Nicholas Kadi (birth name Nameer El-Kadi) is a classically trained New York stage actor. He first garnered attention in Hollywood as Gaw, one of the lead cavemen in the Academy award winning prehistoric epic "Quest For Fire". He began his career with the New York Children's Theater. His stage credits include extensive work at La MaMa E.T.C. in N.Y., where he taught movement for actors and appeared in countless productions. In L.A. he has appeared at the Ahmanson theater, and was a member of the Laurel Grove Acting Company.

In films and television, he has portrayed a diverse range of nationalities including Palestinian (Navy Seals (1990)), Russian (Murder, She Wrote (1984)), Greek ("Perfect Strangers") and French (Glee (2009)). As an alumnus of the prestigious Decroux mime studio in Paris, he used his movement skills in an animatronic gorilla suit to critical acclaim as "Ape" in George of the Jungle (1997) and continued his animatronic work in Congo (1995). (He also voiced a marmot and a marmoset on two different episodes of The Wild Thornberrys (1998).) Kadi helped the Henson Company develop their motion capture system involving puppetry. He was a puppeteer in Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) and Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge (2014). As a motion capture artist, Kadi appeared as a toy soldier in Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006).

While filming of Quest for Fire (1981) in Scotland, Kadi was injured. He later married Brenda Lyon, the unit nurse who cared for him, three weeks after they met. They have a daughter, Meghan.