In the mid to late 1980s, Sandler portrayed "Smitty" on The Cosby Show (1985-1989). He also was a performer for the MTV game show Remote Control, on which he made appearances as the characters "Trivia Delinquent" or "Stud Boy."

Sandler started performing in comedy clubs by spontaneously taking the stage at a club in Boston. He was then discovered by comedian Dennis Miller, who caught Sandler's act in Los Angeles. Miller immediately recommended him to Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels. Sandler was hired as a writer for "SNL" in 1990 and became a featured player the following year, quickly making a name for himself by performing amusing original songs on the show, including The Chanukah Song. He left the show in 1995 to focus on his acting career.

Sandler's first starring vehicle was the cult classic Billy Madison, in which he plays a grown man repeating grades 1-12 to earn his father's respect - and, more importantly, the right to inherit his multi-million dollar hotel empire. He followed this movie up with other surprisingly successful comedies such as Happy Gilmore (1996) and The Wedding Singer (1998). After The Waterboy (1998), Sandler reached box-office superstardom, where he has remained since.

Although most of his earlier films were almost universally despised by movie critics, many of his recent films starting with Punch-Drunk Love have received almost uniform positive reviews, this has led many movie critics to believe that Sandler posseses considerable acting ability that had been previously wasted on poorly written scripts. Audiences have remained faithful to Sandler's slapstick humor to the tune of $100-million-plus grossing movies. Sandler has moved outside the genre of goofball humor to take on more serious parts such as the critically acclaimed Punch-Drunk Love (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe), and Spanglish. At one point, Sandler was considered for the part that went to Jamie Foxx in Collateral (2004). He will return to more dramatic faire with Mike Binder's Reign O'er Me, a drama about a man who lost his entire family in 9/11 and rekindles a relationship with his old college roommate (Don Cheadle). There have also been whispers of him appearing in Quentin Tarantino's long-anticipated World War II epic Inglorious Bastards [1].

Sandler has his own production company, Happy Madison, named from two of his most popular early films.

Sandler played Satan in Dirty Work, and the son of Satan in Little Nicky.

Since Chris Farley's death, in Adam Sandler's movies there is usually a reference to Farley.