Josh Gad

Joshua Ilan Gad was born on February 23, 1981, in Hollywood, Florida, to a family with roots spanning multiple continents. His father, Sam (Shmuel) Gad, was born into a Jewish family in Afghanistan and relocated to Israel as a teenager; Gad has stated his belief that his paternal line descends from the Tribe of Gad, one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, with ancestors who traveled through India before settling in Afghanistan. His mother, Susan, a real estate agent, was born in Germany to an Ashkenazi Jewish family of Holocaust survivors. Gad was raised Jewish and has two older brothers, a stepbrother, and a stepsister, with his stepfather working as an investment advisor.

Gad graduated from the University School of Nova Southeastern University in 1999, having won the National Forensics League National Tournament Championships for Original Oratory in both 1998 and 1999, as well as the 1999 Humorous Interpretation award at the national tournament in Phoenix. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama from the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts in 2003, where his classmates included Leslie Odom Jr. and Rory O'Malley. During his time at Carnegie Mellon, he completed a semester-long exchange at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

Gad made his film debut in the 2002 production Mary and Joe and his television debut in 2005 with a guest appearance on the NBC medical drama ER. That same year, he joined the Broadway cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, replacing Dan Fogler in the role of William Barfée after Fogler departed the show. He subsequently starred in the Fox sitcom Back to You, playing news director Ryan Church across the show's single season from 2007 to 2008. Film work during this period included a supporting role in the drama 21 and a leading role in the comedy The Rocker, both in 2008.

Following Back to You, Gad became a correspondent on The Daily Show, making his first appearance on May 5, 2009, and joining as a regular on June 2 of that year. His recurring segments included "The War on Christmas," in which he portrayed an oversexed Benjamin Franklin, and "Chubby Chasers," focused on Michelle Obama's efforts to address childhood obesity. His final correspondent appearance aired on June 27, 2011. Also in 2009, he starred in the short-form Crackle horror comedy series Woke Up Dead, and in 2010 he took on a supporting role in the romantic comedy-drama Love & Other Drugs.

Gad's most significant Broadway credit came in 2011, when he originated the role of Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon, which opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on March 24 of that year. His final performance in the production was on June 6, 2012. The role earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, and he co-won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album alongside castmate Andrew Rannells. In 2023, Gad returned to Broadway in Gutenberg! The Musical!, extending a stage career that had spanned from 2005 onward.

In 2013, Gad voiced Olaf the snowman in Disney's Frozen, a collaboration that reunited him with Book of Mormon co-songwriter Robert Lopez. The role became one of his most recognized, earning him two Annie Awards, and he reprised it in the 2019 sequel Frozen 2 as well as the video game Kingdom Hearts III. He based his vocal portrayal of Olaf in part on his Carnegie Mellon classmate Rory O'Malley. Additional film work during this period included playing Steve Wozniak in Jobs and Andrew in The Internship, both in 2013, and co-starring with Zach Braff in Wish I Was Here in 2014.

In 2017, Gad played LeFou in Bill Condon's live-action adaptation of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, opposite Emma Watson. That same year he appeared in Reginald Hudlin's biographical drama Marshall and portrayed Hector MacQueen in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. He also voiced the dog Bailey in A Dog's Purpose, a role he reprised in the 2019 sequel A Dog's Journey.

Gad expanded his television presence in 2020, starring in the HBO science fiction comedy Avenue 5, which premiered on January 19 and was renewed for a second season, and creating, producing, and starring in the Apple TV+ animated musical comedy series Central Park, which premiered on May 29 with a two-season order of thirteen episodes each. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he launched the YouTube series Reunited Apart, which used video conferencing to bring together casts of films including Back to the Future and The Lord of the Rings, with each episode encouraging viewers to support nonprofits such as Dig Deep, Project Hope, and No Kid Hungry. He also participated in a virtual live script read-through of The Princess Bride in September 2020, taking on the role of Fezzik. From 2022 to 2023, Gad starred in the television series Wolf Like Me as Gary, a widowed father navigating the care of his troubled eleven-year-old daughter alongside a woman dealing with lycanthropy.