Gad Elmaleh's Biography

Gad Elmaleh was born in Casablanca, Morocco on 19 April 1971.

Of Jewish descent, Gad Elmaleh studied at Georges Bizet school and Lycée Lyuatey in Casablanca.

His father was an amateur mime artist, but Elmaleh cites Charlie Chaplin as his main early career influence.

Gad Elmaleh moved to Montreal in Canada in 1988. Whilst there, he worked in the shipping department of a garment company owned by members of his family and he also studied political science.

In 1992 Gad Elmaleh left Canada and went to Paris. He had success as a stand-up comedian and like Edouard Baer was a student of actress Isabelle Nanty.

In 1995, he had his first one-man show "Décalages".

As well as continuing with his one-man comedy shows, Gad Elmaleh took on various acting roles.

He depicted one of his characters, Chouchou, a Moroccan transvestite streetwalker, on stage and screen.

Gad Elmaleh used to live with actress Anne Brochet. They have a son. Brochet wrote a book, Trajet d'une amoureuse econduite, about her relationship and break up with Gad Elmaleh.

More recently he was going out with ballerina Aurelie Dupont.

In this review of Priceless, The Guardian describes Gad Elmaleh as "a very funny young Moroccan-born Jewish comic whose hugely popular one-man shows are about the closest France gets to really good stand-up."

His film credits include playing Chick in Mood Indigo, adapted from Boris Vian's novel.