Early life

Josh Gad was born in Hollywood, Florida on February 23, 1981. His mother is a realtor and his stepfather is an investment advisor. He was raised Jewish; his father is a Jewish immigrant from Afghanistan and his mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

Gad attended the University School of Nova Southeastern University, graduating in 1999. While there, he won the National Forensics League National Tournament Championships for Original Oratory in 1998, and for Humorous Interpretation and Original Oratory in 1999. He then attended the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama. During this time, he undertook a semester-long exchange at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

Career

Gad portrayed news director Ryan Church on the Fox sitcom Back to You, which lasted one season from 2007 to 2008. Gad appeared as a correspondent on The Daily Show on May 5, 2009, and became a regular correspondent on June 2, 2009. 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 2008, he played a supporting role in the film 21, and a leading role in The Rocker. In 2010, he had a role in Love & Other Drugs, and a guest role on the Bored to Death episode "Make it Quick, Fitzgerald!". He was cast in the American version of the British sitcom No Heroics. In the pilot, Gad played Horse Force, a former classmate from Superhero College, who can summon horses and works at a bar where the group hangs out. The show was not picked up.

Gad played the role of Elder Cunningham in the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon. His last performance was June 6, 2012. The show opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on March 24, 2011. Gad was nominated for the 2011 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, along with his co-star Andrew Rannells. Both lost to Norbert Leo Butz in Catch Me If You Can.

In 2011, Gad had a cameo appearance in ABC's hit show, Modern Family, in Season 3's Thanksgiving episode. In 2011, Gad voiced "Mondo" in the MTV animated series Good Vibes. He also made an appearance as Bump in the 2011 comedy road trip film Mardi Gras: Spring Break.

In 2012, he voiced the molehog Louis in Ice Age: Continental Drift. He also played Bear Claw on an episode of New Girl. In 2012, he starred in the independent romantic comedy She Wants Me. In 2013, he appeared as Skip Gilchrist in NBC's 1600 Penn, of which he is also a co-creator and executive producer. Also in 2013, he played Andrew (Headphones) in the film The Internship and starred as Steve Wozniak in the film Jobs. The same year, he voiced Olaf in Frozen, re-collaborating with co-songwriter Robert Lopez from The Book of Mormon. In 2014, Gad co-starred in Zach Braff's film Wish I Was Here, playing the main character's brother.

On August 5, 2013, it was announced that Gad will play Sam Kinison in a biopic. He wrote an article entitled "Technology pundit (for a day)", which appeared in USA Today on August 12, 2013.

In December 2013, it was announced Gad will star and co-write the film version of Gilligan's Island. In April 2014, it was announced that Gad and Ryan Dixon will be developing a live action family adventure-comedy for Disney. In 2014, he had a guest voice role on Phineas and Ferb.

In 2015, Gad starred alongside Kevin Hart and Kaley Cuoco in The Wedding Ringer, co-starred with Billy Crystal on the FX comedy series The Comedians, which premiered on April 9, and starred alongside Adam Sandler and Peter Dinklage in Pixels, about video game players who are recruited by the military to fight 1980s-era video game characters who have attacked the earth.

Personal life

Gad married actress Ida Darvish in 2008. They have two children. Gad has stated that he loves the traditional aspects of Judaism and celebrates some traditions of his wife's religion, Catholicism, but considers himself spiritual but not religious.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Mary and Joe	Angel
2007	Watching the Detectives	Mark
2008	21	Miles
2008	The Rocker	Matt
2009	Crossing Over	Howie
2009	The Lost Nomads: Get Lost!	Gigi Miss Piggy Jose Sanchez The Clown Spatula Lover
2009	Big Guy	Rodney	Short
2010	Marmaduke	Bandana Dog	Voice
2010	Love & Other Drugs	Josh Randall
2011	Mardi Gras: Spring Break	Bartholomew T. "Bump" Brown
2012	She Wants Me	Sam Baum
2012	Ice Age: Continental Drift	Louis	Voice
2012	Thanks for Sharing	Neil
2013	Jobs	Steve Wozniak
2013	The Internship	Headphones
2013	Frozen	Olaf	Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production
2014	Wish I Was Here	Noah Bloom
2015	The Wedding Ringer	Doug Harris	Nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
2015	Frozen Fever	Olaf	Voice (short)
2015	Pixels	Ludlow Lamonsoff	Nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
2016	The Angry Birds Movie	Chuck	Voice
2017	Beauty and the Beast	LeFou	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	ER	Sgt. Bruce Larabee	Episode: "Here and There"
2007-08	Back to You	Ryan Church	17 episodes
2008	American Dad!	Art (voice)	Episode: "Pulling Double Booty"
2008-09	Numb3rs	Roy McGill	2 episodes
2009	Waiting to Die	Simon	Movie
2009	No Heroics	Horseforce	Movie
2009	Party Down	Jeffrey Ells	Episode: "California College Conservative Union Caucus"
2009	Woke Up Dead	Matt	21 episodes
2009-11	The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Correspondent
2011	The Cleveland Show	Droopy / Pimp (voice)	Episode: "Our Gang"
2011	Californication	Doctor	2 episodes
2011	Gigi: Almost American	Gigi	10 episodes
2011	Modern Family	Kenneth	Episode: "Punkin Chunkin"
2011	Good Vibes	Mondo (voice)	12 episodes
2012-13	1600 Penn	Skip Gilchrist	13 episodes, also co-creator and executive producer
2013	Hollywood Game Night	Himself	Episode: "America's Got Game Night"
2012-15	New Girl	Bear Claw	3 episodes
2015	The Comedians	Josh	Main role
2015	Sesame Street	Vincent Van Stop	Season 45 Episode 4520 - Bert's Sign Painting Challenge
2015	The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Himself	Episode: "2,677"; cameo
2015	Phineas and Ferb	Wendell (voice)	2 Episodes Guest Star
2016	Sofia the First	Olaf (voice)	Episode: "The Secret Library: Olaf and the Tale of Miss Nettle"
2016	Lip Sync Battle	Himself (Song 1) / Donald Trump (Song 2)	Season 2, Episode 4: Josh Gad vs. Kaley Cuoco
2016	Talking Dead	Himself	Guest

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	Disney Infinity 3.0	Olaf	(voice)

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee	William Barfee	Circle in the Square Theatre
2011	The Book of Mormon	Elder Cunningham	Eugene O'Neill Theatre

[ Source: Wikipedia ]