Graham John Yost (born September 5, 1959) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

film and television screenwriter. His best-known works are the films ''

Speed In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...

'', '' Broken Arrow'', and '' Hard Rain'' and the TV series '' Justified'' and ''

Silo A silo () is a structure for storing Bulk material handling, bulk materials. Silos are commonly used for bulk storage of grain, coal, cement, carbon black, woodchips, food products and sawdust. Three types of silos are in widespread use toda ...

''.

Early life, family and education

Yost was born in

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River (Ontario), Humber River, on the ...

in the Toronto metropolitan area. He is the son of Canadian television personality Elwy Yost, the longtime host of the public broadcaster

TVOntario TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian Public broadcasting, publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates ...

's '' Saturday Night at the Movies''. He graduated from the

University of Toronto Schools University of Toronto Schools (UTS) is an independent secondary day school affiliated with the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school follows a specialized academic curriculum, and admission is determined by a written exam ...

and Trinity College at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

Career

Yost wrote for the TV sitcom '' Herman's Head'' and the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

miniseries '' Band of Brothers''. In 2002, he created the television drama series ''

Boomtown A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although t ...

''. He created the short-lived

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

drama ''

Raines ''Raines'' is a seven-episode American police procedural television show starring Jeff Goldblum as a police detective who hallucinates the victims whose murders he is investigating. Created by Graham Yost, the series was short-lived, airing ...

'' (2007). Yost teamed with

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

and

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

, along with two of his fellow ''Boomtown'' writers Michelle Ashford and Larry Andries, to write and direct episodes of the HBO miniseries '' The Pacific''. Yost is the creator and executive producer of the FX series '' Justified''. He was an executive producer on the FX show ''

The Americans ''The Americans'' is an American historical drama, period spy fiction, spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg for FX (TV channel), FX. It aired for six seasons from 2013 to 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also served as showrunners ...

''. In 2016, he took over as head writer and executive producer of the

Amazon Studios Amazon MGM Studios is an American film and television production and distribution company owned by Amazon, and headquartered at the Culver Studios complex in Culver City, California. Launched on November 16, 2010, it took its current name on O ...

series ''

Sneaky Pete ''Sneaky Pete'' is an American black comedy crime drama television series created by David Shore and Bryan Cranston. The series follows Marius Josipović ( Giovanni Ribisi), a released convict who adopts the identity of his cellmate, Pete Murph ...

''. In May 2014, it was reported that Yost would develop a project for

WGN America WGN America was an American subscription television network that operated from November 9, 1978 to February 28, 2021. The service was originally uplinked to satellite by United Video Inc. as a national feed of Chicago independent station WGN-T ...

. Based on the Alex Kershaw book ''Avenue of Spies'', it would be set in Nazi-occupied Paris at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

In May 2021,

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...

announced that Yost would serve as showrunner and executive producer for the science fiction series ''

'' based on the dystopian book series of the same name by Hugh Howey.

Awards and nominations

Yost won two

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

s for his involvement in the miniseries ''From the Earth to the Moon'' and ''The Pacific'', which was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award. He also won a Golden Globe for his work on the HBO miniseries ''Band of Brothers'', for which he was one of the writers.

Personal life

Graham Yost is married to Connie F. Yost.

Filmography

Film writer *''

'' (1994) *'' Broken Arrow'' (1996) *''

Firestorm A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires. Although the term has been used ...

'' (1998) (rewrite) *'' Hard Rain'' (1998) *'' Mission to Mars'' (2000) *''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes c ...

'' (2001) (uncredited) *''

The Last Castle ''The Last Castle'' is a 2001 American action film, action Drama (film and television), drama film directed by Rod Lurie, starring Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo and Delroy Lindo. The film portrays a struggle between inmates and ...

'' (2001) * '' The Grizzlies'' (2018) TV series TV movies

References

External links

*
Graham Yost
at filmreference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Yost, Graham 1959 births Living people Canadian male screenwriters People from Etobicoke Screenwriters from Toronto Trinity College (Canada) alumni University of Toronto alumni Canadian male television writers Canadian television writers Canadian television producers Showrunners 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian screenwriters 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers