In 2010, acting in Channel Nine's Underbelly: The Golden Mile, Garvey won an AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama (2010).

In 2011, he had a role as a bartender and former soldier Tom Boylan, in the American sci-fi series Terra Nova, filmed entirely on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Since 2018, he has portrayed Detective Senior Sergeant Bryan Nichols in the TV series Harrow (filmed in his childhood city of Brisbane).

[5] Garvey, although appearing mainly on television, has had a few roles in film, including Under the Radar, In Her Skin, Accidents Happen, Daybreakers, Beauty and the Beast, Bait 3D, Drive Hard and Bleeding Steel.

[6] In the late-1980s, Garvey was the lead singer in Brisbane indie rock band Neighbourhood Unit, who released two singles on the Brisbane-based Bent Records label.