The Adam and Joe Show was an ironic pop culture Sketch show written, presented and directed by the duo. The show found cult success during its four series between 1996 and 2001. The best-known segments featured hit feature films recreated with stuffed toys, British television shows parodied using Star Wars action figures, and Vinyl Justice, in which the pair invaded rock stars' homes and searched their record collections for embarrassing records.
In 2001, he fronted the topical discussion show This Week Only, alongside Nick Frost and Lauren Laverne.
He wrote and presented the BBC Radio 4 film programme Back Row between 2002 and 2003. In 2007, he made a brief appearance in Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz as a white suited and bemasked Scenes-of-Crime Officer named "Bob". In 2017, he made a cameo in Star Wars: The Last Jedi alongside Wright, where both played Resistance fighters.
He has recently been involved with several non-comedy projects. In 2006, he was announced as co-writer on a feature film adaptation of the Marvel Comics comic book character Ant-Man, with Shaun of the Dead Director Edgar Wright. Both Wright and Cornish received story by and screenplay credit on the finished film, after Wright's departure from the project in 2014. Wright and Cornish also rewrote Steven Moffat's script for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, co-starring Simon Pegg, for Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. In November 2013, Cornish was tipped to be J.J. Abrams' lead choice for Director of the upcoming Star Trek Beyond. However, Roberto Orci was ultimately chosen to direct, before leaving the project in late 2014.
Cornish has continued his work in television comedy, directing parts of the pilot of Modern Toss, and the pilot to Channel 4's Blunder. According to an interview in Word Magazine, he pulled out of directing the series of Blunder due to creative differences with Channel 4 and the production company. In early 2007, he directed the video for Charlotte Hatherley's single "I Want You to Know".
On 13 May 2011, Optimum released Attack the Block, Cornish's directorial debut, which was executive produced by his friend and collaborator, Edgar Wright, and produced by Film4, Big Talk Pictures, The UK Film Council and StudioCanal. The film is a science fiction action comedy horror film set in South London that pitches a gang of youths against an alien invasion. The film initially had no US distributor, but after the reaction of the press and attendees at the SXSW premiere, the US rights were purchased by Screen Gems for theatrical release on 29 July 2011.
