Faculty Directory

Anthony Cook

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Anthony Cook is a filmmaker from Cincinnati, Ohio. He earned an internship with POW! Entertainment which was owned by the legendary comic book writer Stan Lee. He earned his MFA degree in Filmmaking at New York Film Academy in Burbank, CA.

For his thesis project he directed/wrote/produced his first feature film “Wal-bob’s”. Anthony went to the American Film Market and sold “Wal-bob’s that is currently available to watch on Tubi. Anthony produced a web-series for Lionsgate and Kevin Hart titled “Dead House” working with Andrew “King Bach” on that and other projects since 2011.

When Anthony isn’t on set he teaches at New York Film Academy in Burbank in the Cinematography Department.  He teaches writing, directing and producing since 2013.

The latest project is a feature film entitled “This Land” in which Anthony was a Producer of the film. Here is a link to the film’s official site: https://www.terrorfilms.net/film/land

Anthony’s website is www.anthonyjohncook.com and IMDB credits are under Anthony Cook

Anastasia Coon Academic Advisor

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BFA in Theatre – Acting Emphasis, Chapman University. Conservatory Training Certificate, Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. MFA Acting, UT Austin. Adjunct Instructor at USC, Teaching Artist: Pasadena Playhouse, Guest Artist: Directors Lab West, Board Member: 2nd Sundays Screenplays LA.

Javier Costa

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Steadicam operator with over 10 years professional experience in the camera department. Active member of the Society of Camera Operators, The Steadicam Guild, and IATSE Local 600. Credits include commercials for clients such as McDonald’s and Target, music videos for artists such as Ice Cube and Megadeath, operating Technocrane on the documentary “Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron”, and television shows including “Survivor”.

Merrilyn Crouch

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Merrilyn Crouch received an MFA in Theater from The University of Southern California and has worked as an actor, writer and director in commericals, television, and film for over 20 years. Merrilyn has written, produced and directed promos for clients including CNN International, TNT, FOX, Discovery Channel, NUVO TV and others. She can be seen on the Food Network’s Good Eats in the recurring role as Alton Brown’s sister, Marsha.

Miguel Cruz

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Miguel Cruz is a television and film director with credits that include nearly 200 TV episodes. Shows include two seasons of the number one Spanish sitcom Aida and the Emmy winning Caiga Quien Caiga. Cruz directed and produced feature film Vulnerable, which starred renowned Spanish actress Paula Echevarria. He has also developed a remake of the Argentinian blockbuster Permitidos for 20th Century Fox Studios. Cruz’s most recent project was as director for the Disney show Bunk’d. As well as a NYFA instructor, Cruz is the Director of NYFA’s Fulbright Program Initiatives, a member of the Directors Guild of America, a former Fulbright Scholar, and serves on the board of the Fulbright Association of LA.

Rick Curnutt

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MFA in Film Directing, Chapman University; BA in Cultural Anthropology, Boston University. Joined Trench Film Group (Beijing) in 1998, and continued on as a cinematographer, editor, and director of various award-winning independent documentaries, films, and music videos over the next seven years in China. His film, Run China won the honor of “Top 10 Documentaries of the Year” at the Chinese National Documentary Society Film Festival in Guangzhou, 2005; and has aired on over 20 Chinese television networks. Directed short films Potty Talk, Alarm, and Free Lunch, which all went on to screen and garner awards at select film festivals around the globe. Free Lunch was also picked up by Franco-German TV Network “Arte” after screening in competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France.

Morgan Dameron

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BA in Film & Television Production, USC
Morgan Dameron wrote, directed, and produced the feature film, Different Flowers. She previously worked at Bad Robot Productions on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Trek Into Darkness. She has developed projects with Paul Feig’s Powderkeg Media, 3BlackDot, Olive Bridge Entertainment, and Very Big World. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Art of the Pitch, The Business of Screenwriting, Script To Screen, Feature Workshops, Adaptation, Elements of Screenwriting, Story Generation. For the Producing Department she teaches Navigating The Industry online.

David D’Andrade

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Instructor for Foundation Drawing, Storyboard Drawing, Principles of Visual Aesthetics, Life Drawing, Media and Culture

J. Claude Deering Acting for Film Instructor

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BFA from Stella Adler Studios at NYU’s Tisch School. Theatre credits include two seasons at The Williamstown Theatre Festival. A member of Lincoln Center’s LCT Directors LAB. Film and TV credits include “Side Effects” (dir. Steven Soderbergh), “The Ugly Truth,” “Room 104” (HBO), “NCIS,” “Entourage,” “12 Deadly Days” (YouTube Red), and “Inside the Box” (ABC/Shondaland). Digital producer/writer/director for Funny or Die, CollegeHumor, MSN, Fullscreen, and Chiat/Day.

