NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Adam Finer

MA in Film, Staffordshire University
Adam Finer served as Director of Market Research at Universal Pictures. He is the co-founder of Arpil Entertainment, a literary management and production company. He consults with individuals in career planning, as well as working with content creators, writers, directors, producers, and studio executives to design marketing plans, and business and branding strategies. He was producer on War of the Worlds: The Next Wave, The Day the Earth Stopped, and Megafault for Syfy. A former Associate Chair of Screenwriting, Adam currently guest lectures in Adaptation, Business of Screenwriting, and Transmedia.

Meghan Fitzmartin

BS in Church Ministries, South Eastern University
Meghan has written in television, comics, and podcasts. She has written for Supernatural and DC Superhero Girls, and wrote the animated Justice Society: World War II. Meghan has written Red Robin and Young Justice for DC Comics. She created the podcast Red Rhino and co-hosts the unscripted podcast Wine & Comics. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Podcasting and Sequential Art.

Colette Freedman

MAT in Drama, Colgate University
Screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and actress. Colette has written the Lifetime film Sister Cities (Jacki Weaver, Alfred Molina, Stana Katic) and twelve other made-for-television films with her writing partner Brooke Purdy. Her feature films include Meli (starring Wendie Malick), And Then There Was Eve (2017 LA Muse Jury Prize Winner at LA Film Festival) and Miles Underwater. Colette is an internationally-produced playwright with over 35 produced plays, voted “One of 50 to Watch” by The Dramatists Guild. Plays include Serial Killer Barbie, The Affair, and Blind Spots (Encore Award 2018 Hollywood Fringe fest) and the upcoming Mozart2 the Musical and Amelia the Musical. She has written ten published novels, including the thriller The Thirteen Hallows (Tor Publishing) with #1 New York Times author Michael Scott; the YA book Anomalies with Sadie Turner (Select Books); and the legendary Steve Dorff memoir I Wrote That One Too (Backbeat Books). Freedman has co-produced several independent films, including Quality Problems (Freestyle Media, 2017 Best Feature, Women Texas Film Fest), Dancer in Danger (Lifetime) and Dangerous Cheaters (Lifetime). As an actress, she has worked on many television shows, including That 70s Show, The Young and the Restless, and JAG, as well as several independent films. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Feature Workshops, Storytelling With Purpose, Script To Screen, Playwriting, and Scene Study.

Israel Gutierrez

Israel Gutierrez is a Mexican American filmmaker with a background in film and video editing. He worked as an editor at NBCUniversal for E! Entertainment International and Telemundo International. As a filmmaker, he recently won Best Film Screenplay (Mexican American Film Festival 2022) and Best Short Drama (Official Latino Film Festival 2022) for his multi award-winning historical drama They Call Us Sediciosos. Iz wrote, directed, and edited the short as a proof-of-concept for a feature film and TV series.

Mentored by Oscar-winning screenwriter David S. Ward and former DGA president and director Martha Coolidge, he is the recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant for the short he wrote and directed Sin Frontera, an immigration love story, which screened at the SAG Foundation, won numerous drama awards including official selections in Academy accredited festivals.

Matt Harry

MFA in Film Production, USC
Matt has been telling stories since he was 10 years old. He spent his early years writing newspaper articles for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and one-act plays before discovering filmmaking at Ohio University. He graduated cum laude with a BS in Television Production. He moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts and received an MFA in Film Production. As a screenwriter, Matt’s work has been recognized by the Austin Film Festival, the FOX/NYTVF Comedy Script Contest, Script Pipeline, the Launchpad Manuscript Contest, and the Nicholl Fellowships. His first produced feature screenplay, FUGUE, landed on several top-ten lists, won Best Horror Film at the Mississippi Film Festival, and was picked up for distribution by GoDigital. His short film SUPER KIDS, which he wrote and co-directed, has over 6 million views on YouTube. His TV pilot MONSTER COPS was awarded Grand Prize in the Second City Original Sitcom Contest, and is currently in development. Matt has also published four novels, written and directed an immersive play, and created a card game called You Are a Filmmaker. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Thesis Workshop, Transmedia, Feature Workshops, Script To Screen, Unscripted Storytelling, Adaptation, and Genre Studies. For the Producing Department, he teaches Producing Reality TV.

