His roles include the Golden Globe–nominated portrayal of the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), the voice of adult Simba in Disney's The Lion King (1994), and Leo Bloom in both the Broadway musical The Producers and its 2005 film adaptation.

Other films he has starring credits in include WarGames (1983), Glory (1989), The Freshman (1990), The Cable Guy (1996), Godzilla (1998), Inspector Gadget (1999), You Can Count on Me (2000), The Last Shot (2004) and Tower Heist (2011).

Broderick commented on the effects of that review in a 2004 60 Minutes II interview: Before I knew it, I was like this guy in a hot play.

In 1988, Broderick played Harvey Fierstein's ill-fated lover, Alan, in the screen adaptation of Torch Song Trilogy.

He starred in the 1989 film Glory alongside Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington, and received favorable reviews for his portrayal of the American Civil War officer Robert Gould Shaw, whom Broderick physically resembled.

In the 1990s, Broderick appeared as Clark Kellogg in The Freshman in 1990, was the voice of adult Simba in Disney's 1994 animated film The Lion King, and voiced Tack the Cobbler in Miramax's controversial version of The Thief and the Cobbler, which had originally been intended as a silent role and was fully released in 1995.

He won recognition for two dark comedy roles: bachelor Steven Kovacs in 1996's The Cable Guy with Jim Carrey, and a high school teacher in Alexander Payne's 1999 film Election with Reese Witherspoon.

Broderick then starred alongside Nathan Lane in the Mel Brooks 2001 stage version of The Producers which was a critical and financial success.

Broderick starred in a 2004 off-Broadway production of the award-winning Larry Shue play The Foreigner as the witty Charlie Baker.

[21] He was reunited with his co-star from The Lion King and The Producers, Nathan Lane, in The Odd Couple, which opened on Broadway in October 2005.

[22] He returned to the Broadway stage in Spring 2012 to star in the musical Nice Work If You Can Get It, directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall.

[24] In 2022, Broderick returned to Broadway in a revival of Plaza Suite where he starred alongside his wife Sarah Jessica Parker.

[30] Broderick and actress Sarah Jessica Parker married on May 19, 1997, in an Episcopal ceremony officiated by his sister, Rev.

He said his participation in the ancestry research program emotionally reconnected him with the role he played in Glory, as he discovered his paternal great-great-grandfather, Robert Martindale, was a Union soldier.

Having identified the grave with the help of historian Brad Quinlin, Broderick's research enabled him to give his ancestor his name back.

[42][40] Broderick told police he had no recollection of the crash and did not know why he had been in the wrong lane: "What I first remember is waking up in the hospital, with a very strange feeling going on in my leg."