Garfield commented that it was "an honour" to be a part of Doctor Who.
In 2007, he garnered public attention when he appeared in the series 3 of the BBC's Doctor Who, in the episodes " Daleks in Manhattan" and " Evolution of the Daleks". Garfield made his British television debut in 2005 appearing in the Channel 4 teen drama Sugar Rush. In 2004, he won a Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best Newcomer for his performance in Kes at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre (where he also played Romeo the year after), and won the Outstanding Newcomer Award at the 2006 Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Upon graduating in 2004, he began working primarily in stage acting. He also joined a small youth theatre workshop group in Epsom and took theatre studies at A-level before studying for a further 3 years at a UK conservatoire, the Central School of Speech and Drama. Garfield began taking acting classes in Guildford, Surrey, when he was 9, and appeared in a youth theatre production of Bugsy Malone. Garfield at the premiere of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (September 2009) Acting career 2004–2011: Early work and breakthrough
Garfield attended Priory Preparatory School in Banstead and later City of London Freemen's School in Ashtead, before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. He had originally intended to study business but became interested in acting at the age of 16 when a friend convinced him to take theatre studies at A-level, as they were one pupil short of being able to run the class. Garfield was a gymnast and a swimmer during his early years, and was also an avid philatelist. His mother is also a teaching assistant at a nursery school, and his father became head coach of the Guildford City Swimming Club. Garfield's parents ran a small interior-design business. His paternal grandparents were from Jewish immigrant families who moved to London from Poland, Russia and Romania, and the family surname was originally "Garfinkel." Garfield is Jewish on his father's side Garfield had a secular upbringing, and has referred to himself as an "agnostic pantheist", though he identifies as Jewish. Garfield's parents moved the family from Los Angeles to the UK when he was three years old, and he was brought up in Epsom, Surrey. Garfield's paternal grandparents were also from the United Kingdom. His mother, Lynn (née Hillman), was from Essex, England, and his father, Richard Garfield, is from California. Garfield was born in Los Angeles, California.