Joe Gatt was born in Mosta in 1940. His mother Helen used to read novels in Maltese for all the neighbourhood every evening under the street lamp. Joe started to love the Maltese language from an early age. He started his stage career when he was 13 years old and a year later he founded his first dramatic company. His first script was a short story by the name of “Kien Ihobbha” which he sent to Rediffusion, but was received back as it was not accepted by the censors.

His first drama “Dak mhux Hati” in 1959 won the first prize for the Mosta Dramatic Company in the popular Mgarr contest. The Mosta Dramatic Company was founded by his brother Karmenu and won the next 22 annual contests, always with drama penned by Joe. He wrote also drama for radio and won the Rediffusion Silver Star with “Ir-Ragel li Miet”.

Joe is also a song lyricist and had won Wardakanta with “Ktejjeb Ckejken”. Back in his youth he was also a popular singer and in 1963 had won the Malta Song Festival with song “L-Ghanja ta’ Mhabbitna” written by Clement Zammit and Jimmy Pullicino.

Joe Gatt took part also in films shot in Malta, such as Cristoforo Colombo in which he was the crowd marshall, an experience which made him meet artists like Oliver Reed and Raf Vallone.