Faculty Directory

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.

Anna Maria Cianciulli Acting for Film Instructor

Anna Maria’s work as an actor, director, writer, and producer has received nominations, awards, and recognition at many film festivals throughout the world, including Cannes.

Sanford Meisner personally assigned her the exclusive rights to bring out his seminal book, On Acting, in an Italian language edition (La recitazione – Dino Audino Editor 2007).

Anna recently played the co-star role of Juliana Chiari in the CBS series East New York, opposite Richard Kind, ended the filming of Maladaptive Daydreaming, and is currently filming My Mother is an Astronaut (2023).

She can be seen playing Gertrude on all major platforms in Hamlet/Horatio, a feature that has won 14 best film awards at festivals in the US and abroad. She also played a principal role in the Lifetime feature film Stealing Chanel.

Her solo-created short 33 Breaths was shot during the pandemic and was a finalist in the 2020 Single-Take Challenge.

Anna has produced, co-written, and coached the actors on the set of Life After Her, a multi-award-winning film shot in New York selected by the Short Corner of the Cannes Film Festival. Her film Stay has received a Special Mention from the Ouchy Film Awards Winter 2016.

As a theater director, actor, and producer she has worked with Kevin Bacon, the late Tony and Golden Globe-winner Brian Dennehy, the Academy Award winner Roberto Benigni, and the Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated Tony Danza.

Her work has been seen at: The Kitchen for a BAM event, Vanderbilt Hall of Grand Central Station, Joyce Soho, St. Peter’s Church, the American Museum of Natural History, and The Players Club.

Anna co-produced Tribeca in Rome – a cultural partnership between the Tribeca Film Festival and the Rome Film Festival, including the Steps and Stars Award received by Robert De Niro.

As an Acting Coach, she consulted with Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, Alessandra Mastronardi, Kick Kennedy, and Santigold, among others. She was the on-set Acting Coach of Yelo, a short film directed by Adrien Boublil (Cannes 2013).

Anna is also an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Film MFA Program and at the Feirstein School of Cinema MFA Program.

Jay Cipriani

Jay Cipriani received his BA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from WVU, studied film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and received his MFA in Film Production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

He began his career in story development and production working with writer/director Barry Levinson, producers Paula Weinstein, Len Amato, and Palak Patel, and later with writer Ted Griffin.

In 2008, he joined HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm assisting the show’s writing team, Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel.

2009’s A Golden Christmas, ION’s first original film, was Jay’s first produced screenplay and he has since written many more films including Hallmark’s Christmas Land and Carole’s Christmas for OWN.

Jay has story consulted on various projects throughout his career as well as being recognized in various screenwriting competitions, the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship, New Blood, Top 100 Emerging Screenwriters, Top 25 Spotlight Screenwriting Competition and The Tracking Board Top 25 Launch Pad to name a few. His scripts have also been top submissions on both the Black List website and Spec Scout. In 2015 he won Chicago’s Pride Films and Plays Screenwriting Competition where his screenplay SOMEBODY TO LOVE was performed live.

Joseph Gordon Cleary

Joe Cleary is the owner of Ambitious Engine, a film production agency in NJ focused on the healthcare industry and is a Dean’s List graduate of the New York Film Academy Documentary Program. His film “Get it” was featured at the 2019 DOC NYC film festival.

Joe’s interests include shooting music videos, concerts and commercials with a focus on strong story telling, cinematography and sound design.

James H. Coburn IV CAS

James H. Coburn IV has been teaching production sound at college level for fifteen years. He is a Production Sound Mixer of 25 independent feature films, including The Bronx Bull, Free Enterprise and All’s Faire In Love, and TV series including Roger Corman’s Black Scorpion and Guru To Go for Discovery Networks. He was one of the mixers on the 2015 documentary Kobe Bryant’s Muse. His most recent project was consulting about sound and mixing for the documentary feature, Be The Beauty, which showcases Poet Laureates around the country. Before turning to mixing he was a boom operator and has worked on numerous network TV series, documentary projects and features. A long-time member and former Board member of the Cinema Audio Society, he was instrumental in creating the CAS Technical Awards. James wrote the Foreword to the authorized biography of his Oscar-winning father, “Dervish Dust: The Life and Words of James Coburn” (Potomac Books, 2021) and is currently working on a new book about the art of Production Sound mixing.

