diff --git a/rest_framework/fields.py b/rest_framework/fields.py
index 6caae9242..144cfb6df 100644
--- a/rest_framework/fields.py
+++ b/rest_framework/fields.py
@@ -973,6 +973,8 @@ class FileField(WritableField):
         return data
 
     def to_native(self, value):
+        if api_settings.PREPEND_MEDIA_URL:
+            return settings.MEDIA_URL + value.name
         return value.name
 
 
diff --git a/rest_framework/settings.py b/rest_framework/settings.py
index 38753c968..d47ec15dd 100644
--- a/rest_framework/settings.py
+++ b/rest_framework/settings.py
@@ -119,6 +119,9 @@ DEFAULTS = {
 
     # Pending deprecation
     'FILTER_BACKEND': None,
+    
+    # Prepending MEDIA_URL to FileField
+    'PREPEND_MEDIA_URL': False,
 }