Lars Cleveman was educated at the Opera Academy in Stockholm, he graduated in 1988, but had made his debut as the hotel porter in Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice at Göta Lejon in 1984. He was an early member of the Royal Opera Choir and as a soloist he had his first roles at Folkoperan and Wermland Opera. Between 1996 and 2009, Cleveman was associated with the Royal Opera in Stockholm.

Cleveman is a sought-after soloist in Europe. He has sung leading roles at the Copenhagen Opera, the opera houses in Kiel, Stuttgart, Riga, Halle, Gothenburg and at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He had the title role as Tannhäuser in Bayreuth in 2011. He has appeared as a replacement as Tristan in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde alongside Nina Stemme at Covent Garden and as Parsifal in Albert Hall in 2013. Lars Cleveman made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Siegfried in both Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in spring 2013 with Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde.

He has released a number of records as a rock artist, mainly as the founder and leading figure in Dom Dummaste, but also in his own name.