Moroccan-born French comedian Gad Elmaleh is considered as the “Seinfeld of France.” He has starred in several feature films, including Coco, Priceless, La Doublure and Midnight in Paris. He has been voted the funniest person in France and was named knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture; he was also named knight of the National Order of Quebec. In July 2007, Elmaleh premiered his fifth one-man show, Papa est en haut, in Montreal as part of the Just for Laughs festival. In 2013, he appeared on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Elmaleh has performed in a mix of French and Arabic in Morocco and included some Hebrew in shows in Israel. In 2015 Elmaleh began an American tour entitled “Oh My Gad” and moved to New York City. One difference between his French shows and his English shows is that his English shows include no riffing, everything is scripted. In September 2016, an episode of This American Life highlighting challenging transitions included a segment about Elmaleh and his transition to American comedy. On the December 15, 2016 episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Elmaleh appeared as the show’s stand-up act. Elmaleh’s French stand-up special Gad Gone Wild was filmed in Montreal, Canada and was released on Netflix on 24 January 2017. An English language special was released in March 2018.
