| Russell Tovey | |
|---|---|
| Born | Russell George Tovey 14 November 1981 |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1994–present |
Russell George Tovey (born 14 November 1981)[1] is an English actor with numerous television, film and stage credits. Tovey is best known for playing the role of werewolf George Sands in the BBC's supernatural drama Being Human[2] which started in 2008. In November 2011, Tovey announced he would be leaving Being Human to work full-time on his BBC Three sitcom, Him & Her.[3]
Contents |
Tovey is the younger of two children, born to Carole née Haynes (formerly Webb) and George Tovey. Tovey has an older brother, Daniel.[4] He grew up in Billericay, Essex,[5] where his parents ran a coach service taking passengers from Essex to Gatwick Airport.[6] and where he attended Shenfield High School.[7] As a boy, Tovey says, he was an avid collector of various things and prone to participating in fads.[6] His parents supported his efforts, taking him to archeological digs and museums, buying him a metal detector, and going to conventions for mineralologists.[6] For a time, he wanted to be a history teacher.[6] But after seeing Dead Poets Society, The Goonies, and Stand By Me, he decided to be an actor.[6]
Tovey began his career as a child actor. He joined a local drama club, and garnered the attention of a talent agent.[5] He began acting when he was 11 years old.[6] 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.[6] His TV career started in 1994, when he was cast in Mud, a children's series broadcast on CBBC.[5]
He left high school at the age of 16, and started a Btec in performing arts at Barking College.[7] He was expelled after a year for refusing a role in the school play in favour of a paying acting job.[7] He acted in plays in Chichester under the direction of Debra Gillett, wife of Patrick Marber.[5] He met Marber through Gillett, and Marber cast him in the play Howard Katz at the National Theatre.[5] He also performed in His Girl Friday and His Dark Materials there as well.[5]
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.[8][9][10][11] He originally auditioned for the role of Crowther but agreed to act the part of Rudge after Bennett promised to beef up the role.[6] 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.[6]
In spring 2007, Tovey had a recurring role in BBC Three comedy Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive, playing Rob's gay producer, Ben.[6] In the same year he made guest appearances in BBC Three comedy Gavin & Stacey playing Budgie, a friend of Gavin and Smithy's, in four episodes, and then in the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas Special "Voyage of the Damned".[6] Russell T Davies, the show's executive producer and lead writer, had suggested Tovey as a future replacement for David Tennant,[12] before it was announced that the Eleventh Doctor would be played by Matt Smith. Tovey reprised his role as Midshipman Alonso Frame in the 2009/2010 Doctor Who Christmas special, The End of Time.
Tovey plays werewolf George Sands, one of three supernatural housemates in the drama Being Human. The pilot premiered on BBC Three on 18 February 2008.[13] A six-part series was commissioned with the first episode broadcast on 25 January 2009.[14]
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.[15][16] 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.[17][18]
In 2009, Tovey worked on the film Huge[19] and starred in two television pilots: Young, Unemployed and Lazy (a BBC Three sitcom),[20][21] renamed to Him & Her[22] 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.[23][24]
He also appeared in three shorts: Drop[25][26] (which premièred at the 2009 Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival), Roar,[27] and In Passing.[28] Roar premiered at the Palm Springs Film Festival on 24 June 2009.[29]
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".[30]
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 Company, a noted British literary journal.[4] He also wrote a short film, Victor, and as of August 2010 was seeking funding to produce the picture.[4]
Tovey is openly gay.[30] He says he came out to himself when he was 15 or 16, and to his parents when he was 18.[6] Tovey and his father had a falling out over Tovey's homosexuality, and his father suggested that, had he known earlier, he would have asked Tovey to take hormones or undergo some other medical treatment to "fix the problem".[6] Tovey says his parents were deeply concerned about the possibility he might become infected with AIDS, which may have contributed to the falling out.[6] The birth of Tovey's nephew in 2005 helped them mend their relationship.[6] 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.'"[6]
He was in a steady relationship in a 2007 interview with Attitude magazine.[6] That relationship apparently ended, as Tovey was in a new relationship with an unnamed man in August 2010.[4]
Tovey stands 5 feet 9.75 inches (177.17 cm) tall.
