Josh was born in the United States, but his subsequent upbringing and career have seen him shuttle back and forth to England, where he now makes his home.  Before he entered the television and film industry, he worked as a freelance journalist, covering arts and politics for the Los Angeles Daily News and the San Francisco Chronicle, amongst others.  He was hired to write and design a pilot of a new entertainment industry weekly for film publicists Parker Public Relations, and also wrote and designed a major fundraising campaign for the Los Angeles Theatre Center, the biggest theatre company in the United States at that time.

 

In the late eighties, Josh began working in development for the Samuel Goldwyn Company in Los Angeles.  As the prime distributor of British and European movies at that time, it gave him a good perspective on the differences between the British and the US market.

 

Subsequently, he moved to England where he worked for BBC Films as a script editor on numerous tv and feature films including 'Circle of Friends' and 'The Young Poisoner's Handbook'.  He went on to work on drama series including the hit BBC1 series 'Cardiac Arrest', and drama serials including the Emmy-award winning 'Two Lumps of Ice'.

 

In 1995 he produced 'Saigon Baby' for the BBC, starring John Hurt, which the Sunday Times pronounced "excellent" and the Daily Mail "stunningly convincing".  It sold in over 25 territories and showed at numerous film festivals.  In 1997 he produced 'Mothertime' which was hailed as "outstanding" by The Times, "thoroughly entertaining" by the Independent, and "a lovely piece of work" by the Guardian.  It won the Gold Special Jury award for best Theatrical Feature Film at the Flagstaff International Film Festival, and received the highest ratings for any drama when it aired over Christmas on the BBC. 

 

Through this independent production company he developed 'La Guerre des Moutons' which aired on France 2 and 'The Escapist' which was produced by Sky/Little Bird.

 

In 1999, he returned to America, and over the next two years co-produced three documentaries for the national PBS network: 'The Human Face of Medicine' and 'An American School', which aired as part of their prime-time election coverage, and won a regional Emmy; and 'Perfect Illusions', a documentary about eating disorders, on which he was also co-writer.

 

Strangely, this change in genre made him reflect more deeply on the structure and principles of drama; and out of this period of reflection he developed his hugely successful courses on Screenwriting for Films at Central St. Martin's College, where he is an Associate Lecturer.  He is now one of the UK's busiest screenwriting teachers and script consultants.

 

He is currently conducting a series of workshops on story structure for BBC Radio drama, and has recently written a series of articles on screenwriting, from the producer's point of view, for the New Producers Alliance magazine.  He recently gave an address on Stanley Kubrick's screenwriting to the Kubrick Festival at the Barbican in London, and premiered his seminar on 'Maverick Screenwriting' at Raindance in 2008, followed by a new workshop on 'The Craft of the Beat Sheet' in 2009.  His book on 'Maverick Screenwriting' will be published by Laurence King Publishing in 2010.  He also writes regularly for BAFTA's 'Academy' magazine.

 

Recently, Josh has been experimenting with new technologies and production methods, including HD and widescreen S-16.  He produced the technically demanding one-shot reel directed by Guy Ducker for the portmanteau feature film 'Nineliveslondon', currently in post-production, and two other projects directed by Guy - a widescreen teaser for 'Breakdown' (one of the features they are developing together), and a short 'Lover's Lane', which premiered at the Barbican, London, screening twice weekly with Mike Leigh's 'Happy Go Lucky', and has recently been picked up for international distribution.

 

In Summer 2009 he plans to shoot the UK/Swedish co-production'The Grass is Greener', written by Brian McGill.  He also has a substantial and varied slate of other feature and television projects in development, many developed with new talent.