Faculty Directory

Arthur Helterbran, Jr.

Arthur has been with NYFA since 2011, holding many leadership positions within the Academy. Currently he is a full time senior faculty member focusing on film directing, while creating and producing his own projects within the greater Los Angeles area.

Amanda Hood

Amanda Hood is an Australian comedy writer and director based in New York City. She began her career making documentaries for the BBC. After a stint at Working Title Films in London, Amanda moved into script development and freelanced on everything from commercials to TV shows to feature films. She has written and directed ten short films which have screened at major film festivals and aired around the world.  In 2023, Amanda completed a director’s attachment with director Erin White on Paramount Plus’ TV show, Paper Dolls. Prior to that, she completed a director’s attachment with Oscar-nominated director Bruce Beresford on the Sony Pictures feature film, Ladies in Black. Amanda has received the Australian Directors Guild Metroscreen Fellowship and her feature script Baby Boomers was a finalist in the Page International Screenwriting Awards, placing in the top ten out of more than 6000 scripts from around the world. Amanda is a graduate of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and loves mentoring the world’s next generation of storytellers.

Kenneth Johnson

Writer, Director, Producer. Creator of V, The Incredible Hulk, Alien Nation, The Bionic Woman, and other Emmy Award-winning shows. Director of numerous TV movies and feature films, including Short Circuit 2 and Steel. Winner of the prestigious Viewers for Quality Television Award, multiple Saturn Awards, and The Sci-Fi Universe Life Achievement Award.

Lenny Jones

I’ve worked for the last 30+ years in Los Angeles as a Sound Designer, Editor and Supervisor.

My body of work includes hit TV shows such as Ancient Aliens, Curse of Oak Island, Penn and Teller’s BS and Unsolved Mysteries. Theatrical campaigns for Sony, Dreamworks, Warner Bros, Paramount, 20th and Marvel studios. VR experiences for Netfilx’s Stranger Things, Daredevil and Death Note. Independent features: Terror on The Prairie (2022), The Fallen (2022), Cinnamon (2023) and Bunker (2023) I also own my own publishing company for Music and Sound Design elements. I’ve been teaching at NYFA since 2022.

Claude Kerven

Kerven’s career began with the debut of his short film Candy Store, which won an Academy Award for Best Dramatic Student Film. In 1982, he directed a series of Afterschool Specials for ABC-TV, including the Emmy Award-winning Starstruck and the Director’s Guild of America-nominated High School Narc. Kerven also directed over 25 short films for Saturday Night Live, including the much-celebrated Synchronized Swimmers. His most recent directorial work, They Never Found Her, starred Madmen’s Elisabeth Moss and Fargo’s Peter Stormare. In 1990, Kerven co-authored Mortal Thoughts, for Columbia Pictures, starring Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel, and Demi Moore. 

Rebecca Louisell

Rebecca Louisell graduated from Carleton College with a B.A. in Studio Art (photography, mixed media) and an M.F.A. in Production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts (USC). While at USC, she was awarded several scholarships and a College Television Award for her producing and directing work. Moving between indie narrative, documentary and new media projects, Louisell has served as Associate Producer on Limited Partnership: a documentary about love, marriage and deportation which was awarded the IDA Humanitarias Documentary Award 2014 and showed on PBS’ Independent Lens, and You See Me, which screened at Dances With Films and Docutah Film Festivals. She is Producer-Director on an upcoming web series, LA Picker.

Dana Lustig

Dana moved to LA from Israel and started her career after graduating the American Film Institute. She has directed five feature films and produced over 20. Her latest work includes Jungle, a true survival story with Daniel Radcliffe, and Look Away with India Eisley, Jason Isaac, and Mira Sorvino. Recently, Dana executive produced Spider in the Web with Ben Kingsley and Monica Bellucci, and has also shot nine episodes of the mega-hit Israeli TV show Very Important Man. As a director, Dana worked on Kill Me Later with Selma Blair, Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Wild Cherry with Rob Schneider, and A Thousand Kisses Deep with Jodie Whittiker (Doctor Who).

Bruce MacWilliams

Bruce MacWilliams (AKA: Brewster MacWilliams) is an award-winning film director that started directing commercials at Biscuit Filmworks in 2002. He now works as an independent director at Fast Rocket Films. He is a member of the DGA.

Bruce MacWilliams is honored to be featured alongside super star film directors, Fredrik Bond and Daniel Kleinman, in Tom von Logue Newth’s excellent book about TV commercial production; The Ad-Makers.

At the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Bruce was selected by the Saatchi & Saatchi Agency as one of the best new commercial directors in the world. In 2004, Shots Magazine (London), Grand Prix Awards Edition, ranked Bruce MacWilliams the 3rd best new commercial director in the world.

Bruce has now directed more than 100 TV commercials (in America, UK, and Canada) and PSAs (Public service announcements) to bring awareness to horrific conditions in Haiti, Darfur, Uganda, working with many stars including Kobe Bryant, Channing Tatum, James Franco, Ludacris, and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers. He has also filmed and interviewed: Senator Mitt Romney, and President Barack Obama.

