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Son of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas D. Pemrick, Donald attended LaSalle Institute in Troy, New York, and graduated from St. Lawrence University.
He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and one of the founding members of the Casting Society of America.
Donald Paul Pemrick began his entertainment career in 1980 as the Casting Assistant on Columbia Pictures' feature film Annie, based on the popular Broadway musical. Working with Academy Award-winning director John Houston, Donald managed auditions for nearly 12,000 young girls across ten open calls nationwide. A year later, he joined BCI Casting as an assistant/associate for renowned Casting Director Barbara Claman and her partner Marc Schwartz, working on numerous feature films, television movies, pilots, and series including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which launched River Phoenix's career. In 1983, Donald left BCI with Marc Schwartz to form Marc Schwartz Casting (MSC). He became the casting director for the beloved television comedy Three's Company and worked on pilots for ABC, NBC, CBS, the Aaron Spelling series Dynasty, and the CBS series Emerald Point NAS. He also cast many Movies of the Week starring TV favorites such as Valerie Bertinelli and John Ritter, becoming the youngest prime-time casting director for network television at the time.
Milt Hamerman, Head of Casting at Universal Television, noticed Donald while working on two spin-offs of the comedy series Too Close for Comfort. Impressed by Donald’s fresh casting approach, Hamerman offered him a staff position at Universal Studios Television, where Donald again became the youngest person to hold such a role. There, he cast pilots including The Equalizer and several series such as Charles in Charge, created by Emmy Award-winning producer Sherwood Schwartz, and The George Burns Comedy Week, created by Steve Martin.
In 1985, Donald transitioned to feature films, leaving Universal to join Cannon Films, led by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, where he cast nearly a dozen feature films. In 1986, he founded Donald Pemrick Casting, allowing him to cast independent films worldwide, including in Europe, Africa, and the Philippines.
In 1988, Donald returned to television, moving to New York City as a Casting Consultant for NBC Television while continuing to cast independent features. At NBC, he sought new talent for pilots and series, auditioning future stars such as Matt Damon, Adam Sandler, Matt LeBlanc, and Marisa Tomei. One independent film during this period was the Lord of the Flies remake, where he conducted an East Coast search, auditioning over 1,000 young actors across eight states.
In the early 1990s, Donald accepted a Casting Director position in Los Angeles with the independent film company I.R.S. Media, Inc., founded by music legend Miles Copeland and partner Paul Colichman. I.R.S. Media was among the first independent companies to empower writers and directors to create the films they envisioned. Donald cast over twenty-five films for I.R.S. highlights include the cult classic Shakes the Clown starring Bobcat Goldthwait, Adam Sandler, and Robin Williams; One False Move, directed by Carl Franklin and starring Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton, which was chosen as the #1 film of the year by Siskel & Ebert and received five Spirit Award nominations along with the Board of Review's Best Film; and the Oscar-nominated Tom & Viv, starring Willem Dafoe, Rosemary Harris, and Miranda Richardson. He also produced three films for I.R.S.: the critically acclaimed World War II coming-of-age drama December, starring Balthazar Getty, Wil Wheaton, and Jason London, as well as the martial arts films Rage and Honor and Rage in Honor II, shot on location in Indonesia. Independently, he cast films featuring future Academy Award winners Colin Firth in Playmaker and Charlize Theron, who was Taft-Hartleyed in Children of the Corn III.
In 1994, Donald hired Dean Fronk as his Casting Assistant at I.R.S., and by 1995, they formed Pemrick/Fronk Casting (PFC) alongside their film company Ataraxia Entertainment. Over the next 18 years, Pemrick/Fronk cast more than 400 projects including studio films, series, pilots, animated films, television movies, new media series, and best-selling CD-ROMs such as Diablo II and Warcraft III. They cast nearly 70 television movies aired on Lifetime, Hallmark, ABC Family, Nickelodeon, and SyFy Channel. Their feature films span genres from Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses to the animated holiday classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Dreyfuss, as well as family favorites Universal’s Beethoven III and IV. PFC’s television credits include the FOX family series Mowgli, The New Adventures of the Jungle Book, the CW’s Kamen Rider: Dragon Knights, and Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story, which received nine Imagen Award nominations. They also produced the feature film Freestyle, starring Corbin Bleu.
Some of today’s brightest film and TV stars had their early roles in indie films cast by Pemrick/Fronk, including Jessica Alba, Shia LaBeouf, Eva Mendes, Naomi Watts, Rainn Wilson, Miranda Cosgrove, Ian Somerhalder, Milo Ventimiglia, Ryan Reynolds, Scarlett Johansson, Stana Katic, Leighton Meester, Josh Holloway, Josh Hutcherson, Ben Foster, and Chris Pine.
Donald Pemrick and Dean Fronk received Artios Award nominations for their independent Sony Pictures film The Lodger in 2009 and for the short film License to Reproduce in 2011. They also won the 2009 Heller Award from the Talent Manager’s Association for Best Feature Film Casting Director. Donald Pemrick remains an active member of the Television Academy and the Casting Society of America.
