His mother, Dr. Lillian Sandra Baum, was a psychiatrist, and his father, Frederick Haworth Tenney, was a research physicist.

[7] From 2005 to 2012, Tenney played Special Agent Fritz Howard, the husband of Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) in TNT's The Closer.

When The Closer ended he continued to act in its spin-off, Major Crimes, from 2012 to 2018, with Howard becoming an LAPD deputy chief in the third season.

[8] Later, he portrayed Dr. Simon Craig, a love interest of Nora Walker (Sally Field) in Brothers & Sisters.

[11] Tenney appeared in several films, including the villainous CEO of Benbrook Oil Company in Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home and the friend of Alex Whitman (Matthew Perry) in Fools Rush In.