He graduated from Cornell University with a degree in English[1] and had internships at Playwrights Horizons and the Signature Theater, and attended the directing program at the Juilliard School.
[5] He directed The Big Meal by Dan LeFranc in 2012 at Playwrights Horizons and won the 2012 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Director.
[6] Gold has directed five of the plays of Annie Baker: Circle Mirror Transformation in 2009,[5] The Aliens in 2010,[7] an adaption of Uncle Vanya in 2012,[8]The Flick in 2013,[9] and John in 2015.
[17][18] The CurtainUp reviewer wrote: "...as moved from page to stage by director Sam Gold and his ensemble, everything becomes remarkably and most effectively — enough so to make this a full-flavored theatrical meal.... LeFranc, like another Playwrights Horizon favorite, Annie Baker, has written exactly the kind of play that's director Sam Gold's forte.
David Finkle, in his review for TheaterMania of Look Back in Anger, wrote: "...there's no question the challenge director Sam Gold faced in mounting this possibly-dated work was finding an approach to the fire-brand script that would infuse it with the shock value it had at its debut.
Off-Center concert production of Marc Blitzstein's once highly controversial first musical...are dressed in Clint Ramos's formal attire.
[26] He directed Othello at the Off-Broadway New York Theatre Workshop, opening on November 22, 2016, in previews, officially on December 12, 2016, through January 18, 2017.
[29][30] He also directed the new play by Lucas Hnath, A Doll's House, Part 2, which starred Laurie Metcalf and Chris Cooper and premiered on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre on April 1, 2017.
"[31] Gold directed a new production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear (2019) at the Cort Theatre, starring Glenda Jackson.
Gold was set to direct an adaptation of Anton Chekov's Three Sisters starring Greta Gerwig, Oscar Isaac, Chris Messina, and Steve Buscemi at the New York Theatre Workshop.
[33] In May 2023 it was announced that Gold would return to Broadway with the Amy Herzog adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play An Enemy of the People starring Jeremy Strong.
[35] On April 16, 2024, it was announced that Sam Gold will be directing a new adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, starring Rachel Zegler and Kit Connor, coming to Broadway in the fall of 2024.
[36] As a director Patrick Pacheco, in an article in The Los Angeles Times, observed: "Critical reservations have been rare in Gold's rise as one of New York's hottest and busiest young directors, ever since the media hailed his subtle and effective production of Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation at Playwrights Horizons in 2009... His restless energy is reflected in the sheer breadth and versatility of his career, from a puppet musical, Jollyship the Whizbang, to classics like Threepenny Opera and A Doll's House, to any number of new plays by Zoe Kazan (We Live Here), Dan LeFranc (The Big Meal, which he will direct at Playwrights Horizons in March) and Will Eno (The Realistic Joneses at Yale Rep in April).