NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Isac Kalsky

Isaac Kalsky (Instructor) is a 3D Animator with over 10 years of digital media experience. He has created animations for advertising agencies, film, television and fine art companies. Isaac teaches animation, rigging, and motion capture at the New York film Academy.

Emir Kapetanovic

Emir Kapetanovic is a Los Angeles-based, award-winning film director and educator with 15 years of experience in film production and education. He holds an MA in Directing from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Kapetanovic’s work spans feature films, socially engaged documentaries, and sketch comedy shows. His films have been shown at festivals around the world as well as Istanbul Modern, the State Department, and the United Nations in New York.

He has taught filmmaking programs to students across the US and Europe. He was a visiting artist at Columbia University, George Washington University, the University of Florida, LMU, Pratt Institute, and the College of William and Mary. He is a member of the European Film Academy.

Krysanne Katsoolis

Krysanne Katsoolis has over 20 years of experience in financing, producing and distributing film and television properties. She is an entertainment attorney and recently launched a media venture, Liquid Media Group, on NASDAQ.

Prior to Liquid Media Group Katsoolis formed film sales company Cargo Entertainment which specialized in International distribution of feature films up to $15M including The Angriest Man in Brooklyn with Robin Williams and Zipper with Patrick Wilson. Katsoolis founded Cactus Three for the production of high end non-fiction films such as The Cove and The March, executive produced by Robert Redford. Prior to this Katsoolis served as Head of Acquisitions and Business Affairs for Winstar New Media Company, Inc., the content arm of Winstar Communications, a publicly traded (NASDAQ) provider of broadband communications services and content. At its peak the company had a market capitalization in excess of $4.4 billion and revenues of $445.6 million.

Krysanne was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia Law School and after graduating went on to start her career at Miramax Film Corp and Fox Lorber Associates, two of the main players in setting the paradigm in aggregating film and television content for worldwide distribution. She has worked as an Executive Producer on over fifty films and series along with Academy and Emmy Award winning directors.

Rachel A. Kaufman

Rachel A. Kaufman is a multi-instrumentalist Brooklyn native who has music directed and/or played for well over 300 musicals and cabaret shows world-wide. She has been thrilled to be part of NYFA’s wonderful faculty since 2013. Theater credits include: Off-B’way: Tale of Two Cities (10th year reunion concert), Goldstein (with Julie Benko & Megan McGinnis), A Taste of Things to Come (Lorin Latarro, dir.); Tours: Rent, Phantom of the Opera, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Smokey Joe’s Café; Regional: Tom Jones (North Shore), Hallelujah, Baby! (Arthur Laurents, dir.) Rachel can also be seen playing for auditions, improv comedy groups, at churches, synagogues, piano bars, and restaurants. She has worked with such Broadway greats as Donna McKechnie, Baayork Lee, Hinton Battle and Pat Birch, just to name a few. Rachel holds a B.A. in Music (and Russian) from the University of Chicago

Phil Kaufmann Associate Chair of Performing Arts Department

MFA in Acting, Yale School of Drama; BA in Drama, Dartmouth College. TV appearances on “Law and Order”, “Harry’s Law”, “The Mentalist”, as well as many commercials. Director of several short films, including pilot presentation, “Intelligence” and Emmy-nominated short-form series, “Send Me”.

Brian Kazmarck

Brian is an award winning writer/director whose films have screened all over the world. He has directed 7 shorts and a feature, including his debut feature “Terminal Legacy” and “The Portland Empire,” which premiered at the 2012 Festival De Cannes and proceeded to sell to Shorts International (U.K.) and the Worldwide Mobile Movie Theatre App in the US. His short “Standing Eight,” a boxing drama, won over 15 awards and is available for streaming on Amazon Prime. He is currently developing a feature-length horror film tentatively scheduled to shoot in the UK in early 2026.

Natalja Kent

https://www.nataljakent.com/

Natalja Kent is a Czech-American artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Her work investigates process, materiality and embodiment through the expanding parameters of drawing, photograms, painting and sculpture. Solo Exhibitions include Light Waves at Oolong Gallery in San Diego, CA 2024; Light Waves Broken Waters at And Pens Gallery in Los Angeles 2024 and Light Moves at Situations Gallery/Foreland Catskill, NY July 2022. She was recently included in group exhibitions at The Museum of Museums, Seattle, WA; Pace Gallery New York, NY, Good Naked Gallery, Los Angeles/NYC and The Berry Art Museum, Norfolk, VA. She has shown work and/or performed at Tate Liverpool; Carpenter Center for The Visual Arts at Harvard; Hiromi Yoshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; PS1, MOMA Queens. She is the recipient of the ArtAffect Grant, Google Artist-in-Residence, Camera Obscura at the City of Santa Monica AIR, RISCA Artist Fellowship amongst others.

Suzanne Kent

Founding company member of The Groundlings Theatre Company in Los Angeles and created the Sunday Company program at The Groundlings. Over 30 feature film credits, including “Middle Men,” “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid,” “Nuts,” “The Boost,” and “History of the World: Part I”. Television series regular roles on “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” “St. Elsewhere,” “The Garry Shandling Show,” and “Brotherly Love.” Voice actor on “Rugrats,” “The Wild Thornberrys,” and “Rocket Power”.

Viktor Kerney Director of Student Life

With 20 years of experience in Student Affairs, Viktor has engaged with talented students and staff from different walks of life. He has a Master’s in Organizational Communication from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky.

