Goldman was raised in a liberal, middle-class family in north London, the only child of a Jewish father and a Buddhist mother. She attended the King Alfred School in Hampstead until the age of 15 before moving to the United States to follow Boy George on tour. Upon her return to the UK, she took a job as an entertainment reporter with the Daily Star. When she was 16, she met TV presenter Jonathan Ross. They married in 1988, when Goldman was 18 years old. The couple have three children: two daughters and a son.

Alongside her husband, broadcaster Jonathan Ross, Goldman appeared as a character in Neil Gaiman’s short story The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch in 1996. Gaiman is a personal friend of the couple.

She made the jump to screenwriting, and was part of the writing team for David Baddiel’s short-lived sitcom Baddiel’s Syndrome, in 2001. Later, she co-wrote the screenplay of Stardust (2007), based on the novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman and directed by Matthew Vaughn. Gaiman introduced Goldman to Vaughn to provide the director some help with the adaptation process. The film received many accolades and gave the screenwriters a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.

Between 2003 and 2004 she had her own television series. Jane Goldman Investigates researched the paranormal and was transmitted by channel Living between 2003 and 2004. Goldman is also in the production teams of a number of TV shows, such as The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.

She continued to work in adaptations, and was also a co-writer with Vaughn and Peter Straughan for the 2011 drama-thriller The Debt, which was based on the 2007 Israeli film HaHov and directed by John Madden. Goldman also adapted for Hammer The Woman in Black, based on Susan Hill’s horror novel. This film was directed by James Watkins and it is the first solo screenplay by Goldman. It was released in 2012 and met positive reviews. In March 2013, The Woman in Black won the Empire Award for Best Horror.

Goldman is attached to various upcoming projects, including Nonplayer, an adaptation of the sci-fi comic book by Nate Simpson for Warner Bros.; and a rewrite of the Pinocchio screenplay originally written by Bryan Fuller, She is also involved in adaptation of Anubis, based on a science-fiction/comedy short story by Paul Murray. On 6 December 2017 it was announced Goldman would write a screenplay for Disney’s live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid with Rob Marshall being eyed to direct.

In May 2017, HBO announced Goldman was one of four writers working on a potential pilot for a Game of Thrones spin-off. In addition to Goldman, Carly Wray, Max Borenstein, and Brian Helgeland were also working on potential pilots. Goldman has been working and communicating with George R. R. Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the series of novels upon which the original series is based. Game of Thrones showrunners D. B. Weiss and David Benioff would also be executive producers for whichever project is picked up by HBO. In June 2018, it was confirmed that Goldman’s pilot had been greenlit by HBO, and would focus on “the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour”, thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones. In late October 2019, it was announced that HBO would not be moving forward with the pilot.