Faculty Directory

Keshav Moodliar

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Keshav Moodliar is an actor from New Delhi, India. He graduated from Delhi University and majored in English Literature. After graduation Keshav applied to, and is the first Indian, to be accepted into The Juilliard School’s MFA in Acting program. At Juilliard in his final year he played the swimmer ‘Ray’ in the play ‘Red Speedo’. Since graduation Keshav has performed Off-Broadway with The Acting Company. He played the role of The Duke in Measure for Measure and was also in Native Son which was heralded as one of the best plays of 2019. He also played Romeo in The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s production of Romeo and Juliet. He recently wrapped shooting the pilot for a new television show for FX which stars Chris Messina and Ari Graynor. He can also be seen in the mini series SINK SANK SUNK starring Laura Linney which is available on Revry TV

Anne Moore Chair of Performing Arts Department

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Anne Moore has been teaching at New York Film Academy since 2010, and has been an Associate Chair in the Acting Department since 2014. In that time, she has created and produced the Student-Directed Plays Series and Alumni Industry Showcases. Her TV credits include: GREY’S ANATOMY, LIFE, VEGAS, SEX AND THE CITY, and LAW & ORDER. Her NYC Off-Broadway theater credits include: SUMMER ’69 the Musical (Douglas Fairbanks Theater) and SIT N’ SPIN, co-written by Ms. Moore (Atlantic Theater). She also was one fourth of the critically acclaimed sketch comedy group, “THE FLYING QUEENS,” and had her own multi media show at Catch a Rising Star entitled, “Anne Moore and More and More.” In 2006, Ms. Moore directed and produced the award winning short documentary, CZECH DAZE. She graduated Fordham University at Lincoln Center in New York City with a BA in Theater and Film, and studied Meisner Technique at William Esper Studios.

Corey Pepper Acting for Film Instructor

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BA, SUNY at Binghamton. Founding member of National Lampoon Players, studying improv with Chris Barnes and Michael Haggarty. Graduate of Warner Bros. Comedy Writers program. Thirty years experience as actor, writer, comic and teacher. Has appeared in such projects as “Studs Lonigan” for NBC, and “The Quickening” for A&E.

Ben Mehl Acting for Film Instructor

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Ben Mehl is best known for his role as Dante on Netflix’s YOU. He has taught Movement and Shakespeare’s Clowns at the NYU Graduate Acting Program, where he also received his MFA and completed a teaching mentorship in Movement under Jim Calder and Voice under Scott Miller. He teaches at the New York Film Academy, HB Studio, and has also taught at The Public Theater, Red Bull Theater, Vim Vigor, Clown Gym, the Refugee Youth Summer Academy, the New School and as a private coach. He is a member of The Actors Center and a volunteer at the 52nd Street Project. Acting credits include: TV: YOU, THE GOOD WIFE, SUPERNATURAL INVESTIGATOR. Film: VIRAL BEAUTY, THE FLY ROOM, OFF-DUTY.Off-Broadway: THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR, SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL; (Red Bull Theater); PERICLES, COMEDY OF ERRORS (Public Theater). Regional: THE CRUCIBLE, YENTL (Cleveland Playhouse); TROUBLEMAKER (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION (Williamstown Theatre Festival); HENRY V (Two River Theater); LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST (Chautauqua Theater Company). Other New York: DANNYKRISDONNAVERONICA, JULIUS CAESAR (Wheelhouse Theater); AT THE TABLE (Fault Line Theatre); HABIT (P.S. 122)

Julio O. Ramos Acting for Film Instructor

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MFA in Film Directing and Production from UCLA; BA in Journalism from Universidad San Martin de Porres (Peru). Julio is the Writer/Director of “A Doctor’s Job” and “Behind the Mirrors,” films that were showcased in Telluride, Camerimage and CFC WorldWide, awarded with top prizes at Palm Springs ShortFest, Nashville and La Habana. He is an Alum of the Berlinale Talent Campus.

David Robinette Associate Chair of Performing Arts Department

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MA in Performance Theory/Playwriting, California State University, Northridge and BA in English/Creative Writing, Hunter College. Television actor with appearances on “The Young and the Restless,” “Law & Order,” “As the World Turns,” and “All My Children.” Film role in “Cry Funny Happy,” Official Selection at Sundance.

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 Acting for Film Instructor

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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 Acting for Film Instructor

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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 Acting for Film Instructor

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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.

 

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.

Melissa Sullivan Acting for Film Instructor

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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’.

Cle Thompson Acting Instructor

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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.

Matthew Toronto Acting for Film Instructor

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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.

Charley Tucker Acting for Film Instructor

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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.