In 2006, NBC / Universal Studios hired Bruce MacWilliams to write and create a half hour comedy TV series titled, AD DADS. In 2011, Bruce directed a commercial campaign for Cox Communications that aired on the Super Bowl and won Bruce a Mark Award for best direction.

Bruce MacWilliams earned his BA studying architecture, photography, and creative writing at Cornell University. He studied filmmaking at Columbia University. He went on to write and direct an independent feature film, The Last Hand, (AKA: After the Game) which was showcased at the Cannes Film Festival. Lions Gate Entertainment distributed The Last Hand domestically and internationally in 2000.

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.

Bart Mastronardi

BA, Hunter College, Film Studies. Cinematographer of commercials and numerous short films along with feature films: The Blood Shed; Crossed; Gallery of Fear: Far Cry From Home and By Her Hand; documentary for Bravo TV Unlocking The Hope, Vidal Sasson; and Shear Genius Season 1 casting NYC. Bart is also the director, cinematographer, writer and producer of the horror feature film Vindication, which is released by RSquared Films.

Gil McDonald

MFA in Screenwriting, American Film Institute; BA in Radio/TV/Film Production, Minor in Psychology, Howard University. Award-winning writer, producer, and director on “Motel Paradise,” a short film selected and screened at the prestigious AFI Theatre.

Hazel McKibbin

Michel Moon

BFA in Theatre Studies from York University; graduated best producer of his year at the Toronto Film School. Over ten years production experience in almost every department. Directed, acted in, produced, and photographed award-winning films in a half dozen countries.

Till Neumann

Till N. Neumann was born and raised in Munich, Germany. He worked in Film Production before coming to New York City where he worked for hands on as a cinematographer. Till has compiled an impressive resume, shooting over thirty short films, numerous commercials, music videos, and over ten feature films as well as directing numerous commercials, shorts, and a feature film. He spent 3 years living and working in Los Angeles but decided his home and inspiration was and always has been New York.

Till Neumann’s work on El Camino received great reviews from Roger Ebert. He received awards for Best Cinematography for his film The Bakery at the Interpret film festival, as well as a special award for his cinematography at the CineVegas festival for his work on the movie 5up 2down along with best short film awards for The Strange Case Of Marie France at the Newport International Film Festival and the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

David Lewis Newman Associate Chair of Film Arts Department (Filmmaking)

Graduating from Boston University, David Lewis Newman moved to Los Angeles, where he was accepted into the highly competitive Assistant Directors Training Program, ultimately qualifying him for membership in the Directors Guild of America.

A partial list of Newman’s A.D. credits include features How I Got into College, Firebirds and Two Moon Junction; series The A-Team, The Flash and FBI: The Untold Stories; and TV movies Roe vs. Wade, Nothing But the Truth, and Bionic Ever After. In 1985, he wrote, directed and co-produced the dramatic short film, The Thin Line.

Throughout Newman’s A.D. career, he continued writing, making his first sale to the CBS/Warner Bros. series The Flash. Subsequent writing assignments led to producer/writer positions on UPN/Paramount’s The Sentinel, and for three seasons on Paramount’s syndicated series, Viper, where he also directed multiple episodes. Newman worked for two seasons as a writer/producer on the syndicated sci-fi/action series Mutant X, as well as writing episodes of 18 Wheels of Justice and Pensacola: Wings of Gold.

Theatrically, Newman developed and directed The Last Telethon, presented at The Comedy Central Stage in Hollywood. A staged reading of Newman’s Beautiful Dreamer, a musical featuring the life and songs of America’s first great songwriter, Stephen Foster, was presented at the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival in Auburn, NY. He was also invited to present the show at the New York Musical Festival. He directed a workshop production of his latest play, Friendly Valley, a dark family comedy, at the Santa Paula Theater Center in April, 2022.

Newman’s professional affiliations include membership in the aforementioned DGA, the Writers Guild of America and SAG/AFTRA. For a list of Newman’s film and TV credits, you can visit his IMDB entry: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0628057/?ref_=nv_sr_8

Matteo Nurizzo

Matteo was an industrial designer and graphic artist in Italy. He holds a Master of Science in Industrial Design and Fashion Management from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
Director and Editor of Style In Frames. Client: Comune di Milano, worked at “Lillisimone” as a graphic and video artist.
Clients: Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Tissot, Panerai, Opel.
As freelance videographer and editor, clients: BM Factory, Banque PSA Finance, Castiglioni.
After becoming an editor, moved to Los Angeles and ended up editing and shooting various shorts and features independent films and Documentaries. He has been an Avid Certified Instructor since 2013.
He has been Teaching Bachelor and Master classes in Editing and History of films since 2007 at the New York Film Academy in the Filmmaking, Liberal Arts and Science and Documentary Departments.