Faculty Directory

David O’Leary

BA in Film and Cognitive Science, Vassar College
David is a film and TV writer/producer, whose recent credits include working as Consulting Producer/Writer on Season 3 of NBC’s “Law & Order: Organized Crime” in 2023. O’Leary also Created/Executive Produced the UFO drama series “Project Blue Book” starring Aidan Gillen (“Game of Thrones”), alongside Oscar-winning Robert Zemeckis, which ran on HISTORY for two seasons, aired in over 165 countries, and was the #1 new cable drama series of 2018/19. O’Leary has sold projects to TNT, Miramax, Universal TV, A+E Studios and others. As a film producer, he co-produced the reality-hopping sci-fi thriller feature “Parallel” (2020) released by Vertical Entertainment, and the Netflix supernatural hit film “Eli” (2019), both available on streaming now. David has worked as a Screenwriting and Producing Instructor at New York Film Academy (NYFA) in Los Angeles for over a decade. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches The Business of Screenwriting, Elements of Screenwriting, Genre Studies, Feature Workshops, and TV Pilot. For the Producing Department in LA, he teaches Marketing and Distribution.

Luisa Parnes

MFA in Dramatic Writing (Screenwriting), NYU/Tisch
A screenwriter from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After graduating Law School in Rio, she pivoted into a career in Film and TV and never looked back. Currently a Script Consultant for Amazon Studios Originals – Brazil. In this role, Luísa serves as a story editor, working closely with multiple showrunners and creators, providing creative feedback during the development process. She’s also writing Buena Vida, a fun and gritty coming-of-age feature for Academy-Award nominated director Carlos Saldanha (Ferdinand, Rio, Ice Age), and Fox International Productions (a Disney company). Luísa wrote and directed the short film Learning to Ride, which was entered into eight festivals, and won Best Screenplay Award at the São Paulo Film Festival. She wrote a feature adaptation. Luisa’s first feature-film as a screenwriter, the Brazilian production Before I Forget (Antes Que Eu Me Esqueça, 2018, dir. Tiago Arakilian, co-produced by Fox International), premiered in theaters across Brazil in the Spring of 2018, and ran in the international festival circuit in the USA, China, Portugal, and France. It has since won multiple Juri and Audience awards to date, including Best Movie at the Thai International Film Festival, and Best Movie at the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival, and was especially revered in the 2018 Santa Barbara Film Festival. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Elements of Screenwriting, Storytelling with Purpose, Script To Screen, and Feature Workshops.

Doc Pedrolie

MFA in Screenwriting, UCLA
Doc has written the features Come Simi (Winner, Best Screenplay, Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, and Best Writing, Los Angeles Film Review 2015) and Pali Road (sold to Arclight Films at Cannes), and has written and directed The Last Cigarette. He has developed projects at Gerber Pictures, Crimson Forest, HWY 61, Unified Pictures, Royal Standard, IPG, Nala/RightBrain, and Circle of Confusion. Doc works as a story analyst for Amazon Studios. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Elements of Screenwriting, Feature Workshops, Genre Studies, Story Generation, Adaptation, Rewriting, Character Workshop, and Thesis Workshop.

Jenni Powell

Jenni Powell is the Emmy Award-winning producer of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Welcome to Sanditon, lonelygirl15, Emma Approved, and The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy. For two years she was Director of Content and Social Media for VidCon and was a producer at Felicia Day’s YouTube Premium Channel Geek & Sundry, where she produced the Geekie Award-Winning Talkin’ Comics Weekly. She was Head of Production for NewMediaRockstars (rebranded to NewRockstars after her tenure) and is now tapping into her deep love of role-playing games, which she has been playing for over 20 years, by creating strategies for translating them from the game table to a consumable and entertaining visual medium. She is also a Faculty member of the New York Film Academy where she teaches Story Generation, New Media, and Transmedia (tabletop games, role-playing games, web series, and more).

