Recent research of hydrogel actuators is still not sophisticated enough to meet the requirement of fast, reversible, complex and robust reconfiguration. Here, we present a new kind of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/graphene oxide gradient hydrogel by utilizing direct current electric field to induce gradient and oriented distribution of graphene oxide into poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel. Upon near-infrared light irradiation, the gradient-oriented hydrogel exhibited excellent comprehensive actuation performance as a result of directional bending deformation, promising great potential in the application of soft actuators and optomechanical system.