Joshua Brand was born to a Jewish family and raised in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York City.
[2] He graduated magna cum laude from City College of New York, after which he was given a fellowship to Columbia University, where he received a Master of Arts degree with honors in English Literature.
[3] Brand's early television career was spent writing scripts for MTM Enterprises' The White Shadow, where he and John Falsey met.
He and Falsey then wrote and produced Amazing Stories for Steven Spielberg and the Emmy winning miniseries A Year in the Life before developing their other two signature series.
[4] In an unprecedented move by Public Broadcasting, PBS bought the rights to I'll Fly Away and rebroadcast the series in its entirety in the leadup to their original two-hour movie based on the show.