Early life

Tovey is the younger of two children, born to Carole Haynes (formerly Webb) and George Tovey who run a Romford-based coach service taking passengers from Essex to Gatwick Airport. Tovey has an older brother, Daniel. He grew up in Billericay, Essex, and he attended Harold Court School in Harold Wood and Shenfield High School. As a boy, Tovey said he "was an avid collector of various things and prone to participating in fads." His parents supported his efforts, taking him to archeological digs and museums, buying him a metal detector, and going to conventions for mineralologists. For a time he wanted to be a history teacher, but after seeing Dead Poets Society, The Goonies, and Stand By Me, he decided to be an actor. For a time during his teens, he worked as a kitchen assistant in Billericay's King's Head pub.

Career

Tovey began his career as a child actor. He joined a local drama club, and garnered the attention of a talent agent. He began acting when he was 11 years old. He worked so steadily and missed so much school that his father suggested his acting career be cut back, but his mother convinced his father to let their son continue. His TV career started in 1994, when he was cast in Mud, a children's series broadcast on CBBC.

He left high school at the age of 16, and started a BTEC in performing arts at Barking College. He was expelled after a year for refusing a role in the school play in favour of a paying acting job. He acted in plays in Chichester under the direction of Debra Gillett, wife of Patrick Marber. He met Marber through Gillett, and Marber cast him in the play Howard Katz at the National Theatre. He also performed in His Girl Friday and His Dark Materials there as well.

In 2004, he took the role of Rudge in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys at the Royal National Theatre as well as touring to Broadway, Sydney, Wellington and Hong Kong and playing the role in the radio and film adaptation. He originally auditioned for the role of Crowther but agreed to act the part of Rudge after Bennett promised to beef up the role. Insecure because he had not attended drama school like many of his peers, he enrolled in numerous workshops and readings offered by the National Theatre.

In spring 2007, Tovey had a recurring role in BBC Three comedy Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive, playing Rob's producer, Ben. He played Midshipman Alonso Frame, in 2007 Doctor Who Christmas Special "Voyage of the Damned". Russell T. Davies, the show's executive producer and lead writer, had suggested Tovey as a future replacement for David Tennant, before it was announced that the Eleventh Doctor would be played by Matt Smith. Tovey reprised his role as Midshipman Alonso Frame in the 2009-10 Doctor Who Christmas special, The End of Time.

Tovey played werewolf George Sands, one of three supernatural housemates in the drama Being Human. The pilot premiered on BBC Three on 18 February 2008. A six-part series was commissioned with the first episode broadcast on 25 January 2009. Tovey left the regular cast of the show at the start of the fourth season on 5 February 2012. In November 2012 AudioGO Ltd released an audiobook version of Mark Michalowski's Being Human tie-in novel Chasers, which is narrated by Russell Tovey.

In a 2008 interview in Attitude, Tovey expressed his desire to play darker roles: "really dark, fucked-up characters... like drag queens, rent boys, someone who has been abused, a rapist", though noting that he does not consider himself "fucked-up".

In March 2009, the actor played a leading role in A Miracle at the Royal Court Theatre as Gary Trudgill, a British soldier returning to Norfolk from abroad. On 8 March 2009 he presented the Award for Best Actress to Margaret Tyzack for her performance in The Chalk Garden at the Laurence Olivier Awards in Grosvenor House.

In 2009, Tovey worked on the film Huge and starred in two television pilots: Young, Unemployed and Lazy (a BBC Three sitcom), renamed to Him & Her in 2010, and The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret (part of Comedy Showcase), a Channel 4 comedy with Spike Jonze and Will Arnett, written by David Cross and Shaun Pye.

He also appeared in three shorts: Drop (which premièred at the 2009 Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival), Roar, and In Passing. Roar premiered at the Palm Springs Film Festival on 24 June 2009.

In 2011, he became the voice over/narrator for the BBC Three show Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents which, as of 8 January 2013, is currently in its third series. Tovey has narrated every episode aired.

Tovey played Budgie, one of Gavin's friends, in the BBC comedy-drama Gavin & Stacey. In January 2012, he appeared in the British crime drama Sherlock, playing Henry Knight in the episode The Hounds of Baskerville. He had a lead role in the ITV sitcom The Job Lot which aired in 2013 and is set in a busy unemployment bureau in the West Midlands.

In 2013, Tovey signed on to appear in the American television series Looking, about a group of gay friends living in San Francisco. Its 8-episode first season broadcast on HBO in 2014. Tovey was promoted to series regular for the second season.

In 2015, Tovey starred in Banished, a historical drama series written by Jimmy McGovern about a group of British convicts in Australia in the 18th century.

Writing

Tovey is also an author, playwright and screenwriter. He has written three plays (all unperformed as of August 2010), and one of his short stories was published in women's magazine Company. He also wrote a short film, Victor, and as of August 2010 was seeking funding to produce the picture.

Personal life

During his adolescent years, Tovey's homosexuality caused friction within his family. Although he says he came out to himself when he was 15 or 16, he properly came out to his parents when he was 18. Tovey and his father subsequently had a falling out, with his father suggesting that, had he known earlier, he would have asked Tovey to take hormones or undergo some other medical treatment to "fix the problem". Tovey says his parents were deeply concerned about the possibility he might contract HIV, which may have contributed to the falling out. The birth of Tovey's nephew in October 2004 helped them mend their relationship. In an interview with The Scotsman, Tovey said, "The only thing I can give to young gay people is that when I was growing up there were no role models that were blokey, that were men. Everybody was flamboyant and camp, and I remember going, 'That's not me, so even though I think I am gay, I don't think I fit into this world.'"

