In this study, acetylated methyl cellulose (AMC) was successfully used as a support layer of thin film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membrane. A selective polyamide active layer, interfacially polymerized, was coated on top of various substrate layers. The structure and performance of the TFC FO membrane based on the AMC substrate were compared with those of TFC FO membranes with different polymeric support layers. The experimental results showed that the AMC FO membrane performance was better than other FO membranes due to its characteristic morphology and lower back diffusion rate of salts.