Stephen Mangan, star of Green Wing and I'm Alan Partridge, is to host this year's London Evening Standard British Film Awards.
The 37-year-old London-born actor takes on the role next month, just before the release of his latest movie Beyond The Pole.
He spent six weeks in Greenland and the Arctic Circle to play an activist who wants to highlight global warming with an environmentally friendly expedition to the North Pole.
Despite the cold, Mangan told how he enjoyed the perks of the filming. He said: "We were driven to set every day on sledges pulled by huskies.
"And there was a man standing behind us during filming with a gun in case of bears. You don't get that in Ealing Studios."
Presenting the awards is a departure for Mangan. But he joked: "I think if all else fails, I can pretend to have some sort of collapse and be carried out."
He described his mixed career of television, film and theatre as typical of many in the British movie industry.
"I love the fact that we're able to do all these things in Britain. We're not pigeonholed," he said.
Mangan has spent much of the last year at the Old Vic and on Broadway in Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests trilogy.
British award-winning directors Ken Loach and Paul Greengrass will be presenting awards, as will comic Steve Coogan and David Morrissey, who featured in the Doctor Who Christmas Special.
Ricky Gervais, who hosted the Golden Globes ceremony in Hollywood, is a contender in the comedy category for The Invention Of Lying.
The London Evening Standard Film Awards will take place on 8 February, in association with the London Film Museum, the venue for this year's ceremony.
