Goold was born in Highgate, England (a suburb of north London). His father was a management consultant, and his mother was an author of children's books. He attended the independent University College School, graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1994 with a First in English literature and studied performance studies at New York University on a Fulbright Scholarship. He was trainee Director at Donmar Warehouse for the 1995 season, and assisted on productions including 'Art' and Speed-the-Plow in the West End.
Goold directed Patrick Stewart (whom he had previously directed as Prospero, and later in Richard II) as Macbeth in his acclaimed Minerva Studio staging of Macbeth at the Chichester Festival Theatre in May 2007. In September 2007 the production transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London, then the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York and then to the Lyceum Theater on Broadway. At the 2007 Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Macbeth won two awards: Stewart won the Best Actor Award, while Goold won The Sydney Edwards Award for Best Director. It also won Goold a 2008 Olivier Award for Best Director. He says he wasn't concerned with thoughts of a career anti-climax. "I came home to an empty house after the Olivier Awards, clutching my trophy for Best Director and I realised that I'd peaked. It was now going to be downhill all the way. But I still felt quite comfortable with the realisation that nothing could get better after this." He later directed a 2010 BBC4 television film version of Macbeth using Soviet-era Russian-type uniforms and weapons.
In 2008 he directed the UK premiere of Stephen Adly Guirgis's The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and a radical re-interpretation of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author at the Chichester Festival which he co-authored with Ben Power. This production subsequently transferred to the West End and toured the UK and later Australia. In 2009 he directed a hugely acclaimed West End revival of Lionel Bart's Oliver!. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, Goold recreated Sam Mendes' direction for the London Palladium production, which was nominated for three Olivier Awards.
In 2009, Goold directed a revival of Shakespeare's King Lear at the Young Vic. Goold set his "Lear" in Northern England during the 1970s, fascinated by the fact that during this decade, Britain was enduring the power of women. He approached the play with a drastically different view, and as a result this production received mixed reviews. In 2009 he again won Best Director at the Evening Standard Awards for ENRON.
Since 2010 Goold been an associate Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Goold was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to drama.
