"[10][13] The family eventually moved back to Sewell, New Jersey, where Esmail graduated from Washington Township High School in 1995.

[18][11] After graduating he briefly worked for an internet start-up, before founding his own ISP software company called Portal Vision.

[5] At age 20, he raised US$6 million in venture capital funding during the dot-com boom but the software quickly became outdated when broadband internet began replacing dial-up.

[15] He left his position as president and chief technology officer to briefly attend Dartmouth College's creative writing program.

He worked as an assistant film editor for a few years and was eventually able to establish a career as a post-production supervisor of behind-the-scenes features and television specials;[21][22][23] his work included helping to edit episodes of reality television shows for Lifetime and A&E and stand-up specials for Comedy Central, HBO's documentary series Tourgasm and HBO First Look,[24] and "the making of" features for The Fast and the Furious franchise, as well as supervise the 2010 A&E documentary The Battle for Late Night.

[19] After this, he was able to find representation in Hollywood and began working more as a screenwriter;[26] he wrote another screenplay that also landed on the Black List the following year and co-wrote the horror film Mockingbird with writer Bryan Bertino, which was released in 2014.

Robot Originally intending it as a follow-up feature film to Comet, Esmail began working on the technological thriller Mr.

In early 2017, Esmail was called on by Universal Pictures to produce a film centered around the Bermuda Triangle, but production has since not been carried through.

[36] In 2018, Esmail worked on creating the television show Briarpatch with journalist and producer Andy Greenwald, who previously hosted the Mr.

In February 2019, it was announced that Esmail had signed his company to a four-year exclusive deal with Universal Content Productions with whom he had already produced Mr.

In 2019, it was announced that Esmail was developing a limited series with Emmy Rossum for the NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock based on the Los Angeles pseudo-celebrity Angelyne.

[39] In September 2020, Esmail sold two dramas to ABC;[40] in January 2021, a pilot was ordered for the first of those shows, Acts of Crime, but was not picked up by the network.

[41][42] In February 2020, it was also announced that Esmail would be producing a new television series with Homecoming collaborator Julia Roberts based on the Slow Burn podcast's coverage of the Watergate scandal.

[44] Also in 2020, it was announced that Esmail would direct a film adaptation of the novel Leave the World Behind for Netflix starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke and Myha'la Herrold.

[47] In November 2021 Peacock announced that Esmail is also developing a series for the Battlestar Galactica franchise for NBCU with Michael Lesslie as showrunner.

[51] In March 2022, Apple ordered to series the television adaptation of the 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis, to be written, directed, and produced by Esmail.

[58] Other projects in various stages of pre-production include a miniseries based on an ensemble comedy False Alarm produced with Paul Feig, and a Coast Guard-centered procedural.

[67] Esmail is fluent in Arabic, notably giving part of his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes in the language.