[3] Espiner Jr. began his career at the University of Canterbury, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and a diploma in journalism.
[4] He spent ten years as a newspaper journalist, including a stint as political editor of the Sunday Star Times, before transitioning into television with TVNZ in 2003.
At the end of 2011, Espiner left TVNZ to join the reporting team of TV3's current affairs programme 60 Minutes.
[6][7] In 2014, Espiner left television and took over co-hosting of the prominent daily news programme Morning Report on Radio New Zealand National with Susie Ferguson.
[8] He left hosting duties in 2019 and now works as an investigative journalist for Radio New Zealand and continues to write for Listener Magazine.