Hynes's gothic novella Say Nothing Saw Wood, inspired by a true story of a grisly murder that happened in his hometown in 1971, was adapted to the big screen under the title Cast No Shadow, and went on to receive numerous accolades on the festival circuit. Hynes was awarded the Michael Weir Award for best Atlantic Screenwriter at the Atlantic Film Festival and was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In Cast No Shadow, Hynes plays opposite his real life son Percy Hynes White. White won numerous accolades for his portrayal of Cast No Shadow's young, disturbed protagonist Jude Traynor, including the Rising Star Award at the Edmonton International Film Festival and the Best Actor Award at the Atlantic Film Festival.
His debut novel Down to the Dirt won the Percy Janes First Novel Award, was shortlisted for the Atlantic Book Award and the Winterset Award, and was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the ReLit Award. The novel was subsequently adapted into the film Down to the Dirt, in which Hynes also played the lead role. The unabridged audiobook edition of Down to the Dirt narrated by Johnny Harris, Joel Thomas Hynes and Sherry White was recorded by Rattling Books in 2006. Down to the Dirt has been translated into numerous languages and adapted to stage.
Hynes was named Artist of the Year by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council in 2008, has received the Lawrence Jackson Writer's Award, the Summerwork's Theatre Festival's Contra Guys Award, and also in 2008 won the Cuffer Prize. He has also played recurring characters on Republic of Doyle, Orphan Black, Mary Kills People and Frontier.
He has released two albums - JTH Live at the LSPU Hall and 2018's Dead Man's Melody', a concept album that loosely follows the story of a doomed relationship that ends in murder and mayhem with the album's main character barricaded inside a house, unabashed, determined to go out in a hail of bullets. The album was produced in Toronto by Eamon_McGrath.
