Heavy metals (HMs) include elements essential for all living organisms in small amounts, such as iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu), as well as metals and metalloids which may be toxic even in low concentrations, for example, lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), and antimony (Sb). Heavy metal pollution is a serious environmental problem worldwide. Industrialization, domestic activities, and agriculture can release excess amounts of heavy metals into the soil, water, and air, leading to health risks to people and the endangerment of all biota present in the environment. Individual yeast species possess mechanisms which eliminate the adverse effects of HMs on their cells. They can prevent HMs from entering the cells, sequester them into storage cellular structures, change their more toxic forms into less toxic forms, and bind them to extracellular structures such as exopolysaccharides or melanins. Different metallotolerant ascomycetous and basidiomycetous yeast species are present in sites slightly contaminated with heavy metals to sites heavily contaminated with heavy metals, where they inhabit various types of soil and water bodies, above and below ground parts of plants, and are also found in wastewater, sewage treatment plants, and extreme environments. Yeasts exhibit variability in their tolerance to HMs even within a community of yeasts isolated from the same site. Species highly tolerant to heavy metals are found especially in heavily polluted areas, and many of them also show multi-tolerance to heavy metals. The cultivation of metallotolerant yeasts in the presence of different HMs at different concentrations affects the profiles and amounts of exopolymeric substances, carotenoids, and melanins produced.