During his college days Van Dis was already working as editor with the NRC Handelsblad and after graduating he remained connected to the paper until 1982, working for the Saturday Supplement. His debut novella "Nathan Sid"" came out of a regular cooking column in which he wrote about his memories of food. Those memories were strongly connected to the struggles between his parents - between the potatoes and the rice. Publisher J.M. Meulenhoff turned these contributions into a short book. Van Dis had little confidence in its success, but it was received with great enthusiasm, and received the Gouden Ezelsoor literary prize for best sold debut in 1984.
In 1983 Van Dis also made his debut as television presenter and became known in the Netherlands through a literary talk show. This show aired until 3 May 1992. From 1999 until 2002 he returned to host a television show entitled "Zomergasten", with which he ended, according to himself, his TV career.
Adriaan van Dis is a prolific writer whose work is very popular in The Netherlands, where he is a household name. In 2008 he decided to briefly resume his television career with a 7 part series entitled "Van Dis in Afrika" in which he reported on his travels to Southern Africa. The series won the "Zilveren Nipkowschijf".
Adriaan van Dis's work includes novels, novellas, short stories, essays, poetry and plays. His work can largely be divided into three categories. The first part is inspired by his many travels to China, Africa, Japan, Morocco and Mozambique amongst others. Examples of such work include ""Casablanca" (1986) and "In Afrika" (1991). The second part of his work concerns his Indies youth, like "Nathan Sid" (1983), "Indische Duinen" (1994) and "Familieziek" (2002). The third category include the novels about emerging homosexuality, which includes "Zilver" (1988) and "Dubbelliefde" (1999).
Dualism is an important theme in the work of Van Dis. His books are rife with antitheses, such as black/white, social/anti-social and heritage/own identity. His style, which was praised even at the publication of "Nathan Sid", is often light and imple. That simplicity is often deceptive and necessary to touch on subjects of a controversial and/or delicate nature, such as traumas of war, discrimination and abuse.