[2] Atkins appeared in London's West End in his youth, but primarily made his career in Ireland at the Belfast Theatre and its satellites at Newry, Derry and Sligo.
[3] He was acting at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin from the early 1760s, and in the latter years of the decade was involved with James Parker's company in Belfast.
In 1783 Atkins oversaw the construction of a new, larger theatre in the city's Rosemary Lane and starred the rising actress Anne Brunton there.
He headlined the actor Montague Talbot, and engaged Sarah Siddons play opposite him on fourteen nights in 1802.
[6] In August 1803 Atkins gave the child actor Master Betty his first professional appearance in Belfast, before he went on to stardom in London.