NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Dana Lustig

Dana moved to LA from Israel and started her career after graduating the American Film Institute. She has directed five feature films and produced over 20. Her latest work includes Jungle, a true survival story with Daniel Radcliffe, and Look Away with India Eisley, Jason Isaac, and Mira Sorvino. Recently, Dana executive produced Spider in the Web with Ben Kingsley and Monica Bellucci, and has also shot nine episodes of the mega-hit Israeli TV show Very Important Man. As a director, Dana worked on Kill Me Later with Selma Blair, Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Wild Cherry with Rob Schneider, and A Thousand Kisses Deep with Jodie Whittiker (Doctor Who).

Bruce MacWilliams

Bruce MacWilliams (AKA: Brewster MacWilliams) is an award-winning film director that started directing commercials at Biscuit Filmworks in 2002. He now works as an independent director at Fast Rocket Films. He is a member of the DGA.

Bruce MacWilliams is honored to be featured alongside super star film directors, Fredrik Bond and Daniel Kleinman, in Tom von Logue Newth’s excellent book about TV commercial production; The Ad-Makers.

At the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Bruce was selected by the Saatchi & Saatchi Agency as one of the best new commercial directors in the world. In 2004, Shots Magazine (London), Grand Prix Awards Edition, ranked Bruce MacWilliams the 3rd best new commercial director in the world.

Bruce has now directed more than 100 TV commercials (in America, UK, and Canada) and PSAs (Public service announcements) to bring awareness to horrific conditions in Haiti, Darfur, Uganda, working with many stars including Kobe Bryant, Channing Tatum, James Franco, Ludacris, and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers. He has also filmed and interviewed: Senator Mitt Romney, and President Barack Obama.

In 2006, NBC / Universal Studios hired Bruce MacWilliams to write and create a half hour comedy TV series titled, AD DADS. In 2011, Bruce directed a commercial campaign for Cox Communications that aired on the Super Bowl and won Bruce a Mark Award for best direction.

Bruce MacWilliams earned his BA studying architecture, photography, and creative writing at Cornell University. He studied filmmaking at Columbia University. He went on to write and direct an independent feature film, The Last Hand, (AKA: After the Game) which was showcased at the Cannes Film Festival. Lions Gate Entertainment distributed The Last Hand domestically and internationally in 2000.

Scott Marshall

BFA in Film, Northwestern University; MFA in Directing, American Film Institute. Music video director for bands including Smash Mouth and Guided By Voices. Directed second unit for Runaway Bride, The Princess Diaries, Valentine’s Day, and New Year’s Eve. His feature debut, Keeping Up With the Steins with Jeremy Piven was released by Disney/Miramax.

Bart Mastronardi

BA, Hunter College, Film Studies. Cinematographer of commercials and numerous short films along with feature films: The Blood Shed; Crossed; Gallery of Fear: Far Cry From Home and By Her Hand; documentary for Bravo TV Unlocking The Hope, Vidal Sasson; and Shear Genius Season 1 casting NYC. Bart is also the director, cinematographer, writer and producer of the horror feature film Vindication, which is released by RSquared Films.

Carolyn McDonald

Carolyn McDonald has worked in the publicity division of Warner Bros Television, served as a Creative Executive at Cinecom Entertainment, and served as Exective Vice President of Danny Glover’s Carrie Productions. She was the executive producer on TNT’s Emmy & Image Award-nominated Freedom Song (written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson) and HBO’s American Dream, which featured Wesley Snipes and won 4 Cable Ace Awards and an NAACP Image Award for Best Made-For-TV Movie. McDonald also produced, co-wrote, and directed P.N.O.K., featuring Elle Fanning and co-wrote Return Of The Sweetbirds for 20th Century Fox. She also adapted the book The Color Of Hope for her directing debut. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Online Screenwriting, Adaptation, Story Generation, and the Business of Screenwriting.

Gil McDonald

MFA in Screenwriting, American Film Institute; BA in Radio/TV/Film Production, Minor in Psychology, Howard University. Award-winning writer, producer, and director on “Motel Paradise,” a short film selected and screened at the prestigious AFI Theatre.

Suki Medencevic, ASC

Suki Medencevic, ASC is a cinematographer actively working in a film industry for over a 25 years.

For his work he has received numerous awards.

Since 2010 he has been a member the American Society of Cinematographers, ASC world’s most prestigious cinematographers organization.

For his distinguished accomplishments in academic field and education of new generations of cinematographers, he was given the Honorary Doctorate Degree, Dr.h.c.

George McGrath

George began his career as an actor in New York. He performed with the Groundlings in Los Angeles from 1983 – 1992, where he also taught, directed the Sunday Show, and directed and created the long-running “Your Very Own TV Show.” He was one of the original writers of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” and was a series regular on that show. He was inducted into the TV Theme Song Hall of Fame for co-writing the series theme song. He co-wrote the Paramount film “Big Top Pee-wee,” and created and starred in Nick-at-Nite’s first original late night series, “On the Television,” which he also co-executive produced. He co-starred with Tom Hanks and Sally Field in the feature film “Punchline.” He wrote the FOX TV movie “Based on an Untrue Story,” and had a recurring role on HBO’s “Tracey Takes On,” a series he also wrote and produced. Other TV appearances include “Whose Line is It Anyway?” (the London and New York productions). He has received four Emmy nominations – for writing “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” writing and producing “Tracey Takes On,” a series for which he also won a GLAAD Award.

