| Steve Coleman | |
| Birth Date: | 22 September 1981 |
| Birth Place: | Kettering, England |
| Education: | BA Acting University of Northampton |
| Occupation: | Martial artist, athlete, coach, actor, stuntman |
| Years Active: | 1998-present |
| Sport: | Wushu |
| Position: | Captain (2005-2023) |
| Event: | Changquan, Daoshu, Jianshu, Gunshu |
| Team: | Great Britain Wushu Team |
| Coach: | Mike Donoghue |
| Show-Medals: | yes |
Steven Roy Coleman (born 22 September 1981) is a British Wushu athlete and actor.[1] He is a two-time European wushu champion having been the second gold medallist for Great Britain in daoshu ans gunshu behind Ray Park, and is a multiple-time medallist at the European Wushu Championships. Coleman has also won the Great Britain National Wushu Championships multiple times and has broke and set many Great Britain National Wushu records. He is said to have one of the longest competitive wushu careers, having competed internationally for over twenty years.
Coleman began martial arts at the age of nine by practising Shotokan Karate. He trained and competed in Karate and earned a blackbelt at the age of thirteen. From 1991-94 he was a junior Karate Kata champion and in 1994 was a national champion.
In 1995, he turned his attention to Kung Fu and kickboxing. After a year of finding his direction in martial arts Coleman began training in London in wushu and Chin Woo, later complemented by training in sanda and gymnastics. He began to train in wushu around the world including in Great Britain under Mike Donoghue and at Ray Park's former school, as well as in Malaysia under Oh Poh Soon. In 2001 and 2002, Coleman won at the Traditional National Wushu Championships as well as at the 2002 Chin Woo World Championships [2]
At 21, Coleman decided to focus strictly on Wushu. Training privately under Mike Donoghue, Steve went on to win the all-round National Wushu Championships in 2003 and consecutively every year since. This was added to with another World Chin Woo Championship win in 2006, various European Competition wins, and representation of the Great Britain Wushu Team.[3]
Coleman made his wushu continental debut at the 2002 European Wushu Championships in Porto, Portugal and his international debut at the 2003 World Wushu Championships in Macau.[4] He subsequently competed in the next few European and world championships, becoming the captain of the Great Britain Wushu Team in 2006.[5] [6] At the 2008 European championships in Warsaw, Coleman won the silver medal in jianshu,[7] but did not compete the following year in the 2009 World Wushu Championships. A year later, he competed in the 2010 European Wushu Championships in Antalya and won a shared bronze medal in changquan.[8] From 2011 to 2012, Coleman retired from competitive wushu.
In 2013, Coleman started competing in wushu again. A year later at the 2014 European Wushu Championships in Bucharest, he became the European champion in daoshu and won silver and bronze medals in changquan and gunshu respectively. He then returned to compete internationally at the 2015 World Wushu Championships in Jakarta with a 7th place finish in daoshu.[9] A year later, Coleman competed in the 2016 European Wushu Championships in Moscow and became the European champion in gunshu and won bronze medals in daoshu and gunshu.[10] He returned to the European championships two years later also in Moscow and was a bronze medalist in gunshu.[11] Later that year, he competed in the World Martial Arts Masterships in South Korea and finished 6th in gunshu. He then competed at the 2019 World Wushu Championships in Shanghai where he was the oldest competitor.[12]
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Coleman returned to competition once again. His most recent competition was the 2023 World Wushu Championships in Fort Worth where he was once again the oldest competitor and competed with multiple injuries.[13]
His first television appearance was on a show called Masters of Combat, aired on BBC2 in 2001. This was later followed up with an appearance in a documentary This is Kung Fu, also shown on BBC2. In 2002, he appeared for the music video of Junkie XL vs Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation" as a "kung fu" performer. In the 2011 film On The Ropes, Coleman appeared alongside Mark Noyce, Ben Shockley and others in a mockumentary style film about martial arts culture in the UK.[14] Coleman has most recently appeared on 6 Underground, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday among other films.
| Year | Event | CQ | DS | JS | GS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | National Championships | |||||
| European Championships | 7 | 8 | 12 | |||
| 2003 | National Championships | |||||
| World Championships | 35 | 12 | ||||
| 2004 | National Championships | |||||
| European Championships | 5 | 4 | 5 | |||
| 2005 | National Championships | |||||
| World Championships | 15 | 15 | 19 | |||
| 2006 | National Championships | |||||
| European Championships | 4 | 7 | 6 | |||
| 2007 | National Championships | |||||
| World Championships | 35 | 37 | 37 | |||
| 2008 | National Championships | |||||
| European Championships | 5 | 6 | ||||
| 2009 | National Championships | |||||
| 2010 | National Championships | |||||
| 2010 | European Championships | 4 | DNS | |||
| 2011 | Retired | |||||
| 2012 | National Championships | |||||
| 2013 | National Championships | |||||
| 2014 | National Championships | |||||
| European Championships | ||||||
| 2015 | National Championships | |||||
| World Championships | 7 | 11 | ||||
| 2016 | National Championships | |||||
| European Championships | ||||||
| 2017 | National Championships | |||||
| 2018 | National Championships | |||||
| European Championships | 4 | DNS | ||||
| World Martial Arts Masterships | 6 | |||||
| 2019 | National Championships | |||||
| World Championships | 37 | 14 | ||||
| 2020-22 | Did not compete due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||||
| 2023 | World Championships | 36 | 11 | 17 | ||
| 2001 | Masters of Combat | "Venomous Blade" | Television | ||
| 2002 | "A Little Less Conversation" | "Kung Fu Guy" | Music Video | ||
| 2011 | On the Ropes | Shane Powers | stunt coordinator, fight choreographer | ||
| 2012 | The Proxy | Trenchcoat #1 | TV Series | ||
| 2014 | Allies | German Ambush Soldier | |||
| 2017 | The Real Target | Agent Double 0 Eight | |||
| "The Lost Sheep" | Alec | Short | stunt coordinator, fight choreographer | ||
| 2018 | "Chopsticks! | " | Foreign Fighter | Short | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | "Checkpoint" | Man | Short | ||
| Most Terrifying Places | Drakelow Explorer | TV Series | |||
| "The Adventurer's Diary" | Chauffer | Short | |||
| "10 Minutes for a Pound" | Short | assistant stunt coordinator | |||
| 6 Underground | stunt performer | ||||
| 2020 | "Undercover" | McKenzie | Short | ||
| Badnaam | stunt performer | ||||
| 2022 | The Woman King | combat trainer | |||
| Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday | stunt double: Scott Adkins | ||||
| 2023 | "Like Real Adults Do" | James | Short | ||
| Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One | stunts |