in 1992.

[95][83][96] Ferguson has stated that his comedy influences include Monty Python, Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy[97] and David Letterman.

[98] He has five tattoos which include the Join, or Die political cartoon on his right forearm;[99][100] a Ferguson family crest with the Latin motto Dulcius ex asperis ("Sweeter out of [or from] difficulty") on his upper right arm in honour of his father;[101] and a Celtic cross with the Ingram clan motto Magnanimus esto (Be great of mind) on his upper left arm in honour of his mother.