Born in Berkshire, Stephen Gadd won the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship, and was a finalist in the inaugural Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition. In opera, he has appeared at the Baden Baden, Buxton, Glyndebourne, Lucerne and Salzburg Festivals, and with the Royal Opera, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Grange Park Opera, Opera Holland Park, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, Dallas Opera, Finnish National Opera, the Netherlands Opera, the Norwegian Opera, the Paris Opera, the Opéra de Metz, the Opéra national de Montpellier, the Opéra de Nantes, the Opéra national du Rhin and the Opéra de Rouen.

His repertoire has included Balstrode in Peter Grimes, Mr Redburn in Billy Budd, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Peter in Hänsel und Gretel, the title role in Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, The Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Marcello in La bohème, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Prince Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades, Anckarström in Un ballo in maschera, Giorgio Germont in La traviata, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde and Lysiart in Euryanthe.

Stephen Gadd has recorded extensively and concert highlights have included performances with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Southbank Sinfonia and the Ulster Orchestra.

Conductors with whom he has worked include Stephen Barlow, Łukasz Borowicz Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Daniel Harding, Vladimir Jurowski, Gianluca Marcianò, Kent Nagano, Andris Nelsons, Ilyich Rivas, Carlo Rizzi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Walter Weller and John Wilson.