NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

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.

Clay Tarver

Clay Tarver has been a working screenwriter for over 20 years. Clay served as Executive Producer of HBO’s, Silicon Valley, where he received the 2016 Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Writing – Episodic Comedy. His feature credits include Joyride, which he wrote with JJ Abrams. He also worked as a writer on such films as Charlie’s Angels, Idiocracy, Walking Tall, and many others. In addition, Clay has written pieces for the New York Times Sunday Magazine, most notably Everman’s War: The Rock Casualty Who Became a War Hero. Clay took the helm as Director, making the feature film Vacation Friends which debuted on Hulu in 2021.

Jonathan Thomas

Jonathan Thomas is a two-time graduate of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program (Studio + Critical Studies) and has an MA in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society from the University of Minnesota. He is the editor and designer of CALIGARI (caligaripress.com), a multimedia periodical of cinema, arts, and letters, and co-founded and was Editor in Chief The Third Rail, an international arts and cinema periodical archived by the Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou, LACMA, Walker Art Center, and the Getty Research Institute. Here at NYFA he teaches courses on the history of cinema, the history of cinematography, screenplay analysis, and special topics seminars including Cinema Now and The Social Thriller.

Martin Thompson Acting for Film Instructor

Martin Thompson earned his BFA in Acting at East Carolina University, before going on to study with Uta Hagen at HB Studio in New York, The Actors Studio, American Theatre of Actors, and with Wynn Handman at The American Place Theatre. He has appeared in over 100 productions on the New York stage, and in regional theatres nationwide. His motion picture credits include starring with Kevin Costner in The New Daughter, opposite Paul Rudd in Wanderlust, and with Colin Firth in Main Street (the final screenplay by the legendary Horton Foote.) On television, he has appeared on NCIS: LA, Criminal Minds, Scorpion, Comedy Bang Bang, Uncle Buck, and the first season of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels for Showtime.

Cle Thompson Acting Instructor

BA in English, Beloit College. Extensive acting experience in off-Broadway productions, national tours, and feature films including A 2nd Before Hell Freezes Over, VS, Funny Valentines and Beyond the Blue. She has worked with legendary film composer/arranger Elmer Bernstein, sung in clubs from New York to Los Angeles.

Edward Timpe Co-Chair of Film Arts Department

Edward Timpe is a highly experienced film and TV producer with nearly 20 years of experience in the industry. After earning a BS in Kinesiology from Indiana University, he went on to pursue a master’s degree in Film Production from Chapman University. He has taught at NYFA – Los Angeles since 2010.

Currently, he is focused on developing new content that pushes the boundaries of storytelling and engages audiences in new and exciting ways. With a passion for innovation and a deep understanding of the industry, Edward is committed to creating content that resonates with viewers and leaves a lasting impact.

John Tona

John Tona is a photographer and artist based in New York City. He uses photographic portraiture to investigate human nature and consciousness. His work employs strategies ranging from social-documentary, tableau, and reinterpretations of the portrait.

His most recent and ongoing project, (A)typical Typology, depicts pairs of people from each country of the world without cultural elements such as clothing, makeup, or other man-made products, leaving only the individual as the unique identifier. As a result, the lines of race and culture are de-emphasized, leaving us to consider the subjects more simply, as members of the human race.

In addition to publications in the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, his work has been exhibited at Art Space Artion, The Canson Gallery, and the Jeonju International Photo Festival in Seoul, South Korea as well as Art Basel in Miami Florida and Photoville in Brooklyn New York.

John is a graduate of the one-year photography conservatory at the New York Film Academy.

Igor Torgeson

MFA Film, Boston University; BA Journalism, George Washington University. Freelance editor and actor in Los Angeles. Has edited for clients including the Gameshow Network, National Lampoon, McGraw-Hill Publications, Southern California Gas Company, and Cessna Aircraft. Commercial credits include campaigns for Citibank and Brighthouse Networks.

Hernán Toro

Hernán Toro (Director of Photography) was born and raised in the colorful city of Caracas, Venezuela; there he studied advertising before leaving home for England, where he attended The London Film School. Once back in Caracas, he rapidly became one of most sought after and recognized cinematographers in Venezuela, then South America and eventually moved to New York City where he resides since 1995.

Toro has shot over 20 feature films most notably “First We Take Brooklyn,” “3 Noches,” “Mob Town,” “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.” Recently “Spiked,” “Blackjack: The Story of Jackie Ryan,” “Hamlet/Horatio,” “I Love Us,” and nearly 900 TV commercials, several music videos, shorts, and documentaries. In between films he dedicates his time to teach Cinematography to newer generations of filmmakers at the New York Film Academy.

Hernán continues to apply his eye, knowledge, and passion to his cinematography. He is also an accomplished still photographer, with his work shown as part of a dozen photographic exhibitions, photos published in magazines, catalogs, and three architectural books. (by Gregg Brilliant)

Matthew Toronto Acting for Film Instructor

MATTHEW TORONTO – After a two-year stint on Netflix, Matt’s coming-of-age feature, FACE 2 FACE, which he wrote and directed, continues to inspire audiences on Paramount +, Epix and several other platforms. Besides an array of award-winning features, shorts, pilots and web series, Matt recently directed two features to be released by Artist View Entertainment in 2023 and is scheduled to direct two more this year. Matt earned his MFA in directing from Penn State University where he later joined the faculty and taught acting, directing and musical theatre for eight years. On stage, Matt directed the world premiere of the widely renowned musical ORDINARY DAYS as well as a long list of plays and musicals in New York City, Los Angeles and across the country. He began his professional career as an actor, performing in national tours, Off-Broadway and in celebrated regional theatres. He also spent five seasons in the RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR dancing alongside the Rockettes! A father of three, Matt loves to tell stories that reveal humanity in unexpected ways.

