Tony Tost
Birthdate: Jul 27, 1975
Birthplace: Springfield, Missouri
Tony Tost is one of the few American moviemakers who has also been a poet (with two published volumes, including the award-winning Invisible Bride (2003) and Complex Sleep (2007) and literary critic and literary magazine editor for Fascicle and Octopus Magazine, and has also been producer/writer of A&E’s (and then Netflix’s) successful contemporary Western series, Longmire (2012-2017). Tost has also been a creator, showrunner, or executive producer for USA Network/Netflix’s Damnation (2017-2018), AMC’s The Terror (2019), and Peacock’s Poker Face (2025).
Tost made his feature debut as director/writer of the crime thriller, Americana (2023), starring Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Simon Rex, Eric Dane and Zahn McClarnon, premiering at the 2023 edition of the South by Southwest Film Festival and released wide two years later—despite strongly positive reviews—by Lionsgate.
Personal life
Tony Tost was born in Springfield, Missouri, and raised in Enumclaw, Washington, by his parents, who were elementary school custodians—sister and brother. Tost worked as a teenager and graduated from Green River Community College (in Auburn, Washington) and the College of the Ozarks in Missouri. Tost graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas and then earned his Ph.D. in English from Duke University.
Known For
Facts About Tony Tost
Working Life: Tony Tost was working full-time as early as 15 years old, taking on work in fast-food, retail, cleaning hotels, dishwashing, janitorial, and in a pickle factory.
Dissertation: Tost wrote his doctoral dissertation at Duke University on the poetics of the leading modernist writers, including Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein.
Author, Author: Tony Tost published a book in 2011 on Johnny Cash’s 81st album, titled American Recordings, for Continuum Books’ 33 1/3 series about individual albums.
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