[4] Gourley graduated from California State University, Long Beach,[5] with a bachelor's degree in technical theater and an MFA in performance.

[6][7] Gourley has acted in, directed, and worked on the technical side of productions in the Los Angeles area since the early 1990s, including as Curly in Of Mice and Men,[8] Antipholus in The Comedy of Errors,[9] Dogberry's henchman in Much Ado About Nothing,[10] Orville in The Doctor In Spite of Himself,[11] Hal in Loot,[12] Brindsley in Black Comedy,[13] the director of Tooth and Nail at the Little Fish Theatre,[14] and as a set/lighting designer on The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).

[30] The series was a workplace comedy loosely based upon the time Gourley and Lund spent working as actors at Disney theme parks, though it did not end up getting produced.

[32][33] He has also appeared in ads for McDonald's,[34] Carlton Draught,[35] Lowe's,[36] Hewlett-Packard, Hyundai, Xbox,[37] Late Night with Conan O'Brien,[38] and Budweiser.

In 2006, Gourley and Carter launched Superego, an improvisational podcast they conceived of on Christmas Eve 2005 based on the conceit of clinical case studies.

[42] In November 2014, Gourley helped launch the new Wolfpop podcast network, a sister to Earwolf, along with Paul Scheer and Adam Sachs.

[43] As part of this launch, Gourley himself began a new podcast, titled I Was There Too, which focuses on the actors and stories behind the most classic scenes from film and television.

[45] The podcast consisted of unedited commentary of the games of The Pistol Shrimps, a women's rec league basketball team in Los Angeles.

The self-proclaimed "easy-listening cozy-cast," now simply titled With Gourley and Rust, has had several seasons analyzing and discussing horror films.