Joshua Graham, formerly known as the Malpais Legate and later the Burned Man, is a fictional character in the post-apocalypse video game franchise Fallout. Graham is first mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas as a mythological background character, before being introduced as a central character in its 2011 downloadable content pack Honest Hearts. He also would have appeared in Van Buren, the original Fallout 3 developed by Black Isle Studios under Interplay Entertainment, but the game was cancelled in 2003.

Joshua Graham was written by Chris Avellone for Black Isle Studios' intended third Fallout game, at the time codenamed Van Buren. Called the "Hanged Man", he would have been one of a number of recruitable companions and the strongest of them all in terms of combat and gameplay statistics but would've made it extremely difficult to negotiate and communicate with other non-player characters due to his status as a notorious criminal, inspired by DC Comics character the Unknown Soldier. He was intended to be an evil character in regards to acts he committed before the events of the game. In retrospective, New Vegas game director Josh Sawyer saw him as a man without purpose and without a character arc save for a few key moments. He further commented in retrospect that while his attempts to laugh off others controlling him coupled with the characterization provided by others in-game could have provided interesting storytelling, he felt it instead ended at "nasty guy who says and does creepy stuff and is a badass".

When development began on Fallout: New Vegas for Obsidian Entertainment, many ideas were carried over from the original Van Buren concept, among them Graham. Sawyer chose to rewrite the character concept for Graham because he felt the "wow so crazy" character archetype were not particularly interesting or insightful as they existed more in the realm of fantasy. Instead, he wanted characters that influenced the player's perception to feel more human, feeling that if the player could not put themselves in the shoes of that character it would be harder to empathize with them. Graham's characterization drew from various elements, such as Paul the Apostle, Robert de Niro's character in the film The Mission, and Lawrence of Arabia. When asked how a character like Graham could still claim to be Christian after all he had done and experienced, Sawyer responded by citing the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Regarding his characterization in the story, Sawyer had wanted to illustrate a religious conflict for some time that was not pro-religion versus anti-religion. While early versions would have had Graham in direct conflict with another character, Daniel, with Joshua behaving more aggressively, he felt this would have made for poor storytelling. Instead he chose to approach it as the pair against an external threat, and the player being given two bad decisions. Initially too he had wanted the player's meeting with Graham to feel reductive, as during the course of the game they would hear his legend, only to be disappointed as they would find him inspecting his guns, the equivalent of finding him "putting on his pants one leg at a time".

Some of the development team objected however, wanting to have Graham be a demonic image in his introduction, but Sawyer wanted him to be "a man first and the monster later". To satisfy that reaction he added graffiti on the path to meeting Joshua portraying him as a large figure crushing a tribe, comparing it to Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son, a figure "dwarfing and destroying everyone around him". Graham's role as a legend also caused some problems when writing Daniel, who was portrayed instead as a normal man in the situation. Further complications arose from both characters being Mormons, as it was not normally a pacifist religion. While Sawyer felt players would naturally side with Graham due to the nature of Fallout being "violence first", he was surprised by the emotional connections players made during the Honest Hearts story in their decisions to side with him.

Graham is a heavily burned man covered from head to toe in bandages with the exception of his eyes across the bridge of his nose. He wears a SWAT bulletproof vest with markings from the Salt Lake City Police Department, with a white shirt underneath with rolled up sleeves and a black band around the right arm. His legs are covered by worn jeans with the left knee missing, while he wears a snakeskin belt and matching boots on his feet. Graham is armed with a Colt M1911 pistol with a snakeskin grip named "A Light Shining in Darkness", with the model of the gun serving as a tie to his Mormon heritage.

Graham's low-collar white shirt, sleeve garter, and the cut of the ballistic vest were meant to give his character an "old west"/preacher aesthetic according to Sawyer, along with the use of snakeskin on his attire and gun. Stitched patterns in his shirt were meant to reflect his relationship with the Dead Horses tribe, but also reflect a scene from The Mission. Additional inspiration came from singer P.J. Harvey's White Chalk tour, where she had lyrics stitched in black thread on her white dress. For his character animations, Sawyer brought in his own unloaded Colt M1911 pistol to show animator Seth McCaughey how to properly reload and inspect the weapon, which he incorporated into the game.

Keith Szarabajka voiced the character, and was almost passed over for the role. Sawyer had wanted to sit in on the casting decisions for characters he wrote but was unable to for the first day of submissions for Graham. When the developer who had taken his place provided them, he had suggested passing on Szarabajka, who had a cold and the audio was recorded on a windy day. While Sawyer felt the recording was rough, he still decided to cast him in the role as he "could tell immediately that he was going to knock Joshua Graham out of the park".