Graduated from the Ural Pedagogical Institute. As a student, he participated in performances at the Nizhny Tagil Drama Theater. He worked for a year as a teacher of Russian language and literature. After serving in the army, he entered LGITMiK (in V. Petrov's course), after graduating from which he worked at the Leningrad Comedy Theater named after N. Akimov under the direction of Dmitry Astrakhan. Five years later he moved to Moscow and began acting at the Tabakov Theater, but subsequently left it.

He made his film debut in Vyacheslav Sorokin's film "The Marked Ones". Anatoly Zhuravlev played his first leading role in the film "Everything Will Be Fine". He gained fame for his role as Tolstoy in the series "The Bourgeois's Birthday". Winner of the First (and last) USSR Taekwondo Championship in the weight category over 80 kg (1991).