Faculty Directory

Riley Steiner

Riley joined NYFA in 2014 and teaches all levels of Technique and Scene Study, specializing in Acting Styles and Shakespeare.

Her stage work includes Ophelia in Sir Anthony Hopkins’ production of Hamlet on the HB Studio stage in New York. Riley worked as a voice actor alongside Tom Hanks in Toy Story, and can be heard screaming “I GOT HIS SWEATBAND!” in Disney’s Hercules. She is also remembered as the fatally doomed Page Bowen on General Hospital.

As a playwright, two of her plays have been included in the Plays in Progress Series at the award winning Utah Shakespearean festival. Her first play, Tumcumcari has enjoyed three productions in Los Angeles. She directed the play in 2014 at the Whitemore Theatre in North Hollywood.

She has directed a handfull of Shakespeare plays at NYFA and participates as a guest director in The Road Theatre Company’s Summer Playwrights festival.

She studied acting with Uta Hagen for over ten years and now teaches her methodology. In 2010, Riley went back to school to complete her education. In 2014, she graduated cum laude with a BA in Theatre and an MFA in Shakespeare and Renaissance Studies , both at Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, VA.

Tomás Stiegwardt

Tomás Stiegwardt is an award-winning filmmaker, author, visual artist, and AI researcher. A creative catalyst and cultural essayist, he explores the intersection of storytelling, technology, and consciousness. With over 70 essays on AI and cinema published at Peliplat—where he also serves as a film critic and international jury member—his work bridges visual arts, philosophy, and education. A professor, speaker, and international exhibitor, he has received over 30 awards for his short films, taught at NYFA and Columbia College Chicago, and is currently based in New York, developing projects across traditional and Web3 platforms.

Matthew Stern

Matthew Stern is an award winning NYC-based music director and pianist.  Off Broadway: Smile (AMT Theater), Skyscraper (Urban Stages). Other credits:  Come From Away (Engeman); Cats, Lightning Thief, Little Mermaid, Twas the Night Before Christmas, Cinderella, Pippin, Grease, Seussical, Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Christmas in the Movies (Casa Mañana); Wizard of Oz (North Shore Music Theatre); Evita (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Sing Street, Merrily We Roll Along (Huntington Theater); Drowsy Chaperone, Gentleman’s Guide, Pacific Overtures (Lyric Stage Company of Boston); Prom (Tantrum Theater); Burnt Part Boys, Rock of Ages (Mountain Theatre Company); Reefer Madness (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater); Little Women, All is Calm, She Loves Me, Altar Boyz, Mame (Greater Boston Stage Company); Fun Home, Allegiance, Bridges of Madison County, Scottsboro Boys, Violet, Big Fish (SpeakEasy Stage Company).  In addition to NYFA, Matt has served on the faculties of Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Boston University, and Emerson College, and spent over a decade music directing at French Woods Festival.  He has an MFA in Musical Theater Studies from Boston University.

Jenny Sterner Associate Chair of Film Arts Department (Screenwriting)

MFA in Screenwriting, New York Film Academy.
Jenny has developed a manga for Seven Seas Entertainment. She is the creator of the web series Searching for Eden. She served as Coordinator of the Screenwriting Department for five years before taking over as Associate Chair. She teaches Story Generation and Building & Researching Your World for the Department.

Tyler Stillwill

Tyler is a teacher and an interdisciplinary artist from Los Angeles who performs (in an actory, singery and musiciany way), composes, writes, clowns, directs, paints, illustrates, sculpts and makes music. They’ve had plays and musicals produced in small theaters in Detroit, Austin, Chicago, Seattle and Off Off Off Broadway. A one time Children’s Theatre Artistic Director, International Marketing Executive, College Professor and Tattoo Artist. Featured in the web series “Staying Together” (https://vimeo.com/317707828), they’ve ridden their bicycle up and down mountains all over the world, but only ever mistaken for a criminal in Japan. But that’s a story for another time.

Peter Allen Stone

Peter Allen Stone is an actor, writer, director, and teacher. He is the former Chair of Acting for Film at the New York Film Academy in New York City, and he is currently Head of Acting at the University of Kentucky. His students have appeared on Broadway,Off-Broadway, in Hollywood and Bollywood films, and on many popular television shows. In New York City, he assisted with auditions for feature films and television at
Mackey Sandrich Casting.

