He passed from Westminster School to Christ Church, Oxford, and King's College, University of Aberdeen, and was finally entered as a student of law at Lincoln's Inn, London.

On the death of the father the patent was continued to the son; however, difficulties arose, as he was involved in litigation with Thomas Harris and was unable to pay the expenses of the performances at the Haymarket.

It was followed by Turk and no Turk (1785), a musical comedy; Inkle and Yarico (1787), an opera; Ways and Means (1788); The Surrender of Calais (1791); The Battle of Hexham (1793); The Iron Chest (1796), taken from William Godwin's Adventures of Caleb Williams; The Heir at Law (1797), which enriched the stage with one immortal character, "Dr Pangloss" (borrowed of course from Voltaire's Candide); The Poor Gentleman (1802); John Bull, or an Englishman's Fireside (1803),[4] his most successful piece; and numerous other pieces, many of them adapted from the French.

[1] His comic opera Love Laughs at Locksmiths is the first known appearance of the folk song The Unfortunate Miss Bailey, which became a popular hit in early 1800's New York.

[5] Colman, whose witty conversation made him a favourite, was also the author of a great deal of so-called humorous poetry (mostly coarse, though much of it was popular) – My Night Gown and Slippers (1797), reprinted under the name of Broad Grins, in 1802; and Poetical Vagaries (1812).

The Rodiad, on flagellation, was published by John Camden Hotten in 1871, dated to 1810 and ascribed to Colman falsely;[6] the true author may have been Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton.