The Tony Bennis Full Bio begins in New York City where Tony grew up – in Manhattan just off of Broadway near 96th Street – with his parents, Martin and Diana – and his siblings John and Valerie, who are twins. 
John and Vali were his best friends growing up and even though they are four years older they always seemed to include Tony in their activities. His parents inspired Tony with their caring, sensitivity, and work ethic. Diana was a Holocaust Survivor who spent 4 years on the run as a child during WW II before arriving in New York when she was 10. Martin was in training and about to be shipped overseas when WW II ended. Both his parents authored books, Martin’s about accounting and Diana wrote three books on child therapy. New York City provided easy access for kids to be independent and he spent many Saturdays roaming the neighborhood with his brother, and on Sundays his father took the kids on different adventures throughout the city. He generally enjoyed school and learning – and played basketball, football, and baseball. While in high school, he began his media career by editing together humorous commercials that were played over the PA system in the morning and were designed to boost attendance at the baseball games. During his senior year he worked on a movie version of The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, produced by his classmate Michael Kartzmer. His first full-time job was at an ice cream shop inside Grand Central Station, initially working there during the day and attending college at night before going up to the Boston area and finishing school there.
While attending college, Tony worked as an intern in the sports and news departments at WBZ-TV. When his internship was completed, he served as a recruiter and trainer for prospective and new interns. Upon graduation, he was hired as an assistant director at WBZ-TV where he worked on all news, public affairs and specials. 
Next, Bennis worked as a production assistant and segment producer for the WCVB-TV late night program, Five All Night Live All Night with Matt Siegel. At the same time, he also worked as a fundraiser for the Massachusetts Public Interest Group. He then served as the media director for the nonprofit organization Group Against Smoking Pollution which advocated for nonsmoking areas in public places at a time when there were none. Tony generated significant positive media coverage for GASP and for the issue. When he was 24, Bennis was hired to be the regional Program Director for Time Warner Cable Television in the Boston area. The local station produced news, sports, public affairs, health, and entertainment programs. Bennis and his crew won awards for producing local commercials. At 26, Bennis was hired as the Production Manager and then Program Director for Cablevision in the Boston area. Under his leadership at Cablevision the station won or was nominated for several local and national awards for original television programs in the categories of news, public affairs, entertainment, and overall excellence for several years in a row. He also teamed up with Dean Huh, Andre Stark, and Mark Curelop to co-produce and direct the pilot episode of the TV show “Jack and Jill” starring Stan Egi.
Bennis then launched Synergy Media Partners as a media company producing content and providing marketing services for clients. In handling the marketing and public relations for several clients, 
Tony generated major positive media coverage in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, nationally via the Associated Press – and on National Public Radio, CBS-TV, MTV – and numerous other national and large market print and broadcast media. Bennis also reunited with Jimmy Myers, the former sports anchor at WBZ-TV, to create the highly engaging sports-entertainment talk show, Sports Exchange with Jimmy Myers. Sports Exchange featured Jimmy Myers talking with top sports figures and was recorded in front of a live audience at the Boston Garden Sports Cafe. Guests included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Len Dawson, Dennis Eckersly, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, and dozens of others. Sports Exchange, which aired in the 1990’s, earned several Emmy and ACE award nominations. André Stark served as a producer and Rich DiPirro was the director. Bennis and Myers also teamed up with Jack Farrell to create the board game, NBAopoly, and successfully approached the NBA for a licensing deal. The game was launched in Boston with a special event with Boston Celtics’ captain Reggie Lewis who autographed the game board for everybody who purchased the game. Similar in-store events were conducted in Salt Lake City, Utah – New York City – and other locations with NBA stars from the local teams autographing the game and taking Polaroids.
During that time, Bennis also joined up with Betty Fulton of Commonwealth Promotion to help produce the CollegeFest Way More Weekend. Bennis served as Marketing and Sales Director creating interactive promotions with such companies as GUESS, Ford Motors, Sony, Reebok, NBC, MTV, and dozens of others. 
CollegeFest was a weekend long expo in Boston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia that grew to become the largest entertainment and marketing expo that brought thousands of area college students to catch live music, meet TV celebrities (ie Jon Stewart), check out new products from hundreds of brands targeting the college demo – and mingle with each other. Tony was able to generate a massive amount of major media coverage both targeting young adults and the business community.
Working again with writer/producer, Dean Huh, Bennis collaborated to direct a special for Showtime on the Hasty Pudding Awards, starring Tom Hanks and Michelle Pfeiffer – hosted by Joyce Kulhawik and featuring John Berman (now a CNN anchor). The one-hour show was edited by Don Packer. Bennis then worked with the the parent company of the Boston Phoenix newspaper and radio station WFNX 101.7 – the Phoenix Media/Communications Group on launching a new internet dating website, People2People.com. While handling the marketing of personal ads in a group of newspapers and serving as a sales director for their national newspapers personals business, Bennis was part of the team that created People2People – winning awards for his ad campaigns marketing the personals.
In 2001, Bennis joined again writer/producer Dean Huh and with Dean Barnes, a Hollywood based director, to co-produce their original feature film, BY THE SEA. Filmed principally in Rhode Island – and also New York, Massachusetts, and California, BY THE SEA is a mystical romance dramatic comedy which won dozens of film festival awards – and was nominated for 3 Imagen Awards (Latin American Oscars), including Best Picture, Best Actress (Elena Aaron) and Best Supporting Actor (Chris Rivaro). 
BY THE SEA also starred Robert Pemberton, Tony V, Jimmy Tingle, Tori Davis, Duncan Putney, and André Stark. Bennis then agreed to work with Radio One and Program Director Rick Anderson to launch the Jimmy Myers radio show “Talk To Me” on Boston’s WILD 1090 AM radio. WILD had gone through a series of format changes when Bennis accepted the project of producing the new morning drive talk program with Jimmy Myers. Airing daily from 6am to 10am, “Talk To Me” quickly exceeded the goals of Radio One, covering the news topics of the day and creating special features such as “Tantrum Tuesday.” The program frequently had leading political figures, major athletes, activists, artists, health experts, and a steady stream of callers. Myers and Bennis created some of the most powerful radio ever in Boston when they produced Mother’s Day and Father’s Day programs with live satellite phone links to a Marines base in Fallujah, Iraq so American soldiers could salute their parents on Mothers and Fathers Day. When Radio One suddenly sold WILD 1090 AM, the Jimmy Myers radio show moved to the new WTKK 96.9 “Talk FM,” where Bennis and Myers continued to produce ground-breaking radio and more specials with the Marines. These specials generated widespread praise and media coverage.
While producing “Talk To Me,” Bennis was approached by a group of four prominent music artists who had just come together to form the super group, 4Peace. Antonio Ennis, Deric Quest, Edo G, and Wyatt Jackson collaborated on a new song, Start Peace, designed to quell the youth gun-violence crisis in Boston and other major cities. Bennis took on the role of Manager and Marketing Director for the group – handling their media appearances and producing music videos, documentaries, and video dramas all promoting a brighter future for youth. Start Peace became a hit song and popular music video, directed by Michael King, that included scenes filmed inside the Suffolk County jail and featured appearances by the Sheriff Andrea Cabral and Mayor Thomas Menino. The next 4Peace video project, Mandatory Sentence, was produced for the Department of Justice and Stop Handgun Violence and was designed to shed light on mandatory sentencing guidelines. The half-hour special dramatized a situation that led to a young man being sentenced to a mandatory minimum 15-year federal prison sentence. It received awards from the Roxbury International Film Festival and Department of Justice. Start Peace earned an award from the Reebok Human Rights Foundation.
Continuing in the area of youth gun-violence prevention, Bennis was then hired as Producer and Director for the documentary film, Jahmol’s Vision for Youth Peace in 2008. Bennis recruited Michael King to be the Director of Photography and Editor – and Deric Quest to be the Music Supervisor and Associate Producer. The gritty documentary focused on Jahmol Norfleet, a charismatic teenager in Boston who had turned his life around and was leading a citywide youth peace movement. Jahmol developed a six-point peace plan for youth in Boston and began meeting with the Mayor – but then tragedy occurred. The documentary followed Jahmol’s younger sister, 
Teah and Jahmol’s friends as they struggled to try and follow through with Jahmol’s vision. The documentary was executive produced by the City Mission Society of Boston and the Jahmol Norfleet Peace Foundation. The film premiered at the Roxbury International Film Festival where it won the award for “Best Teen Film.” The film also was nominated as Best Film for Teenagers by the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media – and won Best Documentary at the Boston International Kids Film Festival. While working on “Jahmol’s Vision,” Bennis connected with Teen Empowerment, a Boston-based nonprofit that hires teenagers and trains them to become Youth Organizers promoting positive change in their community. Bennis then produced and directed a series of videos for Teen Empowerment, the Martin Luther King Summer Scholars program, Boston Cares, and Zoo New England. He then collaborated with Boston Rising and Teen Empowerment to produce and direct Grove Hall: Pride and Promise – a documentary focusing on the Grove Hall neighborhood of Boston. The Grove Hall film premiered at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts as part of the Roxbury International Film Festival.
