He is known for voicing Olaf in the Frozen franchise and playing Elder Arnold Cunningham in the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon.

[1] His father, Sam (Shmuel) Gad was born to a Jewish family in Afghanistan and moved to Israel as a teenager.

He attended college with fellow Broadway stars Leslie Odom Jr. and Rory O'Malley, the latter of whom he based his portrayal of Olaf in Frozen on.

[15] His signature segments include "The War on Christmas", in which he played an oversexed Benjamin Franklin, and "Chubby Chasers", in which he reported on Michelle Obama's efforts to curb childhood obesity.

In 2010, he had a supporting role in the romantic comedy-drama film Love & Other Drugs opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.

The same year, he voiced Olaf in the Disney film Frozen, re-collaborating with co-songwriter Robert Lopez from The Book of Mormon.

[20] In 2015, Gad starred alongside Kevin Hart and Kaley Cuoco in The Wedding Ringer and starred alongside Adam Sandler and Peter Dinklage in Pixels, a film about video game players who are recruited by the military to fight 1980s-era video game characters who have attacked the earth.

[23][24] Also that year, he played LeFou in the live-action adaptation of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon and co-starring with Emma Watson.

[25] Gad also starred in Reginald Hudlin's biographical drama Marshall, alongside Chadwick Boseman and Beauty and the Beast co-star Dan Stevens, and Gad played Hector MacQueen in a film adaptation of Agatha Christie's detective novel Murder on the Orient Express, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, alongside Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, and Daisy Ridley.

Also in 2019, Gad reprised his role of Olaf in the sequel Frozen II as well as the video game Kingdom Hearts III.

In September 2020 Gad joined Princess Bride Reunion, a virtual live script read-through of the 1987 movie, in the role of Fezzik, originally played by André the Giant.

The series encourages its viewers to support non-profit charities such as Dig Deep, Project Hope and No Kid Hungry.

[29] In June, Gad announced that the episode on Ferris Bueller's Day Off would be the last,[30] though the series later returned for a second season, which premiered in December 2020 with the cast of Wayne's World.

[37] In January 2019, it was announced Gad was set to produce the live-action remake of Disney's 1996 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

It was later rumored Gad was considered to play the lead role of Quasimodo; however, in 2023, the plans for the live action film was cancelled.

Gad will make his debut as director with a biopic about Chris Farley with Paul Walter Hauser playing the lead role.

[46][47] Gad has publicly talked about his struggle with generalized anxiety disorder, as part of his effort to combat mental health stigma and shame.

[48] As an effort towards quashing the mental health stigma, Gad joined other celebrities in 2018 in an ongoing project through the Child Mind Institute, titled #MyYoungerSelf.