A gear actuator for a motor vehicle transmission design (3), that has several ratio steps for forming gears, whereby the gear actuator (1) comprises a gear-shift shaft (58, 66) that is operatively arranged so the gear-shift shaft can move in rotation for the shifting of gears and can move axially for the selection of gears, and a shift gate (2), wherein the shift gate (2) includes a fixedly mounted first shift gate part (10), a second shift gate part (12) that is coupled to the gear-shift shaft so the second shift gate part can move axially and in rotation with respect to an axis of the gear-shift shaft, and wherein the first shift gate part (10) has several recesses (14, 16, 18, 20, 22), wherein the recesses are spaced from each other in an axial direction substantially parallel to an axis of the gear shift shaft, into each of which recesses the second shift gate part (12) can rotate, depending on an axial position of the second shift gate part, wherein positions of the second shift gate part (12), in which of this second shift gate part (12) is swiveled into a recess (14 and/or 16 and/or 18 and/or 20 and/or 22) of the axially spaced recesses (14, 16, 18, 20, 22) of the first shift gate part (10), there is a positive engagement between the first (10) and the second shift gate parts (12) in selecting direction and/or in axial direction of the first shift gate parts (10) so the selecting and/or an axial movement of the first shift gate parts (10), and thus an axial movement of the gear-shift shaft (58, 66) is locked and/or blocked.