NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Brendan Hay

BRENDAN HAY is a writer and producer for TV, film, comic books, and more. Most recently, he was an Executive Producer and writer on Gremlins: The Wild Batch and Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai for WB Animation/Max. Previously, he was the showrunner of Dawn of the Croods and Harvey Girls Forever!, both for DreamWorks Animation/Netflix. Brendan has also written for several other series, including Robot Chicken (2x Emmy nominated), The Simpsons, and Star Wars Detours. Also, Hay was a (Peabody Award winning) headline producer at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for most of the Bush administration, and a contributing writer to “America: The Book.” He has written pilots for Lucasfilm, WB Animation, Disney, ABC Family, DreamWorks Animation, Fox, and Nickelodeon. Brendan was once even called the “Best Svengali of Animation” by SF Weekly. He’s still not sure what that means, but chooses to take it as a compliment. On the print side, Hay has written comic books for DC Comics, Oni Press, and BOOM! Studios, and had his writing appear in magazines ranging from SPIN to Reader’s Digest. Brendan lives in Burbank, CA with his author/journalist wife, twins, a pair of pugs, and a cat named Gremlin.

Richard Van Heertum

Rich Van Heertum has been at NYFA since 2014 and has also taught at UCLA, CUNY, the Art Institute and Drexel. He earned a PhD in cultural studies and education from UCLA and an MA in Economics from SDSU. He has published four books – The Fate of Democracy in a Cynical Age, Educating the Global Citizen, Hollywood Exploited and The Selling of Bohemia – over 35 academic essays and chapters and hundreds of articles in the popular press on movies, music, politics and sports. His newest book, Challenges to Democracy in and Beyond Education, will be released by Routledge later this year.

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.

Jon Henry

Jon Henry is a visual artist working with photography and text. His work reflects on family, sociopolitical issues, grief, trauma, and healing within the African American community. Henry’s work has been published nationally and internationally and exhibited in numerous galleries, including Aperture Foundation, Smack Mellon, and BRIC, among others. Known foremost for the cultural activism in his work, his projects include studies of athletes from different sports and their representations.

He was recently named one of “The 30 New and Emerging Photographers in 2022” and TIME Magazine’s “NEXT 100” in 2021. He was included in the Inaugural 2021 Silver List and was recently awarded the Arnold Newman Grant for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture.

Henry was named one of LensCulture’s “Emerging Artists” and won the Film Photo Prize for the Continuing Film Project sponsored by Kodak. His book, “Stranger Fruit,” published by Monolith Editions/Kris Graves Projects, is currently in its second edition.

Baz Here

Baz Here is a queer fine art photographer and musician living in downtown Los Angeles. A multidisciplinary artist. Here is interested in the sound current and its effect on visual aesthetics. Through the use of self-portraiture, his work questions perceptions about race (white privilege specifically – White on White) and queer identity politics. His work has been exhibited at The Hive, Featured Resident Artist (DTLA) / The Getty Center, Pop-up Gallery/ Out There, Gallery 825 / Gallerie Sparta / LACDA / Gay Downtown LA Artwalk Pop-up Gallery / Beyond Baroque / Art Share LA Fall / Los Angeles LGBT Center Advocate and Gochis Galleries. His work is featured in The Advocate and The Cultural Weekly.

Jim Hillin

Jim came to Los Angeles in 1979 as an artist, animator and musician. He began is career in computer graphics at a start-up in 1985 in Pasadena, CA. while also attending The Art Center College of Design. As an artist, he pushed to learn the engineering side of CGI, eating and breathing the new discipline.

In his fifth year in the business, Jim was chosen to be the Artistic Supervisor of CGI for “Beauty and the Beast” at Disney.

In 1993, he was hired as the Director of Digital Production for a new VFX shop, Digital Domain. He hired the first crew, created specs for the original software, including “Nuke” and worked on many motion pictures.

In 1995, Jim returned to Disney to head up a new live-action animated project, called ‘Dinosaur.’ After completing his work on the film, he worked as a Writer-Director at Disney Animation, pitching five animated features and two shorts in six months.

In 2000, Jim was elected by his peers into the Visual Effects Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition, Jim belongs to the Visual Effects Society, The Animation Guild and he has recently joined The Television Academy.

Isabella Hoffman

A native Chicagoan, Isabella Hofmann began her acting career as a main stage member of Chicago’s Second City (alongside fellow company members Richard Kind and Dan Castellaneta.) She was also in several Chicago theatrical productions such as Painting Churches at Wisdom Bridge, Teibele and Her Demon at Northlight (for which she was nominated for a Jefferson Award), and Uncle Vanya at the Goodman Theatre (opposite John Mahoney).