He previously held professional positions at Occidental College, Loyola Marymount University, the University of Southern California, and Cornell University. Viktor is well-versed in developing and overseeing success initiatives for specific groups of students – particularly students of color, LGBTQIA+, transfer, and first-generation students. He has solid experience in student activities, student organizations, diversity and inclusion programming, student leadership development, and residential education.

Besides being a Higher Education professional, Viktor is a comic book writer and active board member of Prism Comics, an organization promoting the awareness of LGBTQIA+ creators, stories, characters, and readers in the comics industry. And a consistent panelist at WonderCon and San Diego Comic-Con, discussing diversity and inclusion in comics.

Claude Kerven

Kerven’s career began with the debut of his short film Candy Store, which won an Academy Award for Best Dramatic Student Film. In 1982, he directed a series of Afterschool Specials for ABC-TV, including the Emmy Award-winning Starstruck and the Director’s Guild of America-nominated High School Narc. Kerven also directed over 25 short films for Saturday Night Live, including the much-celebrated Synchronized Swimmers. His most recent directorial work, They Never Found Her, starred Madmen’s Elisabeth Moss and Fargo’s Peter Stormare. In 1990, Kerven co-authored Mortal Thoughts, for Columbia Pictures, starring Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel, and Demi Moore.

Chris Knight

Chris Knight was born in Wiesbaden, Germany and hardened by the sweaty, nearly chewable, humidity of Florida. He combines his unconditional love of art history with his conditional love of technology, topping it off with a flair for the cinematic and an uncompromising eye for detail.His work has appeared in or on Vogue, People, MSNBC, ABC, Oxygen, Ocean Drive, GQ and others.
Chris is the author of “The Dramatic Portrait,” a Profoto Legend of Light, and an instructor at Pratt Institute as well as the New York Film Academy.

Dr. Konstantin Kremenetski

B.S. Physical Geography, Moscow Lomonosov University, 1983 PhD Geomorphology and Paleogeography, Institute of Geography, USSR Academy of Sciences, 1987; Teaching experience in Earth Science, Environmental Science and Geography disciplines.

Ronald Kopp

Ron Kopp has been a regularly featured film commentator for NPR, the “Dr. Video” columnist for barnesandnoble.com, and the Film Programmer for the Paramount Center for the Arts. He is currently in post-production on a short fiction film, “The Resurrection Love Song.” His feature-length version of Jeff Cohen’s play “The Soap Myth” has been broadcast on PBS. Both “The Soap Myth” and his documentary “I Will Refuse to Bubble” are distributed by Digital Theatre. Ron joined the faculty of the New York Film Academy in 2010. He teaches Documentary Cinema Studies and hosts master classes with visiting filmmakers.

Veronika Kurshinskaya Community Outreach Manager

Veronika Kurshinskaya is a writer, producer, and actress. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Political Science from Yaroslavl State University. Then, she studied theater at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and later received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the New York Film Academy. Veronika believes that through art we can inspire future generations to make the world a better place. In 2023, she successfully completed a professional development program at the internationally renowned Music Center of Los Angeles County as a Teaching Artist for Theater. Veronika’s passion is creating, organizing, and supporting outreach programs that help to reveal the beauty of storytelling to underserved children.

Stephanie Jean Lane Acting for Film Instructor

Stephanie Jean Lane is an actor, dancer, writer and director based in New York City. Recent theater: Regan in King Lear (opposite Patrick Page) at Shakespeare Theatre Company, dir. Simon Godwin; Hecate and Agnes in Punchdrunk’s long-running immersive show, Sleep No More (2018-2022). Other theater: shows The Guthrie Theater, Elm Shakespeare, and Berkshire Theater Group; workshops at Lincoln Center and the Public Theater. Film and TV: Law & Order, Elementary, Enloquecer (Palm Spring ShortFest selection), and Dish (feature film). Stephanie danced professionally for several years in NYC. Her original work for stage includes Lighthouse Triptych, produced at LaMama ETC, Dixon Place, The Brick, and in Shanghai; Sweat Spot 101 with Diana Ramirez, produced at the Walker Theater; My Unfinished Girl, co-created with Kyra Sims and Sarah Todes and produced at The Cell. She is a performer, writer, and director with Society Theatre Company. Her first short film, Fort Trumbull, won Best Narrative Short at the Mystic Film Festival in 2021. Stephanie teaches acting, movement, and voice at New York Film Academy and coaches privately. BA: Barnard College; MFA: NYU Grad Acting.

James Lane

James T. Lane- From Philadelphia. West End: The Scottsboro Boys, A Chorus Line – Revival (Palladium Theatre). Broadway: Kiss Me, Kate (Paul), King Kong the Musical ,The Scottsboro Boys (Ozie Powell/Ruby Bates), Chicago and A Chorus Line (Richie Walters). National Tours: Jersey Boys, Cinderella, Fame the Musical. Regional Theatre: Mary Poppins (Bert) Drury Lane Theatre, The Wiz (Tin Man), Broadway at Music Circus,The Old Globe, The Little Mermaid (Sebastian) The Muny, A.C.T and Dallas Theatre Center. Encores/Off Center: Promenade,Grand Hotel, Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope Concerts: Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops, Ottawa Symphony and many more. Mr. Lane teaches music theatre dance when and wherever anyone will let him! Instagram: @jamestlane www.jamestlane.com

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