[3] While working as an actor in New York, Chicago, and at revered institutions such as Yale Rep[4] and San Francisco's ACT,[5] Jenkins began writing plays.

[7] His first play, middlemen, received international acclaim and has been produced in Chile and Norway after debuting with his company, Human Animals, where it was directed by his future wife, Josie.

[10][11] Jenkins created and wrote TBS science fiction comedy series People of Earth, which ran for 2 seasons from 2016-17.

[14] He was inspired to create the show after a conversation with his wife led him to the Wikipedia pages of real-life pirates Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard, who were written to have sailed together.

[16][17] Viewers were drawn to the show's unique charm that subverted the genre and defied people's expectations of queerbaiting in media by depicting multiple canonically queer couples.

[20] In September 2022 the show began filming in Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Jenkins has confirmed that he directed the first episode of season 2 in addition to his existing duties.

Despite a vigorous online fan campaign aimed at reversing the cancelation, Jenkins confirmed in 2024 that the series will not live on at Max or anywhere else.