Heather Huntington

MAPH in Literature, University of Chicago
Danielle Evenson & Heather Huntington are two halves of one set of headphones. The podcast writers have been featured in Deadline, WhoHaHa, Podcast Delivery, PodFluence, Audio Drama Debut, Fiction Podcast Weekly, Pajiba and Broadway World. When they’re not knee deep in sound cues, they also write for TV and film, including The New Adventures of Old Christine, Noggin’s Tales From The Playground, PBS’s Frankenstein MD, MGM’s Craft, Cafe of Love, for Reel One and a Christmas series for Disney. Their audio series, Up a River for Aural Stories launched this summer, and their series A Midsemester Night’s Dream starring Bridgerton’s Charithra Chanran will be released this fall. They teach together (as they write together) for Screenwriting LA in classes like Podcasting and Storytelling with Purpose.

Greg Johnson

MFA in Film & Television, USC
Greg is the screenwriter of THE LAST SON (2021), a western-action feature film starring Sam Worthington, Machine Gun Kelly, Heather Graham, Thomas Jane, and directed by Tim Sutton. His newest film, OLD GUY (2024) finished production in 2023 and stars Christoph Waltz, Cooper Hoffman, Lucy Liu and is directed by Simon West. Previously, Greg worked with 20th Century Fox Studios to develop four original features including an alternative version of the Fantastic Four franchise called DOCTOR DOOM. He has also done assignments for Universal, Davis Entertainment, and TIK Films. Greg is a two-time finalist in the Warner Brothers Television Writers’ Workshop. Currently, he is developing NESTED GAMES, an international action-adventure spy show with Bound Television. In the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Elements of Screenwriting, Rewriting, Adaptation, Story Generation, Genre Studies, TV Pilot, and Feature Workshops.

Dan Kay

BAS in English, University of Pennsylvania
Dan Kay is an award winning writer and director prolific in both film & television. His feature writing credits include I.T. starring Pierce Brosnan and Pay The Ghost starring Nicolas Cage. Dan’s screenplay Spider & Jessie, which he is directing, is set to shoot in the summer of 2022 with Joseph Restaino (Pig, Passing) producing. Dan has developed numerous TV series, working in collaboration with major studios and networks including ABC Studios, ABC Signature, Universal TV, Legendary TV, Warner Bros. TV, BBC America, TWC, Starz and eOne. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Business of Screenwriting and Feature Workshops.

Kelly Larson

BA in Film Production, LMU
Kelly Larson is an LGBTQ+ LatinX writer who has written on the CW’s Batwoman, where she has also served as a Writer’s Assistant. Prior to that, she served as assistant to Kevin Williams on CBS All Access’ Tell Me A Story, and to Caroline Dries under her Sony TV overall deal as well as when she was on the CW’s The Vampire Diaries. Being part of the Pre WGA community, she has organized mixers and spearheaded script campaigns to encourage unrepresented writers to meet and be heard, while also bringing together WGA writers to meet with and mentor lower level assistants. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Storytelling with Purpose, TV Workshops, and Business of TV as part of the Business of Screenwriting courses.

Rafael Lessa

Rafael Lessa is a filmmaker with over 14 years of experience working for players like Amazon and Netflix. He transitions between commercially successful TV projects and artistically relevant films on the international stage. His latest feature film as a screenwriter, “Rule 34”, won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno and has screened in multiple festivals such as Busan, Tallinn Black Nights, and Newfest. In addition, Rafael was the head writer and co-producer of the show “Lov3” for Amazon and won the Brazilian Writer’s Association award. He also wrote seasons one and two of “Samantha!”, a Netflix series. He’s also the head writer of “The Adventures of Jose and Durval” for Globo, the 4th biggest network in the world, and produced by Latin America powerhouse O2 Films (City of God). Rafael has also collaborated with filmmaker Alex Moratto as a screenplay consultant for his films awarded at the Independent Spirit Awards and Venice Film Festival. Rafael began his screenwriting career with the short “Tá,” winner of the Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival. He holds an MFA degree with Honors from Columbia University and a joint MBA in the Business of Entertainment from the University of Southern California.