Maxine Trump

Maxine Trump has directed both short and long-form documentaries for TV networks including TNT, Sundance Channel, BBC and Discovery. She worked for the BBC in London for seven years as a development executive for scripted comedy before emigrating to the U.S., working as a TV commercial director and producer for eight years. She won BDA awards for her work on numerous commercial and branded entertainment projects for clients such as AMC, National Geographic, PBS, BBC America, Animal Planet, Comedy Central, American Cancer Society, L’Oreal and Oreos. Trump is on the selection committee for DOC NYC and Nantucket Film Festival; a Manhattan chapter leader of the non-profit film group Filmshop; and the author of the documentary guide “A Documentary Roadmap” (Focal Press 2017). Her film “Musicwood” was a New York Times Critics’ Pick, and “To Kid Or Not To Kid” is due for release in 2018. She lives in Brooklyn and continues to direct her own feature documentaries as well as producing and editing for feature documentary clients. MFA, London Metropolitan University.

Charley Tucker Acting for Film Instructor

As a teaching artist, Mr. Tucker has worked at New York University (co-teacher with Phylicia Rashad), American Globe Theatre (Shakespeare First Folio Technique), University of Texas/ Austin, Muhlenberg College, Penn State University and New York Film Academy where he is currently teaching Scene Study and the Meisner Technique.
HEDDA GABBLER (American Globe), UNCLE TOM’S CABIN (The Drama Dept.- Workshop Co.), MISALLIANCE (Pennsylvania Center Stage), DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS (American Stage), SIX DEGREES OF SEPERATION (Florida Studio Theatre), and AMERICAN BUFFALO (Asolo Conservatory Theatre- guest artist). Film and T.V.: CURDLED (Miramax), AMY SCHUMMER SHOW (Comedy Central), TENNESSEE (Lee Daniels Entertainment), and several television and radio commercials. Currently Mr. Tucker has 2 films in production.

David Vando

Mr. Vando’s works include the award winning THE KING’S CLOWN performed both in America and England, the book and lyrics for a musical adaptation LOVE’S LABOR’S LOST for the Folger Library Theatre, an English adaptation of THE THREEPENNY OPERA, BUGLES AT DAWN a musical based on THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, SONG OF THE LARK, a musical passion play of Saint Joan, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LEONARDO DA VINCI, EROICA, about the deafness and death of Beethoven and SHAKESPEARE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY, now in its third printing, which teaches you how to “translate” and use quotes from the Bard in the new millennium for everything from corporate mottos to epitaphs with over 700 outrageous examples. His latest work is the film HAMLET/HORATIO, the story of Hamlet told through eyes of Horatio, in which he wrote the screen play and acts two roles.

Amy Van Horne Acting for Film Creative Director

Creative Director of the Acting for Film Department in New York

Amy Van Horne is an actor, teacher, and professional on-camera audition coach. She holds an MFA from Rutgers University-Mason Gross School of the Arts where she studied under the tutelage of Master Teachers William Esper and Maggie Flanigan. Amy has been a professional film and television actress for over 20 years, working in both LA and New York. Having firsthand knowledge of the many technical challenges actors face working in front of the camera on professional film/TV sets, Amy developed and led on-camera acting technique, scene study, and audition technique classes that she taught for over 10 years in LA. Teaching actors to find freedom on camera became Amy’s passion, and she returned to New York in 2013 to train as a master teacher under her mentor Maggie Flanigan. Selected film/TV credits include: Cost of Living, The City, The Big Easy, Hitz, Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place, Push, Veronica’s Closet, Family Rules, The Beach Boys: An American Family, Judging Amy, Strong Medicine, Cold Case, and Final Sale. She has also appeared in dozens of national network commercials. Amy joined the New York Film Academy in 2017.

Vladimir Velev

Vladimir Velev grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria admiring American movies and television from afar. He has studied Latin American and Ballroom dancing from the age of six and trained with the top teachers in the competitive dance world as well as in other styles of dance. Vladimir is a former Austrian national champion and quarterfinalist of both the World and European Professional Latin Championships. Since moving to the United States, he has established himself as a sought-after instructor, performer, and competitor. He joined the Musical Theater department of the New York Film Academy in 2016.

Elli Ventouras Dean of NYFA New York

MFA, Parsons School of Design. M.A., New York Institute of Technology – summa cum laude. Currently Ms. Ventouras oversees the day to day Academic operations in the New York location. Previously, she was the Founding Dean for the New York Film Academy in South Beach where she contributed to the development of the Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree programs in Filmmaking and Acting as well as the Conservatory and short term programs.

As a director, producer and editor, her Award winning film Voices screened internationally at: Golden Gate Documentary Film Festival in San Francisco (Distinguished for Special Artistic Value), Festival Du Cinema de Bruxelles (winner for the La Realisation Integrale Award), Festival Du Court Metrage De Lyon (winner of Le Senario). Voices was also Semifinalist at Boston Motion Picture Awards and was requested and screened as part of the activities planned in Athens, Greece for the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Other screenings include The Queens Theater in the Park in Flushing NY, Panorama Film Festival in Thessaloniki, Greece; Drama Short Film Festival in Greece, Miami International Short Film Festival, Barcelona Short Film Festival, and the Hollywood International Student Film Festival. Her film Modern Greek Tragedy was nominated for best international film at the Drama Film Festival and screened at the Molodost Film Festival in Russia.

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