NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Frederic Durand

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.

Andrew Eisenman Acting for Film Instructor

MFA in Theater Arts and Acting, Brandeis University; BA in Drama, San Francisco State University. Founding Company Member of Leviathan Lab and American Bard Theater. Directed at Leviathan Lab and Ma-Yi Theater Company in New York and Our Gang Teen Ensemble in LA. As an actor, Andrew has performed with various professional companies such as The Public Theater, New Group, Ma-Yi Theater, and the National Asian American Theater Company.

Josh Eiserike

MFA in Film Production, USC
Josh Eiserike is a writer/cartoonist who has written for television shows such as Legacies (CW), Warigami (CW SEED), and G.I. Joe: Renegades (HUB). Additionally, Josh has sold a show to POP TV and a couple of TV movies. He has also written and published several comic books, including The Very Final Last Girls from Darby Pop Publishing and Charm City from Scout Comics. Originally from Washington, D.C., Josh previously worked as a newspaper reporter, covering everything from Congress to the Warped Tour. Other writing credits include MAD Magazine. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Sequential Art, Feature Workshops, TV Pilot, Elements of Screenwriting, Story Generation, as well as Online Screenwriting.

Kadina de Elejalde Acting for Film Instructor

Kadina de Elejalde is an actress and Acting teacher who has appeared in numerous films and television shows, most notably in HBO’s Indictment: The McMartin Trial, Richard the Second, and The Haunting. She has also worked extensively in the theater in both Los Angeles and New York; Her credits include “Another Part of the House” by Migdalia Cruz at Classic Stage Company, and “Bicycle Country” by Nilo Cruz at The Strasberg Theater in Los Angeles. She is committed to working on new plays, and was the recipient of a Dramalogue award for her work in The Padua New Playwright’s Festival. Presently, she is an Acting Instructor at New York Film Academy, but has also taught at Columbia College Hollywood and Woodbury University in Los Angeles. She recently was interviewed on a podcast series called Best In Fest which is titled “The Essence of Character.” She holds a Masters Degree in Acting from the Yale School of Drama.

Danielle Evenson

MA in Communication, USC
Danielle Evenson & Heather Huntington are two halves of one set of headphones. The podcast writers have been featured in Deadline, WhoHaHa, Podcast Delivery, PodFluence, Audio Drama Debut, Fiction Podcast Weekly, Pajiba and Broadway World. When they’re not knee deep in sound cues, they also write for TV and film, including The New Adventures of Old Christine, Noggin’s Tales From The Playground, PBS’s Frankenstein MD, MGM’s Craft, Cafe of Love, for Reel One and a Christmas series for Disney. Their audio series, Up a River for Aural Stories launched this summer, and their series A Midsemester Night’s Dream starring Bridgerton’s Charithra Chanran will be released this fall. They teach together (as they write together) for Screenwriting LA in classes like Podcasting and Storytelling with Purpose.

Tim Fannon Acting for Film Instructor

MFA in Acting, Brooklyn College; BS in Theater, Skidmore College; trained at the Royal National Theatre and the British Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Extensive stage experience and commercials; film and television roles include “Kidnap”, “Bar Flies”, “After I’m Dead”, and “Review with Forrest MacNeil”. Founding member/artistic director of Fovea Floods Theater, and company member of Moving Arts.

Mary Beth Fielder

Mary Beth Fielder is a filmmaker and teacher with over twenty five years experience in film and television.

Fielder has written screenplays for Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros and directed the television drama, thirtysomething. She wrote and produced award-winning feature films Wild About Harry, named Best of Fest at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2009 and Togetherness Supreme, winner of Best International Feature Film at the 2011 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and multiple African Movie Academy Awards. Fielder has taught film directing, screenwriting and acting at USC, Loyola Marymount University, Tel Aviv University, New York Film Academy and the Dodge College of Film and Media at Chapman University.

Adam Finer

MA in Film, Staffordshire University
Adam Finer served as Director of Market Research at Universal Pictures. He is the co-founder of Arpil Entertainment, a literary management and production company. He consults with individuals in career planning, as well as working with content creators, writers, directors, producers, and studio executives to design marketing plans, and business and branding strategies. He was producer on War of the Worlds: The Next Wave, The Day the Earth Stopped, and Megafault for Syfy. A former Associate Chair of Screenwriting, Adam currently guest lectures in Adaptation, Business of Screenwriting, and Transmedia.

Meghan Fitzmartin

BS in Church Ministries, South Eastern University
Meghan has written in television, comics, and podcasts. She has written for Supernatural and DC Superhero Girls, and wrote the animated Justice Society: World War II. Meghan has written Red Robin and Young Justice for DC Comics. She created the podcast Red Rhino and co-hosts the unscripted podcast Wine & Comics. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Podcasting and Sequential Art.