During this period Bennis also reconnected with Betty Fulton of Commonwealth Promotion, the producer of CollegeFest, for her new venture – the sustainability expo, Down 2 Earth or D2e. Bennis handled the marketing and public relations for the environmental event generating media coverage in major Boston media and nationally. Some of the special participants at D2e included environmental activist and actor Mayim Bialik who had just filmed her first episodes for The Big Bang Theory, author and climate expert Bill McKibben, and NPR Radio host Robin Young. While working on D2e, Bennis met singer and songwriter, and Berklee College of Music instructor, Livingston Taylor who was being managed by Betty Fulton. That led to Bennis handling the public relations for Livingston, promoting his new book Stage Performance, and also directing a series of behind-the-scenes videos, including one that was filmed primarily in Taylor’s 4-seat airplane. After seeing that video, writer/producer Duncan Putney recruited Bennis to be the Director of Photography and Editor for his educational film, Half Pint, which was co-produced by André Stark. Half Pint tells the story of a 13 year-old boy who visits a World War II museum and then during an electrical storm is transported back in time to Normandy, France and ends up assisting a team of American soldiers on a mission during the D-Day invasion. Half Pint was filmed on location in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. It premiered as part of the Rhode Island International Film Festival and later earned Putney a best screenplay award.
In 2014 and 2015, Tony collaborated with Dean Huh, André Stark, Chris Rivaro, and Andrew Huh to produce the HOLA Awards television specials recognizing the best Hispanic actors, presented by the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors. The lively TV specials covered the awards ceremony and entertaining backstage interviews conducted by Chris Rivaro and Serena Ayala. The programs featured Andy Garcia (Ocean’s Eleven), Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty), Hector Elizondo (Last Man Standing), Cierra Ramirez (The Fosters), Benicio Del Toro (Traffic), Selenis Leyva (Orange is the New Black), Andrea Navedo (Jane the Virgin), Pedro Pascal (Narco), Marisa Ramirez (Blue Bloods), Danny Burstein (Boardwalk Empire), Dascha Polanco (Orange Is the New Black), and telenovela stars Lupita Ferrer and Daniel Arenas. Dean Huh was the writer and lead producer while Bennis was the director and editor of the both specials. The programs were filmed in at Battery Gardens in New York City, in Los Angeles, and also in Colombia.
At a film industry event in 2008, Bennis overheard producer/director Roger Lyons talking about a documentary film project he had slowly been working on but was now wanted to go full speed ahead with. 
The story was so compelling and connected with Tony on a personal level. So, Tony offered to join Roger on the project. It took ten more years to complete, but ETCHED IN GLASS: THE LEGACY OF STEVE ROSS became a stunningly powerful documentary film. “Etched in Glass” tells the incredible true story of Steve Ross, who survived 5 horrific years in 10 Nazi concentration camps as a boy during World War II – ultimately being rescued at the end of the war by an American soldier who should the boy kindness and gave him a tiny American flag, which rekindled young Steve’s spirit to live. Steve Ross ended up in Boston where he became a psychologist working in the projects and saving the lives of hundreds of youth at risk. Ross spoke out against racism and bigotry – founded the New England Holocaust Memorial, and spent 67 years searching for that American soldier who had helped him. “Etched in Glass” was filmed in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and California and took so many years, in part, because the dramatic conclusion of the film didn’t happen until twelve years after Lyons began working on the film. Etched had it’s world premiere in late 2017 and won “Best Documentary” awards at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and Boston Jewish Film Festival. It was also nominated for a New England Emmy Award for best documentary. Following the release of the film, a book version of the Steve Ross story was published by Hachette.
As the 2020 begins, Bennis has recently completed co-directing and editing the emotional and powerful music video, I BELIEVE YOU. Tony’s sister, Vali Bennis wrote a poem last year and then with her friend, Karen Jacobsen, turned the poem into a song. Karen then wrote the music and performed the song. 
Then Tony and Vali collaborated to direct and edit the music video – which has received widespread praise as a song that helps survivors of unwanted behavior find healing and empowerment. I BELIEVE YOU was filmed in New York City and in the Boston area. Joe Neil was the lighting director, 2nd camera – and still photographer. Recently, Bennis also created an advertising and marketing campaign, “The Greatest Yankee Ever In Boston Is…?” – produced with Jimmy Myers and André Stark. The commercials spoof the rivalry between Boston and New York – the Yankees and Red Sox all in a way that promotes the Yankee Lobster wholesale seafood market and restaurants in Boston. Bennis also has re-connected with Roger Lyons to begin work on a documentary about Robert Brustein, the legendary figure in the theater world who founded the Yale Rep Theater and American Repertory Theater – and launched the careers of many major actors in the world of theater, television, and film. And Tony is also enjoying his life with Lynn!
Samples of Tony Bennis Videos are available on the Videos page. And here is the Tony Bennis listing on the Internet Movie Database – IMDB. That’s the Tony Bennis Full Bio for now.