Wilkinson was born to Brian and Stella Wilkinson on 2 May 1975.
Wilkinson started his career in 2004 at his local pub. His local was holding an "open mic" evening and decided to give it a go so he signed himself up. Since 2008, he has appeared more than 1000 times on television and has performed many stand up shows on his tour: "Joe Wilkinson: My Mum's Called Stella and My Dad's Called Brian" and at venues such as the Edinburgh Fringe and the Bloomsbury Theatre.
In 2006, Wilkinson won the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year.
Since 2010, Wilkinson has appeared in a number of television shows. In 2010, he played various characters in Robert's Web for the first series. He also appeared in the 2010 TV movie, England's Worst Ever Football Team. He appeared on The Rob Brydon Show, The Wright Stuff, Show & Tell, Comedy Lab and My Funniest Year. He played a major role in Him & Her as Dan Perkins—the lonely, socially awkward neighbour to main characters Becky and Steve.
Wilkinson has performed two major tours: My Mum's called Stella and my Dad's called Brian and The Joe Wilkinson Experience. Both tours have received mixed reviews, but those for The Joe Wilkinson Experience exceeded those of My Mum's called Stella and my Dad's called Brian. In an August 2011 review for My Mum's called Stella and my Dad's called Brian, Steve Bennett said, "There's just enough to earn Wilkinson three stars, but it's a close call for a Comedian who always seems to attract industry attention but never really comes up with the goods to make an impact."
Since 2012, Wilkinson has made regular appearance on the 8 Out of 10 Cats spin-off show, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. He usually appears in the second half of the show where he stands in as Rachel Riley's assistant. His main roles throughout each episode involve his appearing in a dressing-up costume and making humorous comments towards the contestants and Rachel Riley in his usual deadpan, tongue-in-cheek manner. In 2012, during the special episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Deal or No Deal, Wilkinson made a special appearance as the banker's assistant.
In 2014, Wilkinson appeared in a commercial for Hellmann's Mayonnaise with Sue Barker and Brian Blessed, and in 2015, Wilkinson began voicing ads for Hotels.com.
He married Petra Exton in July 2015 and lives in Brighton. Wilkinson has been very open about how his life has been "boring" and states that it has been useful in giving him material for his stand-up tour and comedies.
In 2016, he starred in the Sky 1 series Rovers which he co-wrote with David Earl. He was also a contestant on the Dave comedy game show series Taskmaster.
