Graham Yost, on a speedy Hollywood Road

There are few shows where the characters and plots leap off the screen, and you invariably become a part of their world. And you are mildly intrigued by the brilliant writers that came up with these genius ideas. Graham Yost is one such writer.

So, who is Graham Yost? Only the screenwriter of one of the greatest blockbuster and masterpiece Speed.

For Graham, son of the late Elwy Yost, the long-time host of TVOntario’s Saturday Night at the Movies, choosing a career in movies was more of an obvious next step than a leap. Growing up in a household where discussions on movies and books were a daily part of his life, the spark for story telling was lit very early. In fact, Graham often jokingly states, “If I had said to my parents, I want to be a doctor or a lawyer, they would have said, are you sure? Are you sure you don’t want to be a writer?”

But the journey to Hollywood for this young writer from Etobicoke, Toronto was a long road etched in hard work, luck, and pure passion for visual storytelling. After his stint in University of Toronto, he moved to New York where he, like any aspiring screen writer took any paid writing work he could find (Facts on File, Soap Opera, Encyclopedia Britannica). His first paid screenwriting job came from Nickelodeon for a show called Hey Dude. Followed by a less than desirable 10-week tenure in Full House, where an unsatisfied Graham started working on his Speed script.

With Speed, Graham had truly and comfortably arrived in Hollywood. It catapulted him to have audience with some of the biggest studios in the filmland. What followed were a series of some hits (Broken arrow, Hard rain, Mission to Mars) and misses (The Last Castle, Young Arthur).

In 2002, Graham returned to TV with his critically acclaimed action-drama series Boomtown. Though it failed to draw in significant audience, it did its job – show the big bosses, Graham could create impactful Television series. A fact fully cemented with his next venture creating the series, Justified.

Graham had fully established himself in the Television land and went on to be executive producer on shows like The Americans, Sneaky Pete and Slow Horses.

Most of Graham’s story are deeply rooted in characters with inherent humanism that make them both immensely relatable and charming. Especially his villains – they are multi layered characters and when they start peeling these layers, you can’t decide whether to love them or hate them. Be it Howard Payne in Speed or Boyd Crowder in Justified – they are all men with humane stories and they all like to talk.

One cannot but wonder whether Graham’s fertile writing ability stems from his famous father’s nurturing and Graham, himself never misses an opportunity to express his father’s influence in his craft. He recently was quoted saying,” the great part about being his son, is that while he was never shy about sharing his feelings, he let me develop my own opinions. That’s a valuable skill to be able to bring into the writers’ room today.”