Gad has previously appeared on Broadway as Barfee in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Other theatrical work includes All in the Timing, The Skin of Our Teeth and A One Man Show With Other People.
Screen credits include "21," "The Rocker," "Love and Other Drugs," "Back to You," "Californication," "Bored to Death," "Numb3rs" and "Party Down." Gad is also a correspondent on "The Daily Show With John Stewart."
| Full given name: | Joshua Ilan Gad |
| Hometown: | Hollywood, Florida |
| Zodiac Sign: | Pisces |
| What your parents do for a living: | Mother is a realtor, stepdad is an investment advisor. |
| Current audition song/monologue: | Song: "Happy Birthday to You" Monologue: Agnes from "Agnes of God" |
| Special skills: | Good impersonator |
| Something you're REALLY bad at: | Organization |
| First Broadway show you ever saw: | Fiddler on the Roof
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| If you could go back in time and catch any show, what would it be? | A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Zero Mostel |
| Current show you have been recommending to friends: | Angels in America - such a simple yet gorgeous production. |
| Favorite showtunes of all time: | "Breeze Off the River" "Somewhere" "I Am What I Am" |
| Some favorite musicals: | Forum Cabaret Full Monty Fiddler Wicked Les Miz And, of course, Dames at Sea |
| Stage or screen star, past or present, you would most love to perform with: | Zero Mostel or Lea Michele |
| The one performance – attended - that you will never forget: | The Sam Mendes revival of Cabaret. It blew my mind. |
| Music that makes you cry, any genre: | Enya and the soundtrack to "Up" |
| MAC or PC? | Is that a joke? MAC all the way |
| Most played song on your iPod: | "Take on Me" by Ah-ha |
| Favorite Tweeters: | Sarah Silverman and John Hodgman |
| Pop culture guilty pleasure: | Lady Gaga. Anyone who hatches out of eggs has my attention. |
| Favorite Kardashian: | The one who was the enemy alien on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" |
| Last book you read: | "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House" by Jon Meacham |
| Last good movie you saw: | "True Grit" |
| Some films you consider classics: | "The Godfather" "City Lights" "Ghostbusters" "Animal House" "Raiders of the Lost Ark" "The Goonies" |
| Must-see TV shows: | "Mad Men" "Boardwalk Empire" "Modern Family" "No Reservations" |
| Performer you would drop everything to go see: | Sacha Baron Cohen |
| Three favorite cities: | Paris, New York, Positano |
| Favorite sport/team/player: | Football, Dolphins, Dwyane Wade |
| First CD/Tape/LP you owned: | "Jump" by Kriss Kross |
| Greatest Bands of All Time: | The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, The Shins, The Beach Boys and U2 |
| First stage kiss: | A children's theatre production of Return to Neverland. Smee had an Indian love interest. |
| Favorite or most memorable onstage role as a child/teenager: | Tevye in my high school production of Fiddler |
| Moment you knew you wanted to perform for a living: | I was four. My parents dragged me to a comedy show in the Catskills and I laughed harder than anyone. I was so awestruck that I knew in that moment I wanted that power- the power to make people laugh. In hindsight, the show was horrible and the performer was like a bad 40's Borscht Belt comedian. |
| How you got your Equity card: | Spelling Bee |
| Favorite pre-/post- show meal: | Upstairs at the Time Hotel after the show. |
| Favorite liquid refreshment: | Coors Light |
| Pre-show rituals or warm-ups: | I do a poem as Maya Angelou for the cast every night on stage right. |
| Most embarrassing or spectacular flubbed line/missed cue/onstage mishap: | My first week in Spelling Bee, I not only forgot how to spell the last word in the show, but I forgot the word I was supposed to spell. I just started shouting out consonants. It was awful. |
| Most memorable audience interaction moment during Spelling Bee: | We had an 8 or 9 year old we could not get out. I honestly thought we were going to have to give him the trophy and call off the end of the show. I think we finally got him out on a BS word and he looked atomic. He was so pissed. Smart little son of a bitch. He had us all figured out. |
| Favorite "South Park" episodes: | Gay Fish, All About the Mormons, the Dolphin/whale episode and the Scientology episode. |
| Worst costume ever: | I had to do three days on a movie where I wore nothing but a sock on my nethers. Not fun. |
| Worst job you ever had: | I worked briefly as an intern at an ad agency. I would sit and doodle different ads about why I hated the job so much. |
| Leading man role you've been dying to play: | Pseudolus in Forum |
| Leading lady role you wish you could play: | Ga-linda in Wicked |
| Favorite commercial: | There was a clown commercial a few years ago. I don't even remember what they were selling, but it was this father who surprised kids at a party by coming out as a clown. He jumped on a sharp toy and screamed and the kids all cried and ran away. Every time that came on, I thought I was going to throw up, I would laugh so hard. |
| Something about you that surprises people: | I'm a father. |
| Career you would want if not a performer: | Disney Imagineer. I think it's so cool what those guys do. |
| Three things you can't live without: | My baby girl and wife (we'll count them as one), my iPhone and physical therapy |
| "I'll never understand why…" | ... people think I want to hear about every errand they are running on Twitter. |
| Words of wisdom for aspiring performers? | Look in the mirror. Decide what you really want. Commit. And never look back. |
