Dapo Adeniyi started his career on radio and television. His first play was broadcast on BBC World Service in 1986. He also became a British Council Fellow in Downing College, University of Cambridge in 1994. He was appointed to write the television adaptation for the famous childhood memoir by Wole Soyinka entitled Ake by the Nigerian Television Authority, which he eventually adapted for film and directed and screened in Lagos and Cannes in 2016.

He has also been a prominent name in Nigerian literature and journalism and has translated indigenous literature to English and also served as editor for arts and culture for the Nigerian Times. He was a visiting editor to The Times Literary Supplement of London.