[4][5] Gilbert, whose name at birth is Gusovskoi Alexander Viktorovich,[6] was born in Arkhangelsk, where he was placed in a local orphanage for the first two years of his life until 1994, when he was adopted by his New Zealand parents.

[10][11] Gilbert has made several appearances on television shows and documentaries about international adoption, and has written two books.

[22] In 1994, New Zealand couple Mark and Janice Gilbert adopted Alexander and his brother Andrei.

Gilbert's trip and his meetings with his birth parents was filmed for New Zealand's TV One's current affairs show Sunday, and the report was broadcast in 2014.

[2][30] The project is a platform that helps adoptees around the world to share their personal experiences with adoption through social media.

[49][50] Also in 2018, Gilbert teamed up with the charity Arifmetika Dobra for another presentation with parents and adopted children.

[64] He had also visited Arkhangelsk, a village in Vladimir Oblast and Altai Krai in Western Siberia.

[65] In September 2019, TVNZ announced Gilbert would be hosting a television series called Reunited.

Season One aired in February 2022 on TVNZ 1; it had a positive reception, noting Gilberts compassion towards the adopted person.

[69][70][71][72] From November 2022, Gilbert began to publish his first online ongoing series An Adoption Story through his YouTube channel.

[77][14] In one episode, an adoptee who had been separated from her two brothers since birth and was previously unaware of their existence, met them for the first time.

[78][79] Alex Gilbert is of East European, Russian, Baltic and West Asian ancestry.

[80] Gilbert noted on his Facebook page the impact of the 2022 Russian invasion on his family in Russia and his relatives living in a village north of Kyiv, Ukraine.

[81] In May 2023, Gilbert went to the Kazakh village Tulkibas to trace his family origins in a search for his biological grandmother.

[10][86] He received a certificate of achievement from the Ministry of Health of the Arkhangelsk region in Russia for his orphanage initiative in November 2018.