Fred Golan, an Ohio native, began his writing career in 1986, when he won a grant from the American Film Institute to direct a short film from his own script, Time, Space and Mr. Shapiro.

In television, Golan wrote for series as diverse as the CBS legal drama Michael Hayes, starring David Caruso, and the syndicated Ghost Stories. In 1997, he landed a staff job on the USA crime drama, The Big Easy. More television drama credits followed, including The Others, for Steven Spielberg and NBC, Brimstone for FOX, and Roswell for The WB.

In 2002, Golan first worked with Graham Yost as a writer on the Peabody Award-winning NBC drama Boomtown. Their collaboration continued on two subsequent network pilots, as well as Yost’s NBC detective drama Raines, starring Jeff Goldblum, and now FX’s Elmore Leonard drama Justified.