Lee David Ingleby was born on 28 January 1976 in Burnley, Lancashire, England, the son of Gordon Ingleby and Susan M. Hoggarth. He grew up in nearby Brierfield and attended Edge End High School, where his drama teacher, Brian Wellock, who also taught fellow actor John Simm, encouraged him toward professional theatre.

He went on to study at Accrington and Rossendale College before training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He began his screen career in the late 1990s with roles in Soldier Soldier and The Bill, before his breakout lead role in the BBC Two miniseries Nature Boy (2000).

Ingleby is best known for playing DS/DI John Bacchus in Inspector George Gently (2007–2017), Paul Hughes in The A Word (2016–2020), and DCS Jim Hobson in The Long Shadow (2023). His film work includes Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and he voiced Bob in Bob the Builder from 2015 to 2018.

Since 2018, he has been the narrator of BBC Two’s Pilgrimage, a role he has held across all eight series to date, most recently The Road to Holy Island.