Marissa Read

Marissa is a muli-hyphante who aims to create material she can direct and act in. She first accomplished this goal when she, along with her writing partner Selyna Warren, made their first sell to AwesomenessTV in the form of a half hour streaming show called “Foursome”. Foursome ran for four seasons, broke YouTubeOriginals’ record for longest running series, and garnered over 95 million views. Marissa then went on to sell television shows and features to Nickelodeon, Tristar, American High, Sony, and more. Currently, Marissa is working alongside Cobia Kai’s Counterbalance and Sony Studios on a True Crime dramady titled, Bad Apple. On the feature side, Marissa is in development with Jordan Kerner on a kids and family Halloween movie. Marissa and Selyna’s feature, Bat Mitzvah, was just announced as a finalist for Tribeca’s Untold Stories Million Dollar Grant. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, Marissa teaches Comedy Writing, Scene Study, TV Workshops, and Web Series.

Dafina Roberts

Dafina Roberts is an award-winning writer/director/producer with television development experience.

Recently, Dafina was a 2019 Ryan Murphy Half Initiative Directing Fellow. Previously, she created the digital series Giving Me Life (In The Land Of The Deadass). The series was released in 2019 via Comcast’s Xfinity, Gravitas Ventures and iOne Digital. Previously, the series won the AT&T Audience Award for Best Episodic at the 2018 Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival. It was also an Official Selection of the 2017 New York Television Festival, 2018 Cleveland International Film Festival, and 2018 Atlanta Out On Film Festival. In 2017, Dafina was a Kickstarter Creator-In-Residence while she was in production on Giving Me Life.

Prior to that, she worked as a Director of Development & Production at Nickelodeon, where she oversaw development and current series for scripted and unscripted projects. She also co-produced the urban coming-of-age feature film, Punching At The Sun (Official Selection of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival; Winner for Best Narrative at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.)

Paul J. Salamoff

Paul J. Salamoff has been working for over 30 years in Film, TV, Video Games and Commercials as a Writer, Producer, Director, Executive, Comic Creator, Storyboard Artist and Make-Up FX Artist. He was recently named one of The Tracking Board’s Top 100 up & coming Screenwriters and has developed projects with Mosaic Media Group, Hollywood Gang, Blumhouse, Wigram Productions, Silver Pictures, Valhalla Motion Pictures, Vertigo and Eclectic Pictures. Salamoff is the author of On The Set: The Hidden Rules of Movie Making Etiquette (Now in its 4th Edition) and the graphic novels Discord, Tales of Discord, Hired Guns, Logan’s Run and issues of Vincent Price Presents. His short stories and essays have been included in acclaimed anthologies including Midian Unmade: Tales From Clive Barker’s Nightbreed and The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring The Blade Runner Universe and he is a two-time Bram Stoker Award Nominee. Salamoff made his feature-film directorial debut with Encounter, a multi award-winning Sci-Fi/Drama based on his original screenplay that stars Luke Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Cheryl Texiera and Tom Atkins. Encounter won “Best Independent Film” at The 46th Annual SATURN Awards. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Online Screenwriting, Genre Studies, Sequential Art, Script To Screen, and Feature Workshops.

Jerry Shandy

MFA in Screenwriting, USC
Jerry is a writer-producer who has credits on such television series as Batwoman, Dominion, and Perception. In addition, he’s sold numerous pilots and feature film scripts. Jerry has taught at NYFA, both in the United States and abroad, across multiple departments, including Screenwriting, Producing, Filmmaking, and Acting. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches TV Workshops, Feature Workshops, Business of Screenwriting, and Online Screenwriting

Jan Epstein Schwaid

BFA in Writing for Screen and Television, USC/Cinema-Television
Jan has written for 15 years across games, podcasts, marketing, and short films. She wrote games for Aeria Games & Entertainment, PlayNext Inc, and Kayat Games/Singta Games. She was the head writer on Nosh: Bite Size Adventures, an animated children’s cooking show. Wrote the short film The Noodle Man, which is streaming on Amazon Prime. Has written for Glamour.com and Fox Digital. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Podcasting, and Story Generation.

Alex Simmons Screenwriting Instructor

Alex Simmons is an award-winning freelance writer, writing coach/teacher, and creative arts consultant.  He’s written for Disney Books, Penguin-Random House, and Marvel/DC/Archie Comics. Simmons is the creator of the acclaimed adventure book series Blackjack. He’s also developed scripts for plays, teleplays, documentaries, interactive live shows, and animation projects.  Simmons has taught creative arts masterclasses for students and educators in the US, West Indies, Africa, and Europe. He’s taught screenwriting at the New York Film Academy.  Simmons has been a guest speaker, served on numerous arts and education panels, delivered lectures on children’s entertainment mediums, and on empowering young people through the arts. He founded the annual family event, Kids Comic Con, and three comic arts exhibits, which have traveled abroad.

