Jonathan Goldstein
Born in New York City to two educator parents, Jonathan Goldstein didn't set out to become a comedy writer. After graduating from the University of Michigan he went on to Harvard Law School, then worked as a corporate attorney for three years before deciding to chuck it and head for Hollywood. Once in Los Angeles, he found quick success, landing writing work on "Big Wolf On Campus" (ABC Family, 1999-2002), the Eddie Murphy animated comedy "The PJ's" (Fox, 1999-2001), and the sitcom "The Geena Davis Show" (ABC, 2000-2001). It was on "The Geena Davis Show" that Goldstein met his future writing partner, John Francis Daley, who was an actor on the show. Their collaboration first bore fruit in form of the script for a feature film, "The $40,000 Man," that was purchased by New Line in 2007. Although that film was never produced, the pair went on to write an episode of "Bones" (Fox, 2005-), the crime procedural on which Daley co-starred. The duo hit box office gold with their film "Horrible Bosses" (2011), which became the highest-grossing black comedy of all time. Although the follow-up "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" (2013) did not fare as well, it was announced in 2012 that the pair would write and direct a reboot of "National Lampoon's Vacation," with Ed Helms playing a grown up Rusty Griswold and Christina Applegate as his wife. The proposed film ended up being shelved over a dispute with the studio about ratings. In the meantime, Goldstein and Daley wrote the family-friendly animated sequel, "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2" (2013) and a follow-up to their breakthrough hit, "Horrible Bosses 2" (2014). Goldstein and Daley's next project was the screenplay for mega-blockbuster "Spider-Man: Homecoming" (2017).