Josh Pate was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and is the twin brother of fellow filmmaker Jonas Pate.^[3][4] He received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1992.^[5]

In 1996, Pate began his screenwriting career, working alongside his brother Jonas on the thriller called The Grave.^[6][7] The film received a wide range of positive reviews after a screening at the Sundance Film Festival.^[8] They collaborated on the movie Deceiver the following year.^[9] "The Pate brothers" subsequently created the fantasy action television show Good vs Evil (1999).^[10][11] He later moved on to direct two episodes of Fastlane (2002-2003).^[12][13] From 2003 to 2004, Pate served as co-executive producer on L.A. Dragnet, for which he also wrote two episodes.^[14][15]

In 2005, he co-created the science fiction series Surface, which aired until 2006.^[16][17][18] The same year, he also co-directed the Chris Isaak music video "Please",^[19] and an episode of Friday Night Lights.^[20] He continued his film career by co-writing the screenplay for The Take (2007).^[21][22] From 2007 to 2008, he held the position of consulting producer on the paranormal romance television drama Moonlight.^{[23][24][25][26]}

Pate was an executive producer for the 2012 comedy fantasy film Mirror Mirror.^[27][28] He also signed on to co-write—with his brother—the independent crime drama film Way Down South.^[29][30]

• Josh Pate at IMDb