Sue Jin Song

MFA in Acting, NYU/Tisch
A “Usual Suspect” at New York Theater Workshop, where she worked with Van Lier playwrights on developing new work. She has acted in theaters in New York City and regionally around the country, including world premieres written by Paula Vogel and Velina Hasu Houston. Film/TV credits include New Amsterdam, Generat+ion, Law & Order, Won’t Back Down, and Someone Like You. Sue Jin also wrote and acted in a one woman play Children of Medea, which was awarded “Best of DC Fringe” and was subsequently produced by Constellation Theatre. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Acting as part of the Script To Screen course. In the Producing Department, she teaches Acting for Producers. In the Filmmaking Department, she teaches Acting for Filmmakers.

Jenny Sterner Associate Chair of Screenwriting

MFA in Screenwriting, New York Film Academy.
Jenny has developed a manga for Seven Seas Entertainment. She is the creator of the web series Searching for Eden. She served as Coordinator of the Screenwriting Department for five years before taking over as Associate Chair. She teaches Story Generation and Building & Researching Your World for the Department.

Alan Trezza

BA, Film & Television, Fordham University
Alan Trezza wrote and produced the zombie comedy Burying the Ex, which was directed by Joe Dante and starred Anton Yelchin and Ashley Greene. He wrote and executive produced the thriller We Summon the Darkness starring Alexandra Daddario and Keean Johnson. Alan has sold screenplays to Miramax Films and Paramount Pictures, and has developed projects for such Hollywood legends as Drew Barrymore, Tony Scott, and Ridley Scott. He is currently casting his next script Sanctuary, a supernatural horror film that will be directed by John Leonetti and produced by Joel Silver. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Script To Screen, Feature Workshops, Adaptation, Rewriting, and Story Generation.

Myrta Vida

Myrta Vida (Meer-Tah Vee-Dah) earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri –St. Louis (UMSL), & is a Third World Newsreel Fellow (TWN, 2022). Born & raised in Puerto Rico, Ms. Vida’s also a decorated U.S. Army Veteran.

She’s a Producer for 3DMC, the Production Company for the award-winning Independent Films: ‘tangerine’, ‘The Florida Project’, ‘The Infiltrators’, & ‘Premature’.

Ms. Vida’s Feature Screenplay, ‘What The Boy Couldn’t Say’, placed TOP 10% at the 2021 ACADEMY NICHOLL Fellowship Screenplay Competition.

Her Short Documentary ‘Second Responders’ was an OFFICIAL NOMINEE at both the Diversity in Cannes Short Film Showcase (2021) & HBO’s Official Latino Film Festival (2021), & a Dr. Abigail Disney’s Fork Films GRANT WINNER (2021).

Ms. Vida’s Short Thriller ‘Endlich’, was a WINNER at Out of The Can International Film Festival -UK (2021), a NOMINEE at the Seattle Film Festival (2021), & a SEMI-FINALIST at the Austin Arthouse Film Festival (2021).

Since 2010, she’s been a Story Consultant & Script Doctor for Independent Filmmakers all over the world, & has led Writing & Production workshops in English & Spanish for disenfranchised communities. Ms. Vida currently serves as Faculty at the New York Film Academy (NYFA) & is a Board Member for its Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Council (DEI).

Nebojsa Vulovich

Selyna Warren

Selyna Warren makes up one half of the multi-hyphenate team S&M, along with Marissa Read. They are writers and directors who act in their own material. They sold our first show, Foursome, to ATV/Youtube Originals and continued to showrun the series which ran for four seasons, breaking the network’s record. They worked with CounterBalance and Sony on the 1/2 hour comedy, Bad Apple. In the feature space they are writing an *NSYNC love letter alongside Rachel Bloom for Tristar. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, Selyna teaches Comedy Writing, Acting as part of the Script To Screen course, TV Workshops, and Web Series.