Faculty Directory

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.

Fabrizio Famà

Fabrizio was born and raised in Catania, Sicily, Italy. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in media and communication studies, he decided to open his own advertising company in Sicily named 095mm. A few years later, he felt his career as a video editor needed a big turn, so he decided to leave Italy and move to New York City. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., he was hired by Thin Edge Films to be the senior editor on “Thirsty,” a musical film directed by Margo Pelletier and produced by Lisa Thomas. To this day, he still collaborates with the studio, working as a video editor for features, short films, and music videos.Most of the projects he edited have had the honor of getting nominations and winning awards across the USA, Canada, and Europe. As an experienced film editor, he has the privilege of collaborating with many of his colleagues, bringing to the table his creative and passionate style of work and being rewarded by their trust and continuous interest in partnership. Currently, he is living between Europe and the United States, where, besides working as an editor, he also shares his knowledge and expertise working as a post-production instructor at the New York Film Academy with BFA and MFA students.

Tim Fannon

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.

Alessandro Farese

Born in Naples, Italy, Alessandro Farese graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Photography, Cinema, and Television from the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples in 2018 and completed an advanced course in film restoration from the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa in 2021. Farese has directed photography for numerous projects, including feature film, short films and documentaries.

Farese’s work includes serving as the director of photography for “Il Cammino delle Certose” (Region of Campania, 2017), “La Bellezza della Conoscenza” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Research Council, 2018), and “Campania Italian Special One” (Region of Campania – Grandi Stazioni Retail, 2018). His recent projects include “Pucundrìa” by Erica de Lisio (Best Documentary at the Tulipani di Seta Nera Festival, 2020), “La Rivoluzione” by Joseph Troia (Galway Film Fleadh Festival, 2019 and Villerupt 2019), and “Formiche” by Federico Spiazzi (2023).

Throughout his career, he has worked as a sound engineer on various acclaimed projects, such as “Il Sogno di Apuleio” with Peppe Servillo (Pompeii Archaeological Park, 2016) and “Il Signor Rotpeter” by Antonietta De Lillo (Venice Film Festival, 2017). In 2012, he co-founded Radio Cometa Rossa, an online archive showcasing works by around 400 musicians.

In 2019, he relocated permanently to Florence, Italy, to further pursue his career in the arts, continuously contributing his expertise and passion to various new projects.

Lance Fisher

Lance Fisher has been in the camera dept for over 35 years. He has worked in all formats of the Motion Picture Industry – Features, Episodics, Documentaries, Commercials, Music Videos, News… if it had a camera, he was there. He’s worked at all the major studios and came up through the camera dept, beginning as a film loader and 2nd assistant.

He specializes in developing students’ skills by teaching the fundamentals of camera and lighting and the ‘grammar’ of visual story telling. He has taught students at all academic levels and enjoys watching their excitement as new techniques are acquired with real hands-on training.
When Lance is not shooting, he flies helicopters professionally!

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. Richard has directed and produced 15 feature films which include “BORN”, starring Alison Brie, “Thou Shalt Kill” starring Vince Lozano; “Acts of Desperation, Starring Paul Sorvino and Jason Gedrick; and many more. As a television Director, Richard’s accomplishments include the extremely successful movies for network television: “Shadow of Stranger,” starring Joan Chen, Emma Samms, Parker Stevenson, and Michael Easton, which he also wrote, and “Someone’s Watching,” starring Daniel J. Travanti, Chris Noth, Joan Van Ark, and Rick Springfield. A veteran of over thirty-five episodes of Network and Syndicated series TV, Richard has directed multiple episodes of Warner Bros.’“Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” “Baywatch Nights,” “Silk Stalkings,” “Friday the 13th, The TV Series,” “Tales From the Darkside,” and “Monsters.”

Richard’s additional writing and producing credits include three theatrically released features:
“Street Knight,” “Scared Stiff,” and “Deathmask,” a psychological thriller, starring Danny Aiello. Richard is currently in pre-production on his next film, “Hyena”. Richard spent years on the cutting edge of music video, having directed Billy Joel in his video, “You’re Only Human,” a passionate statement against teen suicide which won the Presidential
Medal of Honor. Richard’s other directorial music video credits include numerous high profile
artists and popular tracks.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Richard holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Brooklyn College. He then went on to New York University’s prestigious Graduate School of Film where he received a three-year Master of Fine Arts Degree in Motion Picture Directing and Film Production. Richard also taught Directing at UCLA and is currently an Adjunct Professor at New York Film Academy.

Richard is a member of the Director’s Guild of America, Writer’s Guild of America, and
Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, and currently resides in Los Angeles California with
his wife Monica and twin teens, Emma and Max.

Brennan Gallagher

A born and bred Massachusetts man, Brennan is an educator, actor, and sometimes poet. He spent many years as a classical actor both in New York City and regionally. He holds an MFA in Acting from Ohio University, and has taught students from the preschool age up through undergraduates. When not acting or teaching, you can usually find Brennan either reading, drinking coffee, spending quality time with his car, drinking coffee, or playing games and doing puzzles, while drinking coffee.

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 Chair of Media Arts Department

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.

Kuldeep Gangola

Kuldeep Gangola is a filmmaker and post-production instructor based in New York. With over six years of teaching experience at the New York Film Academy and over 8 years of industry experience, he brings a deep understanding of nonfiction storytelling, editing craft, and industry-standard workflows. He has worked on films for platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, PBS, and HBO. Kuldeep is passionate about mentoring young filmmakers and helping them find their unique voice through visual storytelling.

Betty Garcia

Filmmaker | Creative Producer | Teaching Artist
Betty Marisol García is a filmmaker and creative producer with experience in narrative,
documentary, and commercial production. Her award-winning short films have screened
at festivals including the HBO New York Latino Film Festival and the New Latin Cinema
Festival in Havana. She has produced content for clients such as Nickelodeon and The
Ford Foundation. Betty holds an M.A. in Film and Media Studies from The New School
and is a dedicated teaching artist committed to nurturing emerging voices in film.

Ebba-Marie Gendron

Ebba-Marie Gendron has been teaching English as a second language to university students for the past 13 years. This is her “new teaching career,” as she’s been an acting teacher for the past 30 years, with a concentration in movement work. In addition to her experience as a teacher, she graduated from UCLA with a masters degree in dance/movement therapy and worked with a chronic and acute psychiatric adult population for several years. She has been a member of the NYFA faculty for the past 7 years, having taught in the ESL, Acting for Film, and Pathways programs.

Dr. Mahsa Ghanbarpoor

Mahsa received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics, with a focus on TEFL, from the University of Tehran. Driven by a passion for integrating technology in learning environments, she later completed a second doctorate and earned an Ed.D. in Educational Technology from the University of Florida. Mahsa has extensive teaching experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels and actively contributes to the scholarly community. She has translated a few books, published multiple peer-reviewed journal articles, authored chapters in academic books, and presented her research at national and international conferences in higher education and second language acquisition. Mahsa is also a published creative writer, with short stories and film criticism articles written in her first language. Her primary research interests include genre knowledge, exemplar comparison, dynamic assessment, teacher education, and learner characteristics in (second) language pedagogy.

Cathy Giannone Russo

BFA from Strasberg Institute at NYU. Lifetime member of Actors Studio. Has taught at Artist Theatre Group and Third Street Theatre. Recipient of two Drama Circle Awards and four DramaLogue Awards. Cathy Giannone is known for her work on The Bogus Witch Project, CB4 and The Little Rascals Save the Day.