Tovey has been with his current partner since 2009.

Selected credits

Film

Year	Title	Character
2001	The Emperor's New Clothes	Recruit
2006	The History Boys	Rudge
2009	Drop	Ben
	Roar	Tom
	In Passing	Henry
2012	Grabbers	Smith
	The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists	The Albino Pirate (voice)
	Tower Block	Paul
2013	Effie	George
2014	Muppets Most Wanted	Champagne deliveryman
	Pride	Tim
	Moomins on the Riviera	Moomintroll
2015	The Lady in the Van
2016	Night of the Lotus	Charlie
2016	The Pass	Jason

Television

Year	Programme	Character	Notes
1996	Spywatch	Dennis Sealy	Series regular
1998	The Mrs Bradley Mysteries	Stable Boy	Episode: Speedy Death (pilot)
2000	Hope and Glory	Gary Bailey	Episode: 2.2
2001	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Lionel Marshall	Episode: "Evil Under the Sun"
2001	The Bill	Tyro Shaw	Episodes: "Complicity" Parts 1 & 2
2002	Ultimate Force	Weasel	Episode: "The Killing House"
2002	Silent Witness	Josh Palmer	Episode: "Kith and Kill" Parts 1 & 2
2005	Messiah IV: The Harrowing	Robbie McManus
2005	My Family and Other Animals	Leslie Durrell
2007 - 2009	Gavin & Stacey	Budgie	Episodes: 1.5, 1.6, 2.6 and 3.3
2007	Annually Retentive	Ben	5 episodes
2008	Doctor Who	Midshipman Alonso Frame	Episode: "Voyage of the Damned"
2008 - 2012	Being Human	George Sands	Series regular
2008	Ashes to Ashes	Marcus Johnstone	Episode: "The Smoking Gun"
2008	Mutual Friends	Estate agent	Episode: 1.5
2008	Little Dorrit	John Chivery	Episodes: 1 to 8, 12, 14
2009	Agatha Christie's Marple	PC Terence Reed	Episode: "Murder Is Easy"
2009	The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret	Dave	Comedy Showcase pilot (27 November 2009)
2009	Never Mind the Buzzcocks	As guest	Episode: 23.10 (2 December 2009)
2010	Doctor Who	Midshipman Alonso Frame	Episode: "The End of Time"
2010 - 2013	Him & Her	Steve	Series regular
2010 - 2011	Doctor Who Confidential	Himself	Narrator (voice only)
2011-present	Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents	Himself	Narrator (voice only)
2012	Sherlock	Henry Knight	Episode 2.2: "The Hounds of Baskerville"
2012	Just a Minute	Himself	Panellist
2013	The Dog Rescuers	Himself, Narrator	Series 1 (10 episodes)
2013	What Remains	Michael Jenson
2013 - present	The Job Lot	Karl	Series regular
2014 - 2015	Looking	Kevin Matheson	Recurring (season 1), series regular (season 2)
2015	Banished	James Freeman	Series regular
2016	Red Top (The Comic Strip Presents...)	Andy Coulson
2016	The Night Manager	Simon Ogilvey

Theatre

Year	Play	Character	Theatre	Location
2000	The Recruiting Officer		Chichester Festival Theatre	Chichester
2001	Howard Katz		Cottesloe Theatre, Royal National Theatre	London
2002	Plasticine	Spira Boy Having Sex	Royal Court Theatre	London
2003	Henry V	Boy	Olivier Theatre, Royal National Theatre	London
	His Girl Friday	Ralph Sweeney	Olivier Theatre, Royal National Theatre	London
2003-04	His Dark Materials	Roger	Olivier Theatre, Royal National Theatre	London
2004-06	The History Boys	Rudge	Lyttleton Theatre, Royal National Theatre	London
2005	The Laramie Project		Sound Theatre	London
2005-06	Hergé's Adventures of Tintin (aka Tintin in Tibet)	Tintin	Barbican Arts Centre	London
2006	The History Boys	Rudge	Lyric Theatre, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts	Hong Kong
			St James	Wellington
			Sydney Theatre	Sydney
			Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway	New York
2007	A Respectable Wedding	Groom	Young Vic	London
2008	The Sea	Billy Hallercut	Theatre Royal Haymarket	London
2009	A Miracle	Gary Trudgill	Royal Court Theatre	London
2012	Sex With a Stranger	Adam	Trafalgar Studios	London
2014	The Pass	Jason	Royal Court Theatre	London
2015	A View from the Bridge	Rodolpho	Lyceum Theatre	New York
2017	Angels in America	Joe Pitt	Lyttelton Theatre, Royal National Theatre	London

Radio

Year	Programme	Character	Notes
2006	The History Boys	Rudge
2007	Rubbish	Dan	Series 2
2009	The Government Inspector	Gendarme
	The Admirable Crichton	Crichton	Saturday play (60mins)
	Newfangle	Newfangle	Satirical series (six episodes of 30mins)
	Last Night, Another Soldier	Briggsy	Saturday play (60mins)
	The Richest Man In Britain	Dom	Comedy series (six episodes of 30mins)
2011	Countrysides	Simon	Afternoon play
2015	Wirral Radio Breakfast Show	Himself	Phone Interview

[ Source: Wikipedia ]