Gerald William Clayton was born May 11, 1984, in Utrecht, Netherlands, while his father, bassist and bandleader John Clayton, held the principal bass chair with the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The family returned to Southern California soon after, and Gerald grew up in a working jazz household: his father led the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and, with his brother, alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton, co-led the Clayton Brothers. Gerald began studying classical piano at age seven with Linda Buck and later added jazz piano and composition lessons with Shelly Berg, Kenny Barron, and Billy Childs. He graduated from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in 2002, the same year he was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts and performed at the Kennedy Center, and went on to earn a Bachelor of Music in jazz studies from the USC Thornton School of Music in 2006, studying piano there with Billy Childs before further private study with Kenny Barron at the Manhattan School of Music. In September 2006 he placed second in the Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Piano Competition.

Clayton's professional career, by his own account and his labels' dating, began around 2003. He became a member of trumpeter Roy Hargrove's Quintet, appearing on Earfood (2008), and of the Roy Hargrove Big Band, appearing on Emergence (2009). In the same period he worked as a sideman for singer/pianist Diana Krall, recording on From This Moment On (2006) and, backed by his father's Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Christmas Songs (2005). He performed and recorded within his family's own groups as well, playing piano in the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and the Clayton Brothers Quintet; the Clayton Brothers' 2009 album Brother to Brother earned a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, and Gerald's own composition "Battle Circle," from the group's New Song and Dance, was separately nominated for the Best Instrumental Composition Grammy.

He released his debut solo album, Two-Shade (2009, ArtistShare), with the trio of bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Justin Brown that anchored most of his subsequent leader dates; his solo on Cole Porter's "All of You" from that record earned a Grammy nomination for Best Improvised Jazz Solo. The same trio recorded Bond: The Paris Sessions (2010, EmArcy), which won the Edison Award for Best International Jazz Album in 2011 and was nominated for the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. His third album, Life Forum (2013, Concord Jazz), expanded the group considerably, adding saxophonists Logan Richardson and Dayna Stephens, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, and vocalists Gretchen Parlato and Sachal Vasandani; it too was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Since early 2013 Clayton has also maintained an extended association with saxophonist Charles Lloyd, touring and recording with Lloyd's bands (including the group Lloyd calls Kindred Spirits) on albums such as Wild Man Dance (2015), 8: Kindred Spirits: Live from the Lobero (2020), and Trios: Ocean and Trio of Trios (both 2022).

Tributary Tales (2017, Motéma) enlarged Clayton's working group further, with saxophonist Ben Wendel, percussionist Henry Cole, poets Carl Hancock Rux and Aja Monet, and vocalist Sachal Vasandani contributing overtone singing. In spring 2019 Clayton signed to Blue Note Records and celebrated with six nights at the Village Vanguard leading a quintet of Sanders, Brown, Richardson, and tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III; those performances became Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard (2020), which drew two more Grammy nominations, including Best Improvised Jazz Solo for "Celia." His first Blue Note studio album, Bells on Sand (April 2022), featured his father, John Clayton, on bass throughout and a guest tenor saxophone appearance from Charles Lloyd on one track, alongside Portuguese vocalist Maro. In 2024 Clayton co-founded the quintet Out Of / Into with vibraphonist Joel Ross, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, bassist Matt Brewer, and drummer Kendrick Scott, releasing Motion I (2024) and Motion II (2025). His third Blue Note studio album, Ones & Twos (April 2025), took inspiration from DJ turntablism, reworked in post-production with Kassa Overall, and featured Ross, flutist Elena Pinderhughes, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and Scott.

Clayton has also served as Musical Director of Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour and as Director of the festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.

Clayton's playing is rooted in post-bop but has grown steadily more exploratory, folding in classical harmony, Latin rhythm, and the DJ-inspired electronic textures of Ones & Twos without abandoning a compositional clarity traceable to his teachers Billy Childs and Kenny Barron. His touch and pacing at the keyboard drew an early comparison from The New York Times to an "Oscar Peterson-like style," and critics have consistently praised him as both an improviser and a composer and arranger of real ambition, from the modal, harmonically dense small-group writing of his early Concord and EmArcy albums to the turntable concept underpinning his most recent Blue Note record. His working groups have tended toward chamber-scaled expansion rather than the standard quartet, adding vocalists, poets, and overtone singers to what began as a piano trio. Asked to name his own models he puts his father first and then a line of swinging, bass-conscious pianists: Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Monty Alexander and Benny Green, the last two of whom he has also played duo with.