[2] He is best known for playing the role of werewolf George Sands in the BBC's supernatural comedy-drama Being Human,[3] Rudge in both the stage and film versions of The History Boys, Steve in the BBC Three sitcom Him & Her, Kevin Matheson in the HBO original series Looking and its subsequent series finale television film Looking: The Movie, and Patrick Read in American Horror Story: NYC.

[4][5] He is the younger of two sons of Carole (née Webb) and George Tovey, who ran a Romford-based coach service taking passengers from Essex to Gatwick Airport.

[5] Russell T. Davies, the show's executive producer and lead writer, had suggested Tovey as a future replacement for David Tennant,[11] before it was announced that the Eleventh Doctor would be played by Matt Smith.

[15] In November 2012 AudioGO Ltd released an audiobook version of Mark Michalowski's Being Human tie-in novel Chasers, which is narrated by Tovey.

[17] 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.

[20][21] In 2009, Tovey worked on the film Huge[22] and starred in two television pilots: Young, Unemployed and Lazy (a BBC Three sitcom),[23] renamed to Him & Her[24] 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 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.

[29] In 2013, Tovey signed on to appear in the American television series Looking, about a group of gay friends living in San Francisco.

[31] 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.

[32] Also in 2015, Tovey made his first of many live appearances for arts and entertainment company Pin Drop Studio, reading a short story to an audience followed by an interview by Simon Oldfield.

[33] In April 2017, Tovey returned to the Royal National Theatre to appear in Marianne Elliot's revival of the Tony Kushner play Angels in America, opposite Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane.

The podcast is about the contemporary art world featuring interviews with artists such as Marina Abramović, Roberta Smith, and Ai Weiwei.

[45] Russel Tovey appeared as a guest judge on Season 3, Episode 8 of the hit TV show, RuPaul's Drag Race UK.

Tovey collects contemporary art, which he got into at the age of 21 when his parents bought him a Tracey Emin print that he admired called Dog Brains.

[46] Aside from several works by Emin, his collection now also includes works by Wolfgang Tillmans, Jamian Juliano Villani, Shannon Ebner, Rebecca Warren, Joyce Pensato, Amoako Boafo, Walter Price, Louis Fratino, Doron Langberg, Carmen Herrera, Rose Wylie, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Lisa Brice and Matias Faldbakken among others.

[49] In the over 120 episodes, guests have included Ryan Gander, Judy Chicago, Roberta Smith, Ai Weiwei, Marina Abromovic, Rose Wylie, Anthony Cudahy and Ian Lewandowski, Zawe Ashton, Jenna Gribbon, Math Bass, Oscar yi Hou, Doron Langberg, Sharon Stone, Gus Van Sant, Nash Glynn, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and many more.

[57] In his interview with Tom Lamont of The Observer the actor stated that his schooling made him feel as though he "had to toughen up", going on to say "If I'd have been able to relax, prance around and sing in the street, I might be a different person now.