After being cast as an Irish immigrant in the television movie Independence (for which she received The Western Heritage Award), Isabella moved to Los Angeles where she went on to become a series regular on such shows as Dear John (with Judd Hirsch), The Boys (with Chris Meloni), Homicide: Life on the Street (Melissa Leo, Andre Braugher, Daniel Baldwin), and Beggars and Choosers (Christina Hendricks). She’s also recurred on The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Providence, JAG, The Practice, and Criminal Minds.

Her feature credits include Dreamer, West End (in post production), Burlesque, Princess Diaries II, Little Chenier, Touched By A Killer, Tripwire, and Renaissance Man.

Hofmann still lives in Los Angeles with her son Atticus, and continues to work in film, television, and theater.

Heather Huntington

MAPH in Literature, University of Chicago
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.

Corey Johnson

Corey is an actor, writer, and educator with over 15 years of experience in the entertainment industry. He will be featured in the upcoming 3rd season of Shrinking on Apple TV+, and was recently seen in a national commercial campaign for Wayfair alongside Titus Burgess. Other credits include Mr. Mayor (NBC), Adam Ruins Everything (TruTV), and the film Greener Grass (HULU). He’s performed and created comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in NYC and LA, and was a contributing writer for The Onion. As a teacher, he’s led classes at New York Film Academy, Chapman University, University of Southern California, Central Connecticut State University.

Greg Johnson

MFA in Film & Television, USC
Greg is the screenwriter of THE LAST SON (2021), a western-action feature film starring Sam Worthington, Machine Gun Kelly, Heather Graham, Thomas Jane, and directed by Tim Sutton. His newest film, OLD GUY (2024) finished production in 2023 and stars Christoph Waltz, Cooper Hoffman, Lucy Liu and is directed by Simon West. Previously, Greg worked with 20th Century Fox Studios to develop four original features including an alternative version of the Fantastic Four franchise called DOCTOR DOOM. He has also done assignments for Universal, Davis Entertainment, and TIK Films. Greg is a two-time finalist in the Warner Brothers Television Writers’ Workshop. Currently, he is developing NESTED GAMES, an international action-adventure spy show with Bound Television. In the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Elements of Screenwriting, Rewriting, Adaptation, Story Generation, Genre Studies, TV Pilot, and Feature Workshops.

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.

Phil Kaufmann Associate Chair of Performing Arts Department

MFA in Acting, Yale School of Drama; BA in Drama, Dartmouth College. TV appearances on “Law and Order”, “Harry’s Law”, “The Mentalist”, as well as many commercials. Director of several short films, including pilot presentation, “Intelligence” and Emmy-nominated short-form series, “Send Me”.

Natalja Kent

https://www.nataljakent.com/

Natalja Kent is a Czech-American artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Her work investigates process, materiality and embodiment through the expanding parameters of drawing, photograms, painting and sculpture. Solo Exhibitions include Light Waves at Oolong Gallery in San Diego, CA 2024; Light Waves Broken Waters at And Pens Gallery in Los Angeles 2024 and Light Moves at Situations Gallery/Foreland Catskill, NY July 2022. She was recently included in group exhibitions at The Museum of Museums, Seattle, WA; Pace Gallery New York, NY, Good Naked Gallery, Los Angeles/NYC and The Berry Art Museum, Norfolk, VA. She has shown work and/or performed at Tate Liverpool; Carpenter Center for The Visual Arts at Harvard; Hiromi Yoshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; PS1, MOMA Queens. She is the recipient of the ArtAffect Grant, Google Artist-in-Residence, Camera Obscura at the City of Santa Monica AIR, RISCA Artist Fellowship amongst others.

Suzanne Kent

Founding company member of The Groundlings Theatre Company in Los Angeles and created the Sunday Company program at The Groundlings. Over 30 feature film credits, including “Middle Men,” “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid,” “Nuts,” “The Boost,” and “History of the World: Part I”. Television series regular roles on “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” “St. Elsewhere,” “The Garry Shandling Show,” and “Brotherly Love.” Voice actor on “Rugrats,” “The Wild Thornberrys,” and “Rocket Power”.

Viktor Kerney Director of Student Life

With 20 years of experience in Student Affairs, Viktor has engaged with talented students and staff from different walks of life. He has a Master’s in Organizational Communication from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky.

He previously held professional positions at Occidental College, Loyola Marymount University, the University of Southern California, and Cornell University. Viktor is well-versed in developing and overseeing success initiatives for specific groups of students – particularly students of color, LGBTQIA+, transfer, and first-generation students. He has solid experience in student activities, student organizations, diversity and inclusion programming, student leadership development, and residential education.

Besides being a Higher Education professional, Viktor is a comic book writer and active board member of Prism Comics, an organization promoting the awareness of LGBTQIA+ creators, stories, characters, and readers in the comics industry. And a consistent panelist at WonderCon and San Diego Comic-Con, discussing diversity and inclusion in comics.

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