Faculty Directory

Derrick Cameron

Derrick Cameron is a native of Chicago, IL. Upon seeing “Do The Right Thing” at the age of 11, he set out on a path to his chosen profession. He graduated from Morehouse College in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. He then matriculated to the graduate school of film at Florida State University, where he graduated in 2002 with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Motion Picture, Television, and Recording Arts.

Derrick has written and directed four acclaimed short films entitled “The Man,” “Caroline,” “Cherry Hook,” and “It Never Entered My Mind.” “Caroline” screened at the Toronto Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, and the RAI channel in Italy. “It Never Entered My Mind” is currently on the festival circuit, having screened at the Cannes Short Film Festival, Chicago South Side Film Festival, Portland Film Festival, and won Best Short at the Malta Film Festival. Derrick has produced three short films, most notably the short film “ANTS,” which won first place in the comedy category at the 2003 College Television Awards and screened at the Cannes Film Festival, both of which Derrick attended. Several of Derrick’s screenplays have won awards, specifically his original pilot “The Saint of Striver’s Row” and his spec Western “The Widower,” which placed in the top 10% of the Nicholls Fellowship. He was also featured in the February 2004 issue of Vanity Fair magazine as one of Budweiser’s New Discovery Filmmakers. Finally, Derrick also wrote and directed the 2008 feature film, “Right on Louise.”

Derrick is a past Executive Director at Ghetto Film School (GFS) in the South Bronx, NY. He left GFS to pursue personal projects and resume his career in academia as an adjunct professor of filmmaking at New York Film Academy.

Tony Candelaria

Tony Candelaria began his career at Cafe FX in Santa Maria CA. as a CG modeler for feature films and television. In 2001 Tony worked at Warner Bros animation, developing and animating pilots. in 2005 he worked at Laika animation, making stop-motion animation for films, Coraline and Paranorman. Currently, he is creating puppets for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio at Shadow Machine. Tony lives in Los Angeles.

Hal Cantor

MA in Dramatic Writing, NYU; MS in Journalism, Northwestern University.
Hal writes television, film, and theater. He is currently writing on the second season of Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman for The History Channel. His comedy, To Hal & Back, was optioned by Sony Pictures Television. He wrote on Fusion channel’s acclaimed special, The Naked Truth: Dirty Little Secrets, which broke The Panama Papers story. Prior to that, his drama pilot, Mouthpiece, was bought by Fox Television Studios. He wrote The Lake Effect, a one-hour drama pilot for Showtime, developed with Emmy-winning director Scott Winant. Hal also sold the drama pilot, Twilight, to Sony Pictures Television. In features, he developed a comedy with John Davis Productions. Hal’s had multiple plays produced. His new one-man show, The Importance of Being Anxious, debuted at London’s Camden Fringe. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Online Screenwriting courses in Television.

Denise Carlson

Denise Carlson is a producer, consultant and development executive with twenty five years of experience in the entertainment industry. She was at Disney Channel for 9 years as the Director of Original Movies, responsible for overseeing the development and production of 47 television movies, including the megahit High School Musical, as well as other highly successful films such as Wendy Wu and The Cheetah Girls movies. She has also produced series for Disney+ and independent productions. She is on the board of the LA Femme film festival, which is dedicated to presenting films that are made by and about women. She has a BFA from Rollins College and a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Ryokan College.

Neil Casey

Neil Casey is a cinematographer whose body of work includes feature films, short films, documentaries, music videos, and live events. He started his career in New York, where he worked as a camera operator and lighting technician for film and television before moving to Los Angeles to earn his master’s degree. For over a decade he has had the pleasure of working with a variety of artists and companies, including Stan Lee’s World of Heroes and POW! Entertainment. At NYFA, Neil works to teach aspiring directors and cinematographers the art, practices, and technologies that exist in the ever-evolving world of cinematography.

Christopher Cass

BA in Theatre, University of Georgia. NY and LA credits include “Rounding Third,” “Jerusalem,” “Gaining Ground,” “RFK” (Off-Broadway), “Sleepwalk,” “Born in the RSA,” “Much Ado” (Central Park), “Henry V” (Off-Broadway) and “Macbeth.” Television credits include: “ER,” “Like Family,” “Tucker,” “Fired Up,” “Cedric the Entertainer,” “Night Court,” and many more.

Marina Catala

Marina Catala is a New York-based Producer and Editor who has developed, produced and edited hundreds of hours of television content for networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Bravo, and The CW. She graduated with an MFA in Editing from the AFI Conservatory in 2003, just as reality TV was emerging as a major presence on broadcast and cable television. She was an Editor on shows like The Biggest Loser, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother, before a desire for more creative input took her out of the edit chair. For several years she oversaw the Post departments of shows like Ink Master and I Used to be Fat, and then took her command of Post Production and applied it to all aspects of Production – from development to pre-production to field producing – as an Executive Producer. Most recently, she was the EP of Impractical Jokers for seven seasons, and the Showrunner of its spin-off, After Party, for three seasons.

Kristy Cates Chair of Performing Arts

Kristy Cates has been a professional actress in New York City for over two decades. She made her Broadway debut in the Original Broadway Cast of the smash hit, Wicked, as the understudy to Idina Menzel, and can be heard on the iconic cast recording. She went on to play the lead role of Elphaba in Wicked (Broadway, First National Tour, Chicago), Miss Bassett in Finding Neverland (Broadway), Grandma Josephine in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Original Broadway Cast/Cast Recording), Jerry Springer: the Opera (Carnegie Hall), as well as numerous off-Broadway and Regional productions.

