Spanish writer, politician, professor and literary critic. Son of the actor Bernardo Gil and Antonia de Zárate. His first years of education took place in the Colegio Real de San Isidro, but in 1802, his father sent him to France to finish there his education. He returned to Spain in 1811, being then a student of the Experimental Physics Department of San Isidro. His scientific training would continue until 1820, the moment in which he found himself interested again in literature and would dedicate his life to it. During the Constitutional Triennium he found a job as scribe for the Ministry of Interior, but once he had finished it and having been part of the National Milita, he had to go into exile in Cádiz, as it was impossible for him to return to Madrid. Some of his theatre texts were then represented in Madrid, allowing him to return in 1826. In 1828, he won the chair for French in the Escuela de Comercio del Consulado of Madrid. In 1832, he was the editor of the Commerce Bulletin, which connected him to the politic reality of the country. He then in 1836, returned to the Ministry of Interior as an official, and as such he was the drafter of several legislative projects such as the preamble of the Plan of Studies of the Duke of Rivas, the organization and attributions of the city councils or the freedom of printing. Moreover, during this time he actively collaborated in articles for the Revista de Madrid, and he published several biographical sketches in Seminario Pintoresco. The Revolution of 1840 distanced him from public life and made him then dedicate his life to literature. He returned soon after, in 1843, as secretary of the Ministry of Interior and as chief of the Public Education section. In 1844, he wrote the Syllabus that contemplated the creation of the Dirección General de Instrucción Pública (General Directorate of Public Instruction) of which he was in charge of.

He was an academic of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and the Royal Spanish Academy.