Joseph began his professional career working in advertising and as a private equity trader on Wall Street. In 2007, he produced a live performance art piece in New York City that he entitled "Zeitgeist." A film version was created and released by Joseph online and went viral with millions of views. It became the first in a trilogy of films produced by Joseph, the others being Zeitgeist: Addendum and Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, released in 2008 and 2011 respectively.
In 2009, Joseph founded The Zeitgeist Movement, a self-described "sustainability advocacy organization." It was originally started as the "activist arm" of an organization called The Venus Project, launched by Jacque Fresco in 1994. In 2011 the two organizations separated. Joseph's work with the Movement and the Trilogy has been the subject of national media attention to include articles in The New York Times, The Palm Beach Post, VC Reporter, and TheMarker.
Since 2011, Joseph has supported the Occupy Movement. As a proponent of Occupy Wall St, he gave public speeches in both New York and Los Angeles.
Joseph is the owner of Gentle Machine Productions LLC, a production company that has released many of his projects, including the Zeitgeist film trilogy. It also is responsible for the production of Culture in Decline, a web series launched by Joseph in 2012, as well as Joseph's new feature film project: InterReflections.
Peter Joseph directed a "short-film" music video for the heavy metal music group Black Sabbath, entitled "God Is Dead?" The film had its world-premiere screening at the band's June 6, 2013, album release in Hollywood's Harmony Gold Preview Center. The music video film is largely composed of symbolism extracted from Joseph's Zeitgeist trilogy, coupled with layers of imposed archival imagery of the band.
In March 2017, BenBella Books published The New Human Rights Movement authored by Joseph. Abby Martin discussed his views in the book and generally in an interview on Telesur (TV channel).
