Early career Tanz worked as a Senior Associate at
Mercer Management Consulting (now named
Oliver Wyman). He left Mercer to become the Director of Strategy and Operations for
AOL Time Warner. At AOLTW, he was also a founder of
Netscape Netbusiness. He remained with AOLTW until 2000. as well as documentaries like
First Descent and
Running the Sahara. Tanz also executive produced other television series including the reality show
American Start-Up. While there, Tanz described many of his digital projects as allowing audience members to determine the degree of involvement they want in the stories being told, describing the method as providing a "treasure hunt for waders, swimmers, and divers"—indicating the varying level of interaction an audience member could have with the story. Tanz remained with LivePlanet until the shuttering of its film division in 2008.
Agility Studios In 2008, Tanz co-founded Agility Studios, along with Scott Ehrlich and Keith Quinn. Agility Studios is a multiplatform production. Among the projects Tanz produced at Agility was
The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers by Jon M Chu. They started the firm with $7 million in venture capital funding. Shannon Pruitt also joined the firm, which specialized in digital content.
Vuguru In December 2009, Tanz was hired as the president of Vuguru, as Vuguru became a stand-alone entity (after the joint investment by
Rogers Media and
Michael Eisner's The Tornante Company).
Variety said of his role that in addition to overseeing the scripted television and web series Vuguru produced, "A big part of Tanz’s job will be enlisting sponsorship and finding creative ways to work with brands to help finance the various series." Tanz was promoted to the role of CEO and president in February 2012. During his tenure as CEO, Tanz expanded Vuguru's investment in long form scripted web series. Tanz further expanded business into long form television series, hiring the former president of programming at
Comedy Central Lauren Corrao. He discussed the further success of digital-first programming after the first Emmy nominations for digital programming in 2013 in an interview with
Bloomberg News, stating, "Remember, it wasn’t that long ago when cable shows weren’t even eligible to win Emmys or be nominated. And now, cable entirely dominates the Emmy’s. So, we’re now seeing it be repeated again with digital."
Netflix In November 2014, Tanz was hired by Netflix as Vice President of Content Acquisition for Europe. He was then elevated to the position of VP, Global Television. In this job, Tanz has commissioned several television shows from the UK market. ==Philanthropy==