As an actor, he has performed in film/television and at some of America’s prominent theaters such as The American Conservatory Theater, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival of New American Plays, Portland Stage, and many theaters in New York City. He has played leading roles in Shakespeare and premiered works by
playwrights Sarah Ruhl and Rebecca Gilman. He is the co-author of the Off-Broadway play, Unnatural Acts Harvard’s Secret Court of 1920. The play was nominated for a Drama Desk Award (Outstanding Play), GLAAD
Media Award, Outstanding New York Theatre: Broadway and Off-Broadway, and an Off-Broadway Alliance Award (Best New Play.) His short film, Va Bene Cosi (Italy), has appeared in many film festivals and won Best International Comedy at the South Dakota Film Festival. His other films include Hypoesthesia, Together, and Hehku (Glow). Together and Hehku were shot on location in Helsinki, Finland and were supported by an
Erasmus grant. Hehku screened as part of an exhbit at the Hakasalmen Huvila museum in Helsinki from Jan. – Feb. 2023. In addition, he co-wrote My White Friend with Lanre Olabisi, and it was recognized by the Page Awards, Launch Pad, and WeScreenplay TV Contest.

Mr. Stone is the author of the popular acting book, Acting for the Camera: Back to One (Routledge/Focal Press Taylor Francis Group), and The Natural Elements, a chapter in the book Building Embodiment Integrating Acting, Voice, and Movement to Illimunate Poetic Text (Routledge/Focal Press Taylor Francis Group). His new book, Acting for the Camera: A Teacher’s Guide will be published (Routledge/Focal Press – Taylor & Francis
Group) in 2025. He has taught his approach to acting for the camera in the United States, Italy, Germany, Finland, South Korea, and India. He continues to act, write, direct, and teach acting for the camera workshops all over the world. He received his MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater. He is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA.

Glenn Storm

Glenn is a game designer and programmer with experience bringing many games to market, including Sonic The Hedgehog and Star Wars: The Clone Wars for the LeapFrog, Didj handheld console; which took Children’s Technology Review: Editor’s Choice Award in 2008. His game work draws upon ten years’ experience as an animator at Warner Brothers Feature Animation, Dreamworks Feature Animation, and other firms. During that time he worked on the films: The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.

Evan Stulc

Evan has worked as camera assistant on features, commercials and music videos, for clients clients including Toyota, Riot Games, and Yahoo! His credits include Bad Milo, As I Lay Dying, and Helio.

Melissa Sullivan

Melissa Sullivan received her B. F. A. in Theater at Cal Arts and is a Lifetime Member of the Actors Studio. Sullivan has worked extensively in film, television and theater as an actor and producer. Film credits include, Finding Red Cloud, Sweet Underground, S.F.W. and Poker Face. TV credits include, Shameless, Hawthorne, Dragnet and E.R.

Sullivan’s theater credits include, Stella in Streetcar Named Desire, winning her the LA Ticket Holders Best Supporting Actress Award, Veronica in The Interview, in which the LA Times called her a “mesmerizing performer”, The Girl in Mr. Paradise, Honey in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Mary Jane in The Dead, Miss Julie in Miss Julie, Karin in The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant, Marta in Waiting for the Parade, Katrin in Mother Courage and Her Children, and many more.

Sullivan was production designer and producer of the feature, Roommate Wanted, which played at Salem Horror Film Festival, Bahamas International Film Festival and Shriekfest, with distribution by Indican Pictures. She produced and starred in the web series, The Millionaires on Amazon Prime. Sullivan is a singer-songwriter with a debut album, Late Last Night, Apple Music/Spotify. She performs regularly at the renown, The Hotel Café’.

