EXECUTIVE PRODUCER / WRITER

Graham Yost, 57, says he knew from the age of 18 that he wanted to be a filmmaker. He attributes his early love of film to his father, the late Elwy Yost, who hosted a weekly film show on TV Ontario. “In our family, everything was about movies and books,” says Yost.

After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Toronto, Yost moved to New York. Already working on his own screenplays, he took a job as a technical writer and published several non-fiction titles, including Spy-Tech.

Yost began writing for television in 1989 on the Nickelodeon series Hey Dude. Next, he joined the writing staff of Full House (where he only lasted nine-and-a-half weeks). The day after he quit, he learned that his script for Speed had been sold to Paramount (it was later produced by 20th Century Fox). In 1991, Yost wrote for Norman Lear’s The Powers that Be, where he worked with the show’s creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane (later of NBC’s Friends). His comedy series writing credits also include Herman’s Head.

His feature film credits include Broken Arrow, starring John Travolta, Hard Rain, Mission to Mars and The Last Castle.

As a producer, Yost won Emmy® and Golden Globe® Awards for the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. In addition, Yost garnered an Emmy® nomination for writing the episode Apollo One, and he directed the fifth segment of the critically-acclaimed series. Yost later wrote/co-wrote two installments of the Golden Globe® and Emmy® Award-winning HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.

In 2002, Yost created the critically-lauded TV series Boomtown for NBC. Cancelled in the fall of 2003, the late-lamented Boomtown was honored with a Peabody Award and two Television Critics Association awards. In 2006, Yost created Raines starring Jeff Goldblum for NBC. It aired in spring 2007.

Yost won an Emmy® Award for The Pacific, HBO’s epic miniseries following three Marines through the Pacific theater of World War II. Yost directed and co-wrote an episode and served as co-executive producer.

Yost is an Executive Producer on the FX series The Americans, the critically-lauded spy drama created by Joe Weisberg (who worked with Yost on the first season of TNT’s Falling Skies).

Until the spring of 2015, Yost was the show runner on Justified, the Sony-produced series on FX, starring Timothy Olyphant, based on a character created by America’s pre-eminent crime novelist Elmore Leonard.

Yost is currently the show runner on Sneaky Pete for Amazon. Starring Giovanni Ribisi, Margo Martindale, and Marin Ireland, the show was created by David Shore and Bryan Cranston.