Faculty Directory

Sue Jin Song

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MFA in Acting, NYU/Tisch
A “Usual Suspect” at New York Theater Workshop, where she worked with Van Lier playwrights on developing new work. She has acted in theaters in New York City and regionally around the country, including world premieres written by Paula Vogel and Velina Hasu Houston. Film/TV credits include New Amsterdam, Generat+ion, Law & Order, Won’t Back Down, and Someone Like You. Sue Jin also wrote and acted in a one woman play Children of Medea, which was awarded “Best of DC Fringe” and was subsequently produced by Constellation Theatre. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Acting as part of the Script To Screen course. In the Producing Department, she teaches Acting for Producers. In the Filmmaking Department, she teaches Acting for Filmmakers.

Susana Soto Associate Dean of Students & Title IX Coordinator, NYFA Los Angeles

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Susana Soto is a passionate student affairs professional who loves cultivating spaces for growth, development, self-reflection, and accountability. Prior to joining New York Film Academy as the Associate Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator for the LA campus, Susana worked as a Title IX, discrimination, and harassment prevention education specialist at California State University, Long Beach, where she facilitated workshops for students, faculty, and staff. Prior to her career in higher education, she served students in the K-12 community through education and social justice work with nonprofit and national organizations. 

Susana attended UC Berkeley for her undergraduate degree in public health and received a counseling degree for student development in higher education from CSU Long Beach. During her free time, she enjoys reading historical and science fiction, crocheting, and eating all kinds of delicious foods.

Samantha Soule

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Samantha Soule is a filmmaker and actress. She directed Midday Black Midnight Blue, Birdwatching starring Amanda Seyfried, Taffeta, Shed, and Telling Time. As an actress, she can currently be seen in Outer Banks, Godless, Tales Of The City, Queen’s Gambit, and Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman on Netflix and City On A Hill for Showtime. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

Micah Spayer

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Micah is an award-winning filmmaker and actor who grew up in the theater and hails from Central Illinois. His work spans regional theatre, national tours, television, film, and commercials. As a director, he uses a teaching-centered approach to help actors rebuild their imagination and grow into powerful, insightful performers. He composes music for film and his ongoing solowork. In addition to film, Micah has a BFA in Musical Theatre from Western Illinois University (2009), loves flatbread pizza and collecting and repairing typewriters. His most honorable performance to date is the role of Father to his brilliant daughter.

Federico Spiazzi

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Federico Spiazzi is an Italian director, screenwriter, cinematographer and educator. He graduated from the Italian National Film School and earned an MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University. His works have played at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Hamptons Int. Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest and many others and were showcased in important venues such as Lincoln Center and Anthology Film Archives in New York City. Federico has been a recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association scholarship, the National Board of Review student grant and was awarded with the Excellence in Filmmaking award by Kodak. His teaching career began at Columbia University and in some important acting workshops in New York City. From 2021 he teaches Directing, Screenwriting and Acting for the Camera at NYFA Florence.

Liz Stanton

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Liz Stanton teaches Acting (Meisner), Voice & Movement, and Improvisation at the New York Film Academy. As an actor, singer, sound designer, composer, director, and teacher, she is a multifaceted theatre artist. She is the Theatrical Development Producer for Convergences Theatre Collective. She has performed in numerous professional productions in New York City, regionally and internationally (England and India). Her opera, based on The Bacchae, was featured as a work in development at the EstroGenius Festival. She has created award-winning devised theatre pieces, composes music for theatrical sound designs, and teaches physically embodied acting and voice. Liz received her MFA in Theatre: Contemporary Performance from Naropa University. One of her most recent projects is The Woman Who Was Me – a play for one woman. The show was nominated for five Innovative Theatre Awards, including for Outstanding Solo Performer.

Micah Stathis

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Stathis was a Production Manager for Manhattan Neighborhood Network for over four years. He quickly expanded his skills as a freelance Cinematographer and Director. He has experience directing a wide variety of television and film shoots, commercials, music videos, narrative films, documentary films, and live events.

Riley Steiner

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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’.