Cornish was educated at the independent Westminster School in central London, where he became friends with both Adam Buxton and Louis Theroux.

The best-known segments featured hit feature films recreated with stuffed toys, British television shows parodied using Star Wars action figures, and Vinyl Justice, in which the pair invaded rock stars' homes and searched their record collections for embarrassing records.

[3] Since the end of The Adam and Joe Show, Cornish has continued to work in British television and radio as a presenter, writer and director, both with and without Buxton.

They include Cornish following the making of Little Britain series 2, which was screened on BBC Three and is included on the Little Britain Series 2 DVD; a video diary of his brief cameo as a zombie, which appears on the UK Shaun of the Dead DVD; and Hot Fuzz: The Fuzzball Rally, where he followed his friends and collaborators, Edgar Wright, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg on the US press tour for their film Hot Fuzz.

According to an interview in Word Magazine, he pulled out of directing the series of Blunder due to creative differences with Channel 4 and the production company.

The film is a science fiction action horror comedy set in South London that pitches a gang of youths against an alien invasion.

The film initially had no US distributor, but after the reaction of the press and attendees at the SXSW premiere,[9] the US rights were purchased by Screen Gems for theatrical release on 29 July 2011.

In June 2012, it was announced that Cornish had been signed as director of a future film adaptation of Neal Stephenson's classic 1992 novel Snow Crash for Paramount Pictures.