Benjamin B. Cohen

Benjamin Cohen is an award-winning writer, professor, and performer. In his writing, Benjamin likes to play with dark and challenging material from an honest, comedic perspective. Raised in Atlanta and based in Brooklyn, Benjamin worked on projects selected by the Austin Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, and The High Museum of Art. He also appears in the Emmy-Nominated PBS short documentary, “What Makes a Great Book.” Benjamin has taught Writing and Film History at NYFA since 2012 and is an active member of the WGA-E. When he’s not writing, teaching, or performing comedy on the NYC stage, you can find Benjamin with his lovely wife and two dogs.

Eric Conner

MFA, USC School of Cinema and Television
Eric has collaborated on screenplays with Robert Gardner (Writer, The Wedding Palace) and is developing a pilot with Hayden Black (Goodnight Burbank, Gen Zed). He is currently a regular contributor to ranker.com. As part of a team, he adapted the New York Times bestselling young-adult series Vampire Kisses and developed a feature film based on Knott’s Berry Farm’s Halloween Haunt. He currently hosts, produces and writes the podcast The Backlot for NYFA and was previously commissioned to write the original one-act play/short film The Also-Rans. He is the winner of the Sloan Award & Hamptons’ Writer’s Workshop for feature script Just Enough. He worked as a production manager on the documentary The Cutting Edge: The Story of Cinema Editing. His interview subjects include Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Sean Penn. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches TV Workshops, Introduction to Television, Rewriting, and Thesis Workshops.

Anthony Cook

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

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.

Adam Coplan

Adam Coplan’s resume boasts senior executive posts with three of the most prolific producers in the industry, Joel Silver, Scott Rudin and John Davis. Beginning as Story Editor at Silver, then running development at Rudin as Vice President before moving on to Davis, Adam worked on scores of critical and commercial hits such as The Matrix, Wonder Boys, The Truman Show, A Simple Plan, In & Out, Sleepy Hollow, I, Robot, Alien vs. Predator and Behind Enemy Lines among many others. Adam left to work as an independent producer, setting up Flash Gordon at Universal where he also produced The Express. Switching to the creative side, Adam wrote and directed the tragic feature film It’s Dark Here. Adam’s teaching began in UCLA’s Extension Program, where he honed his approach of mixing the academics with the practical. His first book, Being Professional, was published in 2016. Final Draft asked him to adapt his Road Map outlining system into a template for their software. After an adjunct position at Chapman and various guest lecturing spots, Adam settled in Miami and joined NYFA. He continues to write and has several projects in various stages of development.

Javier Costa

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

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

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

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

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.

Julie Danao-Salkin

As a performer, Julie Danao-Salkin was on Broadway for the original company of Lennon, The Musical as Yoko) Standby/swing for Rent (Broadway Debut) and originated the company of Saturday Night Fever. Julie’s National Tours includes Miss Saigon (U.S./Ellen), Rent (Alexi Darling & Mimi Maureen US), and Aida (Amneris Standby).

Her Off-Broadways shows are The Karaoke Show with director Diane Paulus and Anne Nelson’s play, Savages (Maridol) with producer/director Thomas Kail (more upon request). She’s also performed in Tarbell Productions of Les Miserable (Eponine) and South Pacific (Bloody Mary) with Michael Arden, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Hugh Panaro.

Films include: 101 ways…, Three Penny America, Clear Blue Tuesday.

Second Generation Productions have nurtured her goal by producing her works: Thank You, Andrew, and Something More, both featuring original songs and written stories performed in the Cutting Room, Joe’s Pub, and The Bowery Ballroom.  She was also a featured performer in Second Generation’s Concert of Excellence at Lincoln Center 2003 & 2004, performing one of her original songs at Carnegie Hall with Jason Robert Brown musically directing. She was a co-writer/composer/singer/actress for a Movie musical film, “Clear Blue Tuesday.” Julie holds a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies for Humanities, Arts, and Theatre, and music, a Master of Arts in Fiction and still pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Wilkes University.