Tanya then rose to prominence when her TV career began in 2000, after being cast in the Channel 5 soap opera Family Affairs as Karen Ellis.

[4] Franks continued in the soap opera for three years, with storylines including a cancer scare, infertility, surrogacy, and a child custody battle, before leaving the series in 2003.

[6] Franks was cast as Karen, a promiscuous, raunchy, aggressive primary school teacher, who drinks heavily and is not suited to her job, for which she was nominated at The British Comedy Awards in 2009.

[citation needed] In July 2007, it was announced that Franks would play the role of Tanya Branning's (Jo Joyner) sister, Rainie Cross in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders for a week-long stint from 2 August 2007.

[16] In 2013 she toured as Irene Adler in the new mystery "Sherlock Holmes: The Best Kept Secret",[17] and played the title role in Bertolt Brecht's "The Good Person of Sichuan" at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester.

[18] In 2016 Tanya co-starred at The Menier Chocolate Factory in The Truth written by Florian Zeller and adapted by Oscar winning playwright Christopher Hampton.

Following its sell-out run the production transferred to the Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End[19] and was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.

[20] In 2023 she starred in the national tour of the newly rewritten production of Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s “Calendar Girls the Musical” as the lead role of Annie.

[21] Following that, in 2024, Tanya played Dean Amy Katz, a Harvard University professor, in the UK premier of “The Power Of Sail” at the Menier Chocolate Factory, written by Paul Grellong.