Ben Maraniss

Ben has worked extensively with Spaceman Media and Scrollmotion, creating dozens of short films, commercials, and interstitials, for companies such as AMC, Comedy Central, MTV, and Super Deluxe. He received his MFA in Film and Television Writing from the University of Southern California. First Things Last, a narrative iPhone application he co-created at Scrollmotion, was featured at the American Film Institute’s 2009 DigiFest. The International Screenwriters Association named Ben’s one-hour drama Weimar the Pilot Grand Prize winner in the 2015 TRMS competition. Another hour-long drama, Secret & Confidential, was listed on the Tracking Board as one of the 100 best pilots of 2016. Currently, Ben is working with producer Fredrica Drotos on an original series Ivan’s Hammer. His articles on cinema and pop culture have been featured in the N+1 Film Review Supplement.

Carolyn McDonald

Carolyn McDonald has worked in the publicity division of Warner Bros Television, served as a Creative Executive at Cinecom Entertainment, and served as Exective Vice President of Danny Glover’s Carrie Productions. She was the executive producer on TNT’s Emmy & Image Award-nominated Freedom Song (written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson) and HBO’s American Dream, which featured Wesley Snipes and won 4 Cable Ace Awards and an NAACP Image Award for Best Made-For-TV Movie. McDonald also produced, co-wrote, and directed P.N.O.K., featuring Elle Fanning and co-wrote Return Of The Sweetbirds for 20th Century Fox. She also adapted the book The Color Of Hope for her directing debut. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Online Screenwriting, Adaptation, Story Generation, and the Business of Screenwriting.

George McGrath Acting for Film Instructor

George began his career as an actor in New York. He performed with the Groundlings in Los Angeles from 1983 – 1992, where he also taught, directed the Sunday Show, and directed and created the long-running “Your Very Own TV Show.” He was one of the original writers of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” and was a series regular on that show. He was inducted into the TV Theme Song Hall of Fame for co-writing the series theme song. He co-wrote the Paramount film “Big Top Pee-wee,” and created and starred in Nick-at-Nite’s first original late night series, “On the Television,” which he also co-executive produced. He co-starred with Tom Hanks and Sally Field in the feature film “Punchline.” He wrote the FOX TV movie “Based on an Untrue Story,” and had a recurring role on HBO’s “Tracey Takes On,” a series he also wrote and produced. Other TV appearances include “Whose Line is It Anyway?” (the London and New York productions). He has received four Emmy nominations – for writing “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” writing and producing “Tracey Takes On,” a series for which he also won a GLAAD Award.

Chris Modoono

BS, Babson College
Chris is the Co-Writer/Director of the feature Tenured for Fox Digital Studio, which premiered at the 2015 Tribeca film festival, and won the Audience Award at the Maui Film Festival. He is the Co-Writer/Director and Co-Creator of It’s a Hit! (Abby Elliott, Tim Matheson) for The Orchard, which premiered at SeriesFest Season 2 and won the Virgin Produced Award. Chris is the commercial director for Hungry Man Productions. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Script To Screen, Transmedia, Web Series, Feature Workshops, and Rewriting.

Kenda Greenwood Moran

MFA in Screenwriting, AFI
Kenda has worked in television for two decades. She was a showrunner on the first four seasons of MTV’s acclaimed documentary series Teen Mom, a producer/director on ABC’s Wife Swap, and an Executive Producer on Lifetime’s Married at First Sight and Bravo’s Love Without Borders. As a VP of Development at MTV, Kenda shepherded multiple unscripted and comedy series including The Middle of the Night Show. Kenda wrote the sci-fi short, Progeny, which won best student short at Screamfest 2019, and which she subsequently adapted into a feature which is in development with Buffalo 8 Productions. Her pilot script Tammany won the AFI Writer’s Room Ready Award in 2020, and she currently has an action-comedy series in development with Robert Cort Productions. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Unscripted Storytelling, The Business of Screenwriting, Scene Study, and Television Workshops.

Eric Nelson

MFA in Screenwriting, American Film Institute.
Eric Nelson has developed film and television projects with Nickelodeon Original Movies, ABC/Disney Channel, 20th Century Fox, Smart Entertainment, and Underground Entertainment. He has written, developed, and produced for numerous branded content campaigns and video games. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Thesis Workshops, Rewriting, Feature Workshops, TV Workshops, and Story Generation.

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