Nunzio DeFilippis Dean of Faculty, Chair of Screenwriting

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MFA in Screenwriting, USC

Nunzio has worked in television, comics, film, and games for over two decades. Along with his writing partner (Christina Weir), he was a writer/producer on HBO’s Arliss and wrote for the Disney Channel series Kim Possible. They have had features optioned at Hollywood Pictures, Process Media, and Humble Journey Films, and developed a video game at Sony and a TV movie at Oxygen. He and his partner have written for the comics New X-Men, Adventures of Superman, Batman Confidential, and Dragon Age, among many others. They created the comic franchises Bad Medicine (developed at Closed On Mondays with NBC), The Amy Devlin Mysteries (developed as a TV series at E!), and Frenemy of the State (co-created with Rashida Jones, optioned as a feature film by Imagine Entertainment/Universal Pictures.). He serves as the Chair of Screenwriting and Dean of Faculty at NYFA LA, and for the Screenwriting Department, teaches Elements of Screenwriting, Feature Workshops, Sequential Art, Story Generation, Genre Studies, and Thesis Workshops.

Maria Del Bagno Acting for Film Instructor

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Graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, apprenticed under renowned master choreographer, Jaime Rogers, and the “Father of Jazz Dance,” Luigi. Over 25 years of experience as a dance instructor. Named one of L.A.’s top choreographers by L.A. Jazz Dance Foundation.

Michael DeMeritt

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Michael DeMeritt is a graduate of Michigan State University. After spending five years as a Studio Coordinator and Producer at United Artists, he was accepted into the Director’s Guild of America Producers Training Program (DGA Trainee). He began his journey in the DGA as a 2nd AD and steadily advanced from 2nd AD to 1st AD over the course of 11 consecutive years working on two Star Trek TV series: “Voyager” (all seven seasons) and “Enterprise” (all four seasons). With extensive DGA credits, he has also taken on the role of Producer for various projects, ranging from commercials to feature films. One of his recent accomplishments includes completing production on the feature film “Rock and Doris Try to Write a Movie” in early 2023, scheduled for release in 2024. Notable producing credits include the feature film “The Misadventures of Biffle and Shooster,” TV series “Gen’s Guiltless Gourmet” and “Kitchen Academy,” and numerous commercials. Among his AD credits are “Make It or Break It,” “Vegas,” “Close to Home,” and “Citizen Cohen.” Michael has been published as an author in gaming magazine “Knights of the Dinner Table” and the “DGA Quarterly.” He has received awards for his copywriting skills and continues to serve as a script consultant for projects in development.

Kevin DiNovis

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For the past twenty-five years, Kevin DiNovis has worked as a screenwriter and film director. His debut feature, Surrender Dorothy (1998), won multiple awards, including the Grand Jury prize for Best Feature at the Slamdance, Chicago Underground, and New York Underground Film Festivals. His subsequent work includes the political satire Death & Texas (2004), which stars Academy Award nominees Charles Durning and Mary Kay Place.

As a writer, DiNovis adapted Mary Higgins Clark’s bestselling thriller Loves Music, Loves to Dance for USA Networks. He was the first writer selected to inaugurate Marvel Studio’s Writers Program. In addition to adapting two features and one short subject for the celebrated ‘MCU’, DiNovis participated in an uncredited dialogue polish of the script for Thor.

In 2019, DiNovis presented his paper entitled “‘The Other Fellow’: ‘Transference of Identity’ in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association’s Conference in Atlanta, GA. He followed that up at SAMLA’s 2022 Conference with a paper entitled, “A Little Help from His Friends: The Expanding Role of MI-6 in the New 007 Cinematic Universe.”

John Dion Acting for Film Instructor

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MFA in Directing, University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts; BA in Visual Arts-Media, University of California San Diego; 8-Week Program, New York Film Academy. Feature, series, and short film credits with Hallmark. Extensive film festival play including Palm Springs, Clermont-Ferrand, and Austin. BAFTA LA and Emmy Foundation College Television Awards student nominations. Short film television distribution on Canal+, Shorts International, and Mediaset.

Debra Dragotto Acting for Film Instructor

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MFA in Screenwriting, UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film, & New Media; BA in Drama, Hofstra University. Debra has studied Shakespeare at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, and Film Production at the School of Visual Arts, as well as private study with some of the leading names in the acting world. She has won numerous Drama-Logue Awards for stage directing, as well as the Jack K. Sauter Award for Artist Merit from UCLA, where she was also selected to direct her film after a year-long elimination process. Debra has credits in Acting, Directing for stage, film, and television, as well as for Casting Director, and Television Producer.

Frederic Durand

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Frederic Durand graduated from the Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs and studied for a year at NYC’s Cooper Union while earning his Master’s degree. He has worked on both animated and feature films in addition to his commercial work for over 20 years and has served at such companies as Disney Animation, Sony Imageworks, DreamWorks, Jim Henson’s Workshop, MPC, the Mill, and Digital Domain. He also co-founded Noroc Studio and is the lighting and shading supervisor at the Los Angeles company Mousetrappe. His prior film work includes Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Tomb Raider 1 and 2, SharkTales, Speed Racer, 2012, Beowulf, Monster House, Chicken Little, and many more.

Having authored a number of educational DVDs that instructed viewers in the subject of computer-generated illumination, Durand is an expert lighting artist employing a methodology that is as creative as it is technical and utilizes core elements of cinematography. In addition to teaching at NYFA, Durand also serves on the faculty the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, the Global Cinematography Institute, the Otis College of Design, and the University of Southern California.