Way was born in Summit, New Jersey, on April 9, 1977, the son of Donna Lee (née Rush) and Donald Way. He is of Italian and Scottish ancestry. Raised in Belleville, New Jersey, alongside brother Mikey Way, he first began singing publicly in the fourth grade, when he played the role of Peter Pan in a school musical production. His maternal grandmother, Elena Lee Rush, was a great creative influence who taught him to sing, paint, and perform from a young age; he has said that “she has taught me everything I know”. Also, while in elementary school, the glam metal band Bon Jovi was instrumental in forming his love of music.

Way’s first attempt at writing a comic was at the age of 16 in 1993, writing a comic book series called On Raven’s Wings, published by Hart D. Fisher’s Bonyard Press. The series was cancelled after the second issue, however, due to the loss of its art team. Way was credited as Garry Way.

At the age of 15, Way was held at gunpoint. As he said in an April 2008 Rolling Stone interview, “I got held up with a .357 Magnum, had a gun pointed to my head and put on the floor, execution-style.” He went on to say that “no matter how ugly the world gets or how stupid it shows me it is, I always have faith [in it]”. At age 16, he appeared on an episode of Sally Jesse Raphael to discuss the controversy surrounding the publicizing of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s crimes in comic books. Way attended Belleville High School until he graduated in 1995. Deciding to pursue a career in the comic-book industry, he attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999.

In 2001, Way co-created a cartoon with Joe Boyle called The Breakfast Monkey. They pitched it to Cartoon Network, but the network declined to pick up the concept on the grounds that it was too similar to the existing property Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

In 2007, Way began writing the comic-book miniseries The Umbrella Academy. Way wrote the story and illustrated the original version, but cartoonist Gabriel Bá redrew the art in the first volume, Apocalypse Suite.

Apocalypse Suite was first released by Dark Horse Comics in their Free Comic Book Day issue on May 5, 2007. Since then, an eight-page story has been published entitled “Safe & Sound”, which appeared in a collection of stories entitled MySpace Dark Horse Presents Volume One. The first official issue of The Umbrella Academy was released on September 19, 2007. The first issue sold out and consequently there was a second printing released on October 17, 2007. Apocalypse Suite also won the 2008 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series. The next installment of the series, Dallas, was released on November 26, 2008, and, following speculation that Way had retired indefinitely from comics, a third installment entitled Hotel Oblivion was released in 2018–2019.

On September 3, 2007, after a concert in Colorado, Way married Lyn-Z, bassist of Mindless Self Indulgence, backstage on the final date of the Projekt Revolution tour. A member of Live Nation’s touring staff who was also an ordained minister performed the low-key ceremony. Their daughter, Bandit Lee Way, was born on May 27, 2009. They live in Los Angeles.

In 2008, Way and musical project Julien-K remixed a version of the song “Sleep When I’m Dead” by The Cure for their EP Hypnagogic States. All profits gained from the sales of the EP go to funding the International Red Cross.

In early 2009, Way and Japanese singer Kyosuke Himuro co-produced the new theme song for Advent Children Complete, the Blu-ray director’s cut of the movie sequel to the popular video game franchise, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. He is also credited with writing the lyrics, and singing alongside Himuro. The song, titled “Safe and Sound”, was released on iTunes on April 29, 2009. “Safe and Sound” is only heard on the Japanese release of the film; the English release uses Himuro’s “Calling” (the original ending theme for Advent Children) in place of it. He also contributed vocals for the vocal mix of the deadmau5 song “Professional Griefers”.

In 2011, My Chemical Romance stated that Mikey and Gerard were working on another comic book project which they had kept under wraps since mid-2009. As of 2015 nothing of this project has emerged.

On March 22, 2013, My Chemical Romance announced their break up.

On December 21, 2013, Gerard Way stated that he and Gabriel Bá will be working on parts three and four of his comic book series Umbrella Academy beginning in the new year.

