Youth and beginnings

Gad Elmaleh was born on 19 April 1971 into a Moroccan Jewish family in Casablanca, where he attended primary school in the Maârif district, followed by the Maïmonide and Lyautey high schools. He is the brother of actor and singer Arié Elmaleh and Judith Elmaleh, an author and director. Gad (גד) means "joy" in Hebrew; Elmaleh is linked to "the quality of that which is salty" in Arabic (El Male'h). He is the son of David Elmaleh, a merchant who practised mime as an amateur at the CAFC (Cercle amical français de Casablanca), and Régine Elmaleh. He speaks fluent English, Arabic, and Hebrew.

From the age of five, he went on stage alongside his father, a mime, to announce his acts using a sign. Fascinated by the world of entertainment, he dreamed of becoming "a sort of Michael Jackson" and would later be inspired by his work on body language and gestures.

In 1987, at 16, Gad left Morocco to study political science at McGill University in Montreal (Quebec), then came to France in 1992 to Paris to follow artistic training at the Cours Florent for two and a half years in the free class with his friend Sébastien Ripari. They had Isabelle Nanty as a teacher and both obtained their diplomas.

He met Élie Kakou, whose assistant he became (taking care of the spotlights and then the logistics), and made a few appearances alongside him on stage.

Landing few roles, he called on his uncle Albert Mallet (who had removed the "El" from his name), who ran Radio Shalom, to test his first sketches. In 1996, he joined Arthur's team, then host of the Europe 2 morning show.

In 1997, he presented his first one-man show, Décalages, on the stage of the Trévise theatre, directed by Isabelle Nanty.

Comic revelation and transition to cinema

In 1996, he was part of the team for La Matinale d'Arthur on Europe 2, where he played fictional listeners of the show who would call the host. The most frequently appearing character was Momo Zemio, a young Moroccan who had acquired French nationality through a sham marriage and was looking to find his wife, who had run away after stripping him of his belongings. He became known for his first television appearance on the show Studio Gabriel.

In 1997, he presented his first solo show, Décalages, directed by Isabelle Nanty, and appeared in his first film, Salut cousin! by Merzak Allouache.

He dedicated himself to cinema as an actor, playing in numerous comedies but also interpreting dramatic roles, such as in L'homme est une femme comme les autres or Train de vie.

In 2001, he presented his second one-man show, La Vie normale, and played the role of the seducer Dov in the film La Vérité si je mens! 2.

In 2002, he starred alongside Cécile de France in the film A+ Pollux, directed by Luc Pagès.

In 2003, he starred in the comedy Chouchou, inspired by a sketch from La Vie normale, which he also co-wrote and in which he played a romantic transvestite alongside Alain Chabat.

In 2005, he starred in Olé! alongside Gérard Depardieu and was on tour for his show L'autre c'est moi.

In 2006, he appeared in the cinema in La Doublure by Francis Veber, where he played François Pignon, then in Hors de prix by Pierre Salvadori.

Confirmation and international collaborations

In September 2006, Gad Elmaleh carried out a mini-tour in the United States, marked by a show on Broadway at the Beacon Theater in front of an audience of 3,000 people.

On 6 January 2007, he was voted "funniest man of the year" by TF1 viewers, ahead of 49 other comedians. At the beginning of 2007, he resumed L'autre c'est moi (with modifications preparing for his new show) in Morocco, France, Belgium, and Switzerland. It was within the framework of the Juste pour rire 2007 festival in Montreal, Quebec, that the comedian presented his performance Papa est en haut for the first time. The tour began in October 2007 and ended in 2008.

During this break, Gad Elmaleh directed the film Coco, also derived from La Vie normale. The film received a mixed critical reception—Le Monde considered that it suffered from a "script that singularly lacks substance, an absence of consistency in the secondary characters reduced to roles of foils, a fidelity too great to the text and the witty remarks of the one-man show"—and was "rewarded" with a Gérard in the category "Gérard for the slacker so relaxed that he recycles one of his old sketches into an hour-and-a-half film." He resumed the tour once the film was released until 2010. The DVD of this show was marketed on 6 November 2008. He performed Papa est en haut for two years (until 2010) in Paris at the Palais des Sports, as well as in the rest of France, and was already thinking about a new show for 2011 on ecology. He hosted the Césars in 2004, 2005, and 2010 alongside Valérie Lemercier.

In 2011, he appeared in the film Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen, in which he played the role of Detective Tisserant, then held the role of Omar Ben Salaad in The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, released in October in Europe.

At the beginning of 2012, he starred in Jack and Jill, a comedy with Adam Sandler, Katie Holmes, and Al Pacino.

On 1 April 2012, he received, along with the entire cast of the film Jack and Jill, the Razzie Award for Worst Screen Ensemble.

In 2013, he filmed commercials for the bank LCL. These commercials were very poorly received by the public; Gad Elmaleh even became the "laughing stock of the web" according to Le Nouvel Observateur.

On 19 December 2014, a public performance by Gad Elmaleh at the Palais des Sports in Paris was interrupted by Arthur during his show En direct avec Arthur, then broadcast live on TF1, a sequence during which the comedian was presented by Estelle Denis with an award for his 20 years on stage, to his great (unfeigned) surprise.

In October 2015, Gad Elmaleh and Kev Adams announced that they were preparing a joint show for 2016: Tout est possible.