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Garci­a Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and Jose Angel Garci­a, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when Garci­a Bernal was young. He started acting at just a year old and spent most of his teen years starring in telenovelas. When he was fourteen, he taught indigenous peoples in Mexico to read, often with the Huichol Indians. In his later teens he took part in peaceful demonstrations during the Chiapas uprising of 1994.

Garci­a Bernal was becoming a soap opera heartthrob, but at age 19, he left Mexico's television world to study acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, becoming the first person from Mexico to be accepted in the program. Subsequently, Garci­a Bernal starred in some of Mexico's most celebrated recent films, beginning with Amores Perros (2000), then 2001's Y tu mama tambien, and El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002). He has also done some theatre work, including a 2005 production of Bodas de Sangre, by Federico Garci­a Lorca, in the Almeida Theatre in London. His debut as a working-class dreamer in the Oscar-nominated Amores Perros, however, was what first grabbed Hollywood's attention.

Garci­a Bernal also portrayed Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara twice, first in the 2002 TV miniseries Fidel and then, better known, in 2004's The Motorcycle Diaries, an adaptation of a journal a 23-year-old Guevara wrote about his travels across South America. Garci­a Bernal worked for acclaimed directors including Pedro Almodovar, Walter Salles, Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Gonzalez I arritu and Michel Gondry, among others. He recently took on roles in English language films, including the Gondry-directed The Science of Sleep, the Alejandro Gonzalez It¡rritu-directed Babel, and The King, for which he earned rave reviews. He has been nominated for a BAFTA in 2005 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for The Motorcycle Diaries and, in 2006, was nominated for the Orange Rising Star award which acknowledges new talents in the acting industry.

Garci­a Bernal also directed his first feature film, Daficit, which was released in 2007. Garci­a Bernal is also featured on the 2007 Devendra Banhart album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, contributing vocals on the first track entitled "Cristobal." Bernal was cast for the 2008 film Blindness, an adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by Jose Saramago about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. Like in the novel, the characters have only descriptions, no names or histories; while director Fernando Meirelles said some actors were intimidated by the concept of playing such characters, "With Gael, he said, 'I never think about the past. I just think what my character wants.'"

He was raised by his mother and stepfather, the photographer Sergio Yazbek. Garci­a Bernal studied at the Edron Academy in Mexico City. He plays football in the Adecmac soccer league. Garci­a Bernal's parents participated in an annual clown competition which inspired Bernal as a young child to become the actor he is today.

Garci­a Bernal is "culturally Catholic" and "spiritually agnostic". He speaks fluent Spanish and English; and Portuguese, French and Italian to some degree.

Garci­a Bernal dated actress Natalie Portman from 2003 to 2004.

On Thursday 8th January 2009, girlfriend Dolores Fonzi gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Lazaro in Madrid, Spain.

Garci­a Bernal's best friend is Diego Luna whom he met when he was a year old.