Gary grew up on stage in Chicago and got the acting bug at a very young age. When he was 7 years old, he followed his performing sister, Debbie, to an acting class at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. He regrets giving up the chance to act with Danny Kaye in the movie Skokie because he was registered to start college classes when shooting began. After graduating from college with a performance degree, he moved to San Francisco. He did not find any stage acting work that interested him, so he took his first camera acting class with Jim Bressi, one of the original Marlboro Cowboy models. Jim also appeared in many films and TV shows and taught Gary to "come down" from the stage, into the camera. Although Gary has hosted an international TV show called The Help at Home Live Show for seven years, does VO, and website walk-ons, his real love is film work. He has been on sets with the likes of Ralph Winter, Donald Sutherland, Danny Trejo, Orlando Bloom, Colin Firth, Patricia Clarkson, Tim Conway, Mel Tillis, and his good friend Tom Lester, who played "Eb" from the hit sitcom Green Acres.

Gary use to be a professional skateboarder and still loves to hit the skateparks all over the country.