NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Luisa Ibanez Suarez

Luisa Ibañez is a P.G.A Senior Content Film and TV Producer and member of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. She has more than twenty-five years of experience in the US and LATAM media industry, including an overall of 1000 hours of content produced in different formats for diverse audiences and three International Emmy nominations for projects premiered on the US primetime. From this journey, she understands the expectations of diverse audiences in Latin America, Spain and Latinos in the US. Credits as Development Producer, Line Producer, and Supervising Producer on the successful Hispanic TV Series and telenovelas from NBC Telemundo, Univision, Televisa, and Movistar prove her high-quality deliveries in projects distributed in more than 100 countries and over 35 languages.

Melissa Sullivan Acting for Film Instructor

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

Michael Sutherland

Michael Sutherland trained at NYU Tisch / Stella Adler studio in drama, where he studied with legendary actor, Mark Rylance. He got his masters at LAMDA, where he was a finalist for the Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Enterprises. On screen, he recently appeared in the Austin Film Festival and Outfest winning pilot Day Jobs and opposite Anjelica Fellini (Teenage Bounty Hunters) directed by Mark Burley (EP Orange is the New Black) On stage, he’s played Benedick directed by Tony nominee Moritz Von Stuelpnagel (B’way Present Laughter), Brad in the B’way benefit of Rocky Horror with Neil Patrick Harris and devised a Shakespeare based original show for the Broad Stage. He composed for the Twilight the Musical parody at New World Stages starring Meghann Fahy and directed by Tony nominee Gabriel Barre. As a writer, his first script was an Academy Nicholl Semifinalist and he’s gone on to have several projects in development.

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.

Andrea Swift

A cinematic storyteller with more than 20 years experience, Swift has served as executive producer and director of PBS’ Emmy-nominated documentary series, In the Life. Her films have screened at the United Nations Earth Summit and festivals worldwide, including Berlin International Film Festival (Best Short Film), Raindance Film Festival (Best of Festival Selection), CIFF, and Chicago International Film Festival (Silver). She has created content for AMC, History, WE, the NY Knicks and Madison Square Garden; and has directed and written for top talent including Oscar winner Susan Saradon, nominees Laura Linney, Patricia Clarkson, and Lesley Gore, and Tony Award and Emmy Award winners including Alan Cumming, Ossie Davis, Harvey Fierstein, Cherry Jones, Denis O’Hare, and RuPaul. Currently, Swift focuses on writing, story producing, and creative consulting. MFA, Columbia University.

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.

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.

Robert Taylor

After graduating from the American Film Institute with a Master’s in Screenwriting, Robert Solana Taylor got his start on the Netflix series “Grace and Frankie.” He wrote and produced the first eight seasons of the Netflix/DreamWorks series “Spirit Riding Free.” He has developed with Dan Lin (Head of Film at Netflix, the “It” movies), Kiri Hart (the “Star Wars” franchise, “The Creator”), Glen Mazzara (showrunner of “The Walking Dead”) and Peter Dinklage’s Estuary Films. He also works extensively with the Young Storytellers nonprofit and thinks you should too!

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.

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