David Fratto

Executive Producer, BBC Worldwide; Sr. Director of Development, Scholastic Inc.; Director of Development, Vivendi Universal Games, Executive Producer, Knowledge Adventure; Education: Harvard University, BA.

Colette Freedman

MAT in Drama, Colgate University
Screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and actress. Colette has written the Lifetime film Sister Cities (Jacki Weaver, Alfred Molina, Stana Katic) and twelve other made-for-television films with her writing partner Brooke Purdy. Her feature films include Meli (starring Wendie Malick), And Then There Was Eve (2017 LA Muse Jury Prize Winner at LA Film Festival) and Miles Underwater. Colette is an internationally-produced playwright with over 35 produced plays, voted “One of 50 to Watch” by The Dramatists Guild. Plays include Serial Killer Barbie, The Affair, and Blind Spots (Encore Award 2018 Hollywood Fringe fest) and the upcoming Mozart2 the Musical and Amelia the Musical. She has written ten published novels, including the thriller The Thirteen Hallows (Tor Publishing) with #1 New York Times author Michael Scott; the YA book Anomalies with Sadie Turner (Select Books); and the legendary Steve Dorff memoir I Wrote That One Too (Backbeat Books). Freedman has co-produced several independent films, including Quality Problems (Freestyle Media, 2017 Best Feature, Women Texas Film Fest), Dancer in Danger (Lifetime) and Dangerous Cheaters (Lifetime). As an actress, she has worked on many television shows, including That 70s Show, The Young and the Restless, and JAG, as well as several independent films. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Feature Workshops, Storytelling With Purpose, Script To Screen, Playwriting, and Scene Study.

Richard Friedman

Richard Friedman is a director, writer, and producer of motion pictures, television movies, episodic TV, network specials, and music videos. He has over 30 years experience in directing and producing ﬁlm and TV, including 14 Independent Feature Films, Television movies, Episodic Television Series, Reality TV, and Music Videos.

Nedra Gallegos

Nedra is an Instructor at the New York Film Academy-Los Angeles, where she teaches History of Acting, History of Theatre, History of Women in Film, TV and Theatre and Psychology of Production. Her background as an actor, director and teaching artist in New York City and Los Angeles uniquely qualifies her to work with students from all walks of life and backgrounds.

Matt Galuppo

Matt has been working in entertainment for over 10 years beginning his career as an intern on Inception. From there he worked on a dozen or so films as a previs artist, including The Amazing Spider-Man II, Warcraft, Poltergeist, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. After that Matt began his directing career, making commercials for Fortune 500 companies including Toyota, Fiat, Netflix, and Nintendo. Spots, he produced, have garnered hundreds of millions of views and earned American Advertising Award, Muse Creative Award, among others. As a copywriter he has worked on Superbowl spots for brands like Verizon, Microsoft, and the NFL. Matt recently began his TV career selling animated pilots to COMEDY CENTRAL and SYFY.

More than all of this, Matt is most proud of the accomplishments of his students. In Matt’s 7 years of teaching animation his students have gone onto work on academy award winning teams, make effects for tent pole franchises, like Justice League and Star Wars, and even push the industry the forward helping create the industry standard software used by artists around the globe.

Éva Gardos

Éva is an award-winning film director and editor born in Hungary. Éva’s screenwriting and feature film directorial debut, An American Rhapsody, starred a young Scarlett Johansson. The film is based on the true life events of Éva’s family escaping from Hungary in the 1950s and being forced to leave their infant child (Éva) behind.

Dr. Masha Ghanbarpoor

As an educator, whose expertise lies at the intersection of language pedagogy, academic writing, instructional design, and educational technology, Mahsa has extensive teaching experience at both undergraduate and graduate levels. She completed her doctoral studies and received her PhD in Applied Linguistics with a focus on TEFL from the University of Tehran. Driven by a passion for advancing education through technology, she is currently engaged in the pursuit of her second doctorate degree, an EdD (Doctor of Education), in Education Technology at the University of Florida. Through this program, her aim is to leverage emerging technologies to enhance learning outcomes and promote inclusive, engaging, and interactive learning environments. In addition to her experience in teaching and mentoring students at various academic levels, Mahsa has actively contributed to the scholarly community through her research publications. She has published several scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals, contributed to academic books, and presented at international conferences within the realm of higher education, both domestically and abroad. Her main research interests include formative evaluation, computerized dynamic assessment, teacher education, and learner characteristics in second language learning.

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