Bevan was born in December 1957 in Queenstown, New Zealand. From 1969—1974, he was educated at Sidcot School, a Quaker boarding independent school in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Winscombe in North Somerset, in South West England. He then attended Cheltenham College, a boarding independent school in the spa town of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, in the West of England.
Bevan co-founded Working Title Films in London with Sarah Radclyffe and Graham Bradstreet in the 1980s. (Eric Fellner now partners Tim Bevan at Working Title Films). Among Bevan's more than 40 films as Producer or executive Producer are Moonlight and Valentino, Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Guru, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Love Actually, Notting Hill, Elizabeth, Bridget Jones's Diary, Atonement, and Frost/Nixon. To date, the films he has co-produced have grossed a total of almost four billion dollars worldwide ($3,939 Million according to www.boxofficemojo.com) without adjusting for inflation.
Bevan is divorced from English Actress Joely Richardson; the two have a daughter, Daisy, born in 1992. Now married to Amy Gadney, they have a daughter Nell, born 2001, and a son Jago, born 2003.
Working Title Films signed a deal with Universal Studios in 1999 for a reported US$600 million, which gave Bevan and Fellner the power to commission projects with a budget of up to $35 million without having to consult their paymasters.
