He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a signature editing style that includes transitions, whip pans and wipes.

[5] Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, he directed many short films, first on a Super-8 camera that was a gift from a family member and later on a Video-8 camcorder that he won in a competition on the television-programme Going Live.

These films were mostly comedic pastiches of popular genres, such as the super hero-inspired Carbolic Soap and Dirty Harry tribute Dead Right (which was featured on the DVD release of Hot Fuzz).

[7] Wright made his feature film debut in 1995 with a low budget, independent spoof western, A Fistful of Fingers, which was picked up for a limited theatrical release and broadcast on the satellite TV channel Sky Movies.

In an interview with journalist and author Robert K. Elder for The Film That Changed My Life, Wright attributes his edgy and comedic style to his love for An American Werewolf in London.

[10]In 1998 writer/actors Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes were in the early stages of developing their sitcom Spaced for Channel 4 and thought of asking Wright to direct, having fondly remembered working with him on the 1996 Paramount comedy Asylum.

Wright gave Spaced an unusual look for the sitcom genre, with dramatic camera angles and movement borrowed from the visual language of science fiction and horror films.

[11] Instead of shying away from these influences Wright makes an active effort to show his referencing, adding a 'Homage-O-Meter' to all of his releases, a device that displays each directorial nod he has made during shooting.

In 2002, he made appearances as a scientist and a technician named Eddie Yorque during both series of Look Around You, a BBC-programme created by a member of the Spaced cast, Peter Serafinowicz.

He also made two brief appearances in Spaced, one in which he can be seen, along with other crew members on the series, lying asleep in Daisy Steiner's squat as she prepares to leave for her new house.

The trilogy was named "The Three-Flavours-Cornetto-Trilogy" by the pair due to a running joke about the British ice cream product Cornetto and its effectiveness as a hangover cure.

Wright explained to Clark Collis in an interview for Entertainment Weekly, "We put that joke in Shaun of the Dead where Nick asks for a Cornetto first thing in the morning.

It revolves around Pegg's character, Nicholas Angel, a police officer who is transferred from London to rural Sandford, where grisly events soon take place.

It took in roughly half its budget in box office,[16] in spite of its critical reception and praise from fellow directors such as Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and Jason Reitman.

The film stars Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Eiza González, Jon Hamm, and Jamie Foxx.

[33] Other confirmed crew members include co-screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns, editor Paul Machliss (who edited four episodes of Spaced in 2001 and all of Wright's films since Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and Baby Driver production designer Marcus Rowland.

[39] In 2020 it was announced that Wright had formed a production company with his longtime collaborators Nira Park, Joe Cornish and Rachel Prior, Complete Fiction.

That same day, it was reported that the production company had signed a deal with Netflix to tackle adaptations of Lockwood & Co., The Murders of Molly Southbourne, and The City of Brass.

[40] In April 2022 Wright was appointed to the British Film Institute's Board of Governors for a four-year term, saying he was "excited to see what I can do to help promote their incredible efforts in curating, preserving, producing and educating".

Wright also mentioned Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II and the Coen brothers' Raising Arizona as films that made him want to be a director.