| Year | Programme | Character | Notes | Broadcaster |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Spywatch | Dennis Sealy | Series Regular | Look and Read BBC Two |
| 1998 | The Mrs Bradley Mysteries | Stable Boy | Episode Speedy Death (pilot) | BBC One |
| 2000 | Hope and Glory | Gary Bailey | Episode: 2.2 | BBC |
| 2001 | Agatha Christie's Poirot | Lionel Marshall | Episode: "Evil Under the Sun" | ITV1 |
| 2002 | Ultimate Force | Weasel | Episode "The Killing House" | ITV1 |
| Silent Witness | Josh Palmer | Episode: Kith and Kill Part one and two | BBC One | |
| 2005 | Messiah IV: The Harrowing | Robbie McManus | BBC One | |
| My Family and Other Animals | Leslie Durrell | BBC One | ||
| 2007–2009 | Gavin & Stacey | Budgie | Episodes: 1.5, 1.6, 2.6 and 3.3 | BBC One, BBC Three |
| 2007 | Annually Retentive | Ben | 5 episodes | BBC Three |
| Doctor Who | Midshipman Alonso Frame | Episode: "Voyage of the Damned" | BBC One | |
| 2008–present | Being Human | George Sands | Series Regular | BBC Three |
| 2008 | Ashes to Ashes | Marcus Johnstone | Episode: "The Smoking Gun" | BBC One |
| Mutual Friends | Estate agent | Episode: 1.5 | BBC One | |
| Little Dorrit | John Chivery | Episodes: 1 to 8, 12, 14 | BBC One | |
| 2009 | Marple | PC Terence Reed | Episode: "Murder Is Easy" | ITV1 |
| The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret | Dave | Comedy Showcase Pilot, 27 November 2009 | Channel 4 | |
| Never Mind the Buzzcocks | As Guest | Episode 23:10, 2 December 2009 | BBC Two | |
| 2010 | Doctor Who | Midshipman Alonso Frame | Episode: "The End of Time" | BBC One |
| 2010–present | Him & Her | Steve | Series Regular | BBC Three |
| 2010–present | Doctor Who Confidential | Himself | Narrator (Voice only) | BBC Three |
| 2012 | Sherlock | Henry Knight | Episode 2.2: "The Hounds of Baskerville" | BBC One |
| Year | Programme | Character | Notes | Broadcaster |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | The History Boys | Rudge | BBC Radio 3 | |
| 2007 | Rubbish | Dan | series 2 | BBC Radio 4 |
| 2009 | The Government Inspector | Gendarme | BBC Radio 4 | |
| The Admirable Crichton[31] | Crichton | Saturday Play (60mins) | BBC Radio 4 | |
| Newfangle[32] | Newfangle | Satirical series, six episodes of 30mins | BBC Radio 4 | |
| Last Night, Another Soldier[33] | Briggsy | Saturday Play (60mins) | BBC Radio 4 | |
| The Richest Man In Britain[34] | Dom | Comedy series, six episodes of 30mins | BBC Radio 4 | |
| 2011 | Countrysides | Simon | Afternoon Play | BBC Radio 4 |
| Year | Play | Character | Theatre | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | The Recruiting Officer | Chichester Festival Theatre | Chichester | |
| 2001 | Howard Katz[35] | Cottesloe Theatre, Royal National Theatre | London | |
| 2002 | Plasticine[36] | Spira Boy having Sex |
Royal Court Theatre | London |
| 2003 | Henry V[37] | Boy | Olivier Theatre, Royal National Theatre | London |
| His Girl Friday[38] | Ralph Sweeney | Olivier Theatre, Royal National Theatre | London | |
| 2003–04 | His Dark Materials[39] | Roger | Olivier Theatre, Royal National Theatre | London |
| 2004–06 | The History Boys | Rudge | Royal National Theatre | London |
| 2005 | The Laramie Project | Sound Theatre | London | |
| 2005–06 | Hergé's Adventures of Tintin (aka Tintin in Tibet)[40] | 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[41] | Groom | Young Vic | London |
| 2008 | The Sea[42] | Billy Hallercut | Theatre Royal Haymarket | London |
| 2009 | A Miracle[16] | Gary Trudgill | Royal Court Theatre | London |
| Year | Title | Character | Production |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | The Emperor's New Clothes | Recruit | Film4 |
| 2006 | The History Boys | Rudge | BBC and Free Range Films |
| 2009 | Drop | Ben | Beautiful Train, short[25] |
| Roar | Tom | Adam Wimpenny, short[27] | |
| In Passing | Henry | Chris Croucher and Michael Berliner, short[28] | |
| 2012 | Grabbers | Smith | Forward Films |