Kathleen McLaughlin

Kathleen received her MFA in Photography from Virginia Commonwealth University and is an artist with a passion for teaching critical concepts in the arts and the history of photography. Her current research project is on British Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. In 2019 Kathleen wrapped up her 20-year photographic project in Romania and received several awards based on this project. She has been awarded a Fulbright Specialist Grant (2019), Fulbright-Hayes Grant (2015), Romanian Cultural Institute Grant (2013), U.S. Department of State Grant (2012), Houston Center for Photography Fellowship (2004), Fulbright Senior Scholarship (2003), and a National Endowment for the Humanities IREX grant (2003). Kathleen’s images have appeared in National Geographic Traveler, LensWork, Rangefinder, B&W Magazine, Black + White Photography (UK), and The Times Saturday Magazine (UK). Her photographs have been exhibited both nationally and internationally and are in the permanent collections at the Museum of Photographic Art in San Diego, Western Virginia Museum of Art, and the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest.

Genia Michaela

Attended North Carolina School of the Arts, MIT and Yale, where she studied physics, opera, screenwriting and theatre, and played Division1 ice hockey. She is a SCUBA divemaster and has worked as a stunt freediver.

Stephen Miele

JD, Glendale University College of Law; BA, State University of New York, Albany. A practicing lawyer for more than 25 years, with clients including songwriters, musicians, actors, business and personal managers, producing companies, banking institutions and manufacturers. Appointed and acted as judge pro tem for the Los Angeles Superior Courts.

Chris Modoono

BS, Babson College
Chris is the Co-Writer/Director of the feature Tenured for Fox Digital Studio, which premiered at the 2015 Tribeca film festival, and won the Audience Award at the Maui Film Festival. He is the Co-Writer/Director and Co-Creator of It’s a Hit! (Abby Elliott, Tim Matheson) for The Orchard, which premiered at SeriesFest Season 2 and won the Virgin Produced Award. Chris is the commercial director for Hungry Man Productions. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Script To Screen, Transmedia, Web Series, Feature Workshops, and Rewriting.

Michel Moon

BFA in Theatre Studies from York University; graduated best producer of his year at the Toronto Film School. Over ten years production experience in almost every department. Directed, acted in, produced, and photographed award-winning films in a half dozen countries.

Anne Moore Chair of Performing Arts Department

Anne Moore has been teaching at New York Film Academy since 2010, and has been an Associate Chair in the Acting Department since 2014. In that time, she has created and produced the Student-Directed Plays Series and Alumni Industry Showcases. Her TV credits include: GREY’S ANATOMY, LIFE, VEGAS, SEX AND THE CITY, and LAW & ORDER. Her NYC Off-Broadway theater credits include: SUMMER ’69 the Musical (Douglas Fairbanks Theater) and SIT N’ SPIN, co-written by Ms. Moore (Atlantic Theater). She also was one fourth of the critically acclaimed sketch comedy group, “THE FLYING QUEENS,” and had her own multi media show at Catch a Rising Star entitled, “Anne Moore and More and More.” In 2006, Ms. Moore directed and produced the award winning short documentary, CZECH DAZE. She graduated Fordham University at Lincoln Center in New York City with a BA in Theater and Film, and studied Meisner Technique at William Esper Studios.

Kenda Greenwood Moran

MFA in Screenwriting, AFI
Kenda has worked in television for two decades. She was a showrunner on the first four seasons of MTV’s acclaimed documentary series Teen Mom, a producer/director on ABC’s Wife Swap, and an Executive Producer on Lifetime’s Married at First Sight and Bravo’s Love Without Borders. As a VP of Development at MTV, Kenda shepherded multiple unscripted and comedy series including The Middle of the Night Show. Kenda wrote the sci-fi short, Progeny, which won best student short at Screamfest 2019, and which she subsequently adapted into a feature which is in development with Buffalo 8 Productions. Her pilot script Tammany won the AFI Writer’s Room Ready Award in 2020, and she currently has an action-comedy series in development with Robert Cort Productions. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Unscripted Storytelling, The Business of Screenwriting, Scene Study, and Television Workshops.

Silvi Naçi

MFA in Photography + Media, California Institute of the Arts; BFA in Fine Arts and Graphic Design, Suffolk University. Silvi Naçi works with performance, video, sculpture, photography, text, and installation. They studied at the Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca (Oaxaca, Mexico) and Studio Art Centers International and have exhibited works at Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art Project Space, NYC (2019); MAK Center, LA (2019); MoCA Geffen, LA (2019); Other Places Art Fair, LA (2019); and Greater LA MFA Exhibition, LA (2019); and is a recipient of the Tim Disney Excellence in Storytelling Prize (2019) and the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Travel Grant (2018). Naçi took part in Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art (Berlin, Germany) 2019, and Elsewhere Museum and Residency (Greensboro, NC) 2019, among other residencies. Born and raised in former communist Albania, Naçi‘s practice investigates gender and cultural identity, language and time, the body as subject/object, and the consequences of patriarchy. Working with traumatic memories from their childhood, Naçi investigate gender and cultural identity as it relates to exile, immigration, and citizenship.

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