Tanner S.

I’ve spent two decades creating stories for blue-chip brands that delight viewers, readers, and listeners. I’m equal parts creative and data-driven, strategic and operational, macro and micro. I love building innovative digital campaigns packed with ambitious storytelling, big ideas, and canny partnerships. After an accomplished career as a writer-editor at Entertainment Weekly and content executive at Apple, HBO and Rivian, I’m now a consulting brand content & editorial expert. My approach to content is informed by my training and background as a journalist. I believe in delightful, insightful, and honest content, rooted in reality. I excel at working with great, open-minded designers. My career began at Entertainment Weekly. After graduating from Drake University’s magazine program, I launched my career at Entertainment Weekly, rising from editorial assistant to staff editor over a seven-year tenure in NYC and LA, writing several cover stories and thousands of other stories across print and web, and hosting a weekly radio show, Bullseye Hour, on Sirius’ EW Radio. I published an entertainment-pegged career-advice book, Find Your Inner Ugly Betty, in May 2008 via Kaplan. During my publishing years, I also freelanced for Cosmopolitan, The Knot and Figure and previously worked at Teen People, the New York Post and ON DIRECTV. After leaving publishing, I landed as Director of Digital Content at HBO Digital & Social Media. I led development of marketing content—you name it, from video and text to AR, VR and voice—for the HBO brand and programming. The HBO campaigns I worked on were widely recognized for their imagination and innovation, garnering me multiple Emmy, Cannes Lion, Webby, Clio and Promax awards. I love big ideas and unforged paths, and I prioritize a “let’s try it” mentality that led to complex, stunning work on shows including Game of Thrones, Westworld, Big Little Lies, Girls, The Leftovers and more. After HBO I entered the tech world, leading content initiatives at Apple and Rivian. I was on the launch team of Apple TV+, leading a small team focused on designing new ways of telling television-centric stories for fans across Apple TV and the company’s ecosystem of media products. At Rivian, I was brought on to build a content marketing practice for the high-growth electric vehicle start-up, creating rigor around cross-channel campaigns, touting everything from vehicle launches and product updates to subscription services and partnerships, before and after the company’s IPO, the sixth largest of all time.