She is a professional voiceover artist and has been heard on national tv/radio commercials for such brands as Subway, Almay Cosmetics, Chase Bank, PNC, and more. Kristy is an original member of NYFA’s Musical Theatre faculty dating back to 2009 and has taught master classes in musical theatre technique worldwide. In 2019, she was named “Young Alumni of the Year” by her esteemed alma mater, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, for her combined accomplishments in performance and teaching. Kristy is honored to be the current Chair of Musical Theatre for the Professional Conservatory of Musical Theatre at The New York Film Academy.

Craig Caton Creative Director of Media Arts Department

Craig started out by doing makeup effects and animatronic puppets on movies such as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Tremors, and Ghostbusters. Moving into the digital era, he worked as a character technical director for Disney Feature Animation and for DreamWorks Animation as a layout artist. Working for Stan Winston, Craig supervised the creation of a network of Silicon Graphics workstations that would later become a core piece of the Digital Domain when Stan partnered with James Cameron and Scott Ross. He is credited as one of the eight co-founders of Digital Domain.

Edward Cha

MFA in Film, UCLA TFT
Ed Cha is a writer-director-producer of film and theater. He has worked as a Technical Director for theater, working with world-renowned artists including, Tim Miller, Holly Hughes, Rachel Rosenthal, and Oguri. As a Line Producer, he has produced for the Rolling Stones, and produced Katie Q, Shuffle, and Hello Herman. His company Mean Panda Productions is overseeing a short film production series anthology Three Palms, View Obscured focusing on the themes of homes and homelessness. Ed’s has written and will direct one of the shorts, My Honey Bee. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Storytelling with Purpose, Scene Study, Elements of Screenwriting, and Feature Workshops. For the Filmmaking Department in LA, he teaches Thesis Prep and Producing.

Samrat Chakrabarti

Samrat Chakrabarti is a prolific, international artist. He holds a MFA in Acting from the A.R.T/ Moscow Art Theatre School Program at Harvard University. He has appeared/recurred on countless American TV shows and films including Homeland (Showtime), The Sinner (USA), 30 Rock (NBC), Mr. Robot (USA), The Sopranos (HBO MAX), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, (NETFLIX), Sneaky Pete (AMAZON), Damages (FX), Blue Bloods (CBS) and Little Voice (APPLE TV+).

Samrat also works consistently in film, both in Hollywood and International projects, ranging from Spike Lee’s “She Hate Me” to Gurinder Chadha’s “Viceroy’s House” to Sarah Colangelo’s “The Kindergarten Teacher” to Deepa Mehta’s film adaption of Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”.

In addition to being an award-winning actor, Samrat is also an acclaimed musician and director.

Xiaoxiao Chen

Xiaoxiao Chen is a professional editor managing post production processes and storytelling techniques for feature films, TV, art exhibitions, installations, and commercials. Her clients include such giants as HBO, Paramount, Museum of Modern Art, Sony Pictures, Apple, New Balance. Career history of developing creative projects including works screened at Cannes Film Festival, DOC NYC, TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and the United Nations.

Yonghui Chen Associate Vice President of IT & Systems

Yonghui Chen has been at NYFA since 2008, where he developed the IT & Systems department from the “stone age” of technology to SaaS/PaaS with multi-level structure. In his current role as the Associate Vice President of IT & Systems, Yonghui leads and guides the professional services functions within the Academy’s Information Technology Services (ITS). He is responsible for the strategic planning and project lifecycle of core business systems (and integrations to related systems), including the student information system, student portal, CRM services, marketing, finance, and related solutions. He is also expanding the scope of developing technologies to benefit the campus community, implementing innovative applications for these technologies, and enhancing the university’s information technology function, particularly its focus on supporting teaching and learning. Yonghui received his MS degree in Information Technology. His favorite TV show is Friends, and in his spare time, he enjoys reading.

Yoselin Solórzano Student Life Coordinator at New York Campus

Yoselin Solórzano is an Ecuadorian filmmaker and educator based in New York. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Producing from the New York Film Academy and a Master’s Degree in Educational Innovation from Universidad Internacional de La Rioja in Spain. With more than a decade of experience in the Ecuadorian television industry, she has worked as a Content Producer and First Assistant Director on both scripted and unscripted productions. After relocating to the United States, she joined NYFA, where she taught producing, filmmaking, and filmcraft courses. She currently serves as Student Life Coordinator at the New York campus.

Sally Chun

Sally Chun earned her M.Ed. in Postsecondary Administration & Student Affairs at USC and her B.A. in Communication at UCSB. Her area of study targets student affairs – exploring the correlation between race and socioeconmic status vs. student success and experience in higher education. Prior to joining NYFA, she served as the Student Services Advisor for USC graduate students and as a Senior Seminar Instructor for the federal educational TRIO program – Upward Bound. Currently, she teaches LAS courses at the NYFA – Los Angeles campus and also serves the Academic Affairs Manager for BFA Filmmaking & BA Media Studies students.

Amina Cruz

Amina Cruz was born and lives in Los Angeles. She hitchhiked around the country before deciding to move to New York City, where she earned her BFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design. She also holds a MFA from UCLA. Cruz’s work is held in various private collections and is a part of the Getty’s permanent collection. Her interests are based in queer culture, film/analog photography, and exploring the space between transformation and identity. Her current work explores the outsider cultures of brown queer punks throughout the Americas.