Shawn Sullivan

Shawn has been the post-production supervisor for the NYFA’s New York City and Los Angeles campuses, and was the director of the NYFA summer workshop at Walt Disney World. He has worked as an editor on short film, commercials, marketing videos, and feature films, with clients including Redken, Keller Williams, Exit Realty, Caldwell Banker, and Disney. In 2014, Disney presented Shawn with a Mousecar (Disney’s version of an Oscar) for 10 years of working with Disney Youth Program and NYFA. Shawn previously worked for Apple teaching film editing software. He is Final Cut Pro Certified by Apple. He is also an Avid Certified Instructor with the Media Composer film editing software. BA, Screenwriting: California State University Northridge

Evan Swanson

Evan Swanson is an NYC based pianist/music director specializing in musical theater, pop, jazz and church music. Since moving to the city in 2019, Evan has developed ongoing relationships with KeyboardTEK, Lisa Rock Entertainment, Grace Lutheran Church, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, LaGuardia High School, and many school’s theater programs around the city. He also works for The Outsiders on Broadway as a K1 sub and rehearsal pianist.

Jennifer Swiderski

Jennifer Swiderski is a Broadway actress, director and choreographer, educator, coach, advocate, and proud mom — though not always in that order, and rarely all on the same day.

As a performer, she has appeared on Broadway, at Lincoln Center, and on National Tours in both leading and featured roles. Her career has taken her to stages around the world, earning her a few awards, plenty of playbills, and a lifetime of stories.

Her curiosity and love of collaboration naturally led her into teaching and directing alongside performing. Today, when she’s not directing and choreographing in New York and regionally, Jennifer can be found coaching Broadway actors (and the ones about to
be) or teaching the next generation of performers at New York Film Academy and other leading conservatories.

Her extensive stage experience also earned her the honor of serving as a Tony Award voter for more than a decade. Jennifer is known for creating spaces that are supportive, collaborative, and joy-filled — empowering artists to stretch past their own expectations
while appreciating the wonderment of shared empathy.

Dr. Maureen Tabor

Maureen’s background is rich and varied. She earned a PhD in Sociology from Yale University after an MA and BA from the University of Michigan. She landed her first teaching job at UCBerkeley, upon which time she vowed to remain in California. After teaching 3 years at UCB, she joined a theater group where she thrived for over 10 years. That took her to New York and then back to California, this time to Hollywood. She taught acting in Hollywood but then took a few studio corporate jobs. In the early 2000s she returned to academia, teaching at Cal State LA and finally settling into film schools in Los Angeles when she enjoys working with creative students in their study of social science.

Angelina Tala

Angelina is a professional writer, motion picture/theatre instructor, and published journalist with TEFL/TESOL experience, both domestically and abroad. Outside of NYFA, Angelina is a Narrative Designer for G5 Entertainment, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games. And she continues to work on her creative portfolio as a screenwriter. Angelina earned an MFA in Screenwriting at the New York Film Academy, Los Angeles, and a BA in Journalism at Brooklyn College, New York, with a minor in Television and Radio and a concentration in Photography from the Art Institute of Florence, Italy.

Graham Tallman

Graham is a writer/director whose films have been to over 100 festivals and have won numerous awards. As a writer, he has
a script on the Black List, he has adapted a comic book for 20th Century Fox, and collaborated with production companies
such as Point Grey (Seth Rogen), Dark Castle (Joel Silver), Vertigo Entertainment (It, The Lego Movie), and Ryan Murphy
(American Horror Story). He wrote and directed the feature film Creeper, and was the second unit director and producer for the film The Nevsky Prospect for Amazon Studios. He most recently sold and will executive produce a biopic for
George A Romero, and sold an animated pilot called Apocalypse Hotel.

Stephen Tapert

Stephen Tapert earned his M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from The Evergreen State College. He worked for eight years at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where, as a museum researcher, he provided foundational work for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. He subsequently curated an exhibition on the Best Actress Oscar winners at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin, Italy, and at the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin, Germany. His illustrated coffee table book, “Best Actress: The History of Oscar-Winning Women” was published in 2020 by Rutgers University Press. Featuring a foreword by feminist critic Roxane Gay and endorsements from Andie MacDowell, Liza Minnelli, Susan Sarandon, and Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera, the book offers a historical, social, and political examination of the first 75 women – from Janet Gaynor to Emma Stone – to have won the Best Actress Oscar over the span of 90 years.