In contemporary fiction, gargoyles are typically depicted as a (generally) winged humanoid race with demonic features: generally horns, a tail, and talons. They are said to be guardians of the building on which they reside. These fictional gargoyles can generally use their wings to fly or glide, and are often depicted as having a rocky hide, or being capable of turning into stone in one way or another.

The TV movies Gargoyles: Wings of Darkness and Reign of the Gargoyles feature attacks by living gargoyles and a giant gargoyle as their leader.

Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame features three gargoyles as comic companions to Quasimodo.

Gargoyles, the animated series featured gargoyles as main characters who worked in conjunction with a select group of humans to protect their roost (a Scottish Castle transported to America), fight crime, and explore mysteries of the world (current and mythical).

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie(1990), the segment "Lover's Vow" features a struggling artist who encounters a living gargoyle in an alley.

Andrew Davidson's novel The Gargoyle (Doubleday, 2008) is about the 700-year romance between a badly burned pornographer and a famous gargoyle sculptor.