In a podcast interview on December 31, 2013 with Chris Thompson from Pop Culture Hound, Way discussed his new Umbrella Academy series in more detail and confirmed he would do two volumes back-to-back, with a couple of flashback issues in-between. In addition, he discussed his new comic series All Ages which first appeared as a series of images on his Twitter feed. Although the project doesn’t have a publisher or an artist at this stage, he is actively working on the story of cats in high-school who are discovering their place in the world.

In 2013, Way made his television directorial debut on The Hub original series The Aquabats! Super Show!, co-directing and co-writing the season two finale “The AntiBats!” with series co-creators Christian Jacobs and Jason deVilliers. Additionally, Way’s brother Mikey appears in the episode, playing the lead singer of a fictional death metal band called Asthma. The following year, the episode was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in the category for “Outstanding Writing in a Children’s Series”.

In May 2014, Way launched his Tumblr-based website where he announced that he had signed to Warner Bros. Records as a solo artist and was nearing completion of his first solo album. Further to this he announced a new song, “Action Cat”, released later in June as a promotional single to his new album and his first solo shows at Reading and Leeds Festivals 2014. He later announced another solo performance that took place at Portsmouth’s Wedgewood Rooms on August 20. On August 19, Way streamed a new music video for the song “No Shows”, released as the first single off the new album on August 19. The album, titled Hesitant Alien, was released on September 30, 2014.

In 2014, it was announced that Way will be making his debut in the Marvel Universe by writing for the alternate universe Spider-Man series Edge of Spider-Verse. His story introduced Peni Parker, a Japanese-American student who pilots a bio-mechanical suit named SP//dr.

In 2014, Way began openly discussing his gender identity struggles online and in interviews. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) hosted by Way in October 2014, he stated, “I have always been extremely sensitive to those that have gender identity issues as I feel like I have gone through it as well, if even on a smaller scale. I have always identified a fair amount with the female gender, and began at a certain point in MCR to express this through my look and performance style. So it’s no surprise that all of my inspirations and style influences were pushing gender boundaries. Freddy [sic] Mercury, Bowie, Iggy, early glam, T-Rex. Masculinity to me has always made me feel like it wasn’t right for me.”

In early 2015, it was announced that he would perform at the Boston Calling Music Festival in May 2015.

In 2015, Way co-wrote and contributed backing vocals to the song “Louder Than Your Love” on Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Black’s debut solo album The Shadow Side.

In January 2015, Way was featured in The Boyzine, an independent zine published by SWMRS frontman Cole Becker. Way again discussed his gender identity, commenting, “I never really subscribed to the archetype masculinity growing up, I had no interest in sports or anything like that. There was a time where I was called a girl so often that when I discovered the idea of transgenderism I considered myself to be more of a girl. So I identify with trans people and women a lot because I was a girl to a lot of people growing up.”

In 2015, Way revealed on Reddit that he was a cousin of comedian Joe Rogan. In October 2019, Rogan confirmed it on his podcast. He also said that despite this, the two have never met.

On October 28, 2018, Way released his first major solo single in over two years, titled “Baby You’re a Haunted House”. The single features Way’s brother and former bandmate, Mikey Way, on bass. The official lyric video, featuring four skeleton-masked musicians performing the song, was released on YouTube on the same day.

In 2018, the character Peni Parker who he co-created appeared in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

On October 31, 2019, My Chemical Romance announced they would be reuniting with a date in Los Angeles on December 20 and a new merchandise line. They later announced a 2020 North American tour, as well as dates in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, although all 2020 dates were eventually postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On January 24, 2019, Way released a cover of “Hazy Shade of Winter” by Simon & Garfunkel, once again in collaboration with Toro. The song was featured in the trailer for the Netflix television series adaptation of Way’s The Umbrella Academy, which was released the same day. On February 8, 2019, Way released a cover of “Happy Together” by The Turtles, again featuring Toro. The song also appears on The Umbrella Academy.

Since 2019, Way served as executive producer on the television series adaptation of The Umbrella Academy.

On July 8, 2020, Way released an original song titled “Here Comes the End,” which features singer Judith Hill and appears on the second season of The Umbrella Academy.