Before becoming involved with film, Genz attended Designskolen Kolding, where he studied graphic design,[1] after giving up on an earlier dream of being a painter.
[2] While there, he did some work with video, and a chance meeting with director Arne Bro encouraged him to pursue film as a career.
[1] He followed it in 2005 with Chinaman (Danish title: Kinamand), a romantic comedy about a man who takes a foreign wife in an arranged marriage so that she can obtain permission for residency, and then falls in love with her.
[1] Genz returned to his roots in 2008, adapting (with Dunja Gry Jensen) a novel by fellow Gram native Erling Jepsen into the film Terribly Happy.
[5] It won numerous awards, including the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.