Tony Pemberton was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1966. He is a graduate from the State University of New York at Purchase with a BFA in film in 1990, and later the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts: Bard College with an MFA in film in 1993. He is also known for acting the role of the Young Genet in Todd Haynes' Poison.

Cited in Variety as One of Ten Directors to Watch in 2000, he has previously shown films at The Anthology Film Archives, the Kino Museum in Moscow, Russia, The Whitney American Museum, and the Clemens Center for the Performing Arts in Elmira, NY, as well as various festivals in America and Europe. His past and future projects have been awarded funding from The Princess Grace Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Arts Matters and Arts Link. Being a fan of foreign films as a genre, he dreamed of being on the other side of the world making one of these films for himself.

Thus was born the idea of Beyond the Ocean. In order to make this film, he moved to Russia and now continues to work between there and New York, planning more international projects.

Before his first feature Beyond the Ocean, Tony Pemberton mostly directed experimental and documentary films. His complete filmography is the following:

* Description of a Struggle (1993) 23min. Experimental Film.1995 Humboldt International Film Festival Winner.

* Paradise Is (1991) 19min. Experimental Film. Received the Jonas Mekas Award at Humboldt Film Festival 1992. Best Experimental Film at the Baltimore Film Festival 1992.

* Mel Kendrick (1988) 13min. Documentary film. Distributed by Museum of Modern Art, NY, NY.

* Chucky Killed Himself: He couldn't Swim (1986) 18min. Experimental Film.