Russell Tovey

Russell George Tovey (born 14 November 1981) is an English actor.

He is best known for playing the role of werewolf George Sands in the BBC's Supernatural comedy-drama Being Human, 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.

Tovey was born on 14 November 1981 in Billericay, Essex.

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.

Tovey has an older brother, Daniel.

He attended Harold Court School in Harold Wood and Shenfield High School.

Tovey noted that as a boy he "was an avid collector of various things and prone to participating in fads."

His parents supported his efforts, taking him to archaeological digs and museums, buying him a metal detector and going to conventions for mineralogists.

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.

Tovey began his career as a child actor.

He joined a local drama club and garnered the attention of a talent agent.

He worked from the age of 11 and missed so much school that his father suggested he should cut back, but his mother persuaded 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 secondary 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.

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 adaptations.

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 as many of his peers had, 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.

The pilot premiered on BBC Three on 18 February 2008.

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".

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.

A six-part series was commissioned with the first episode broadcast on 25 January 2009.

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, 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 and its spinoffs, which ran for five series up to July 2015.

Tovey narrated every episode aired.

Tovey played Budgie, one of Gavin's friends, in the BBC comedy-drama Gavin & Stacey.

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 Tovey.

In January 2012, he appeared in the British crime drama Sherlock, playing Henry Knight in the episode "The Hounds of Baskerville".