NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Akil DuPont

Through the course of his career as a storyteller in theatre and film, Akil DuPont has earned 31 awards in 44 film festivals including 2 Student Emmys! His films have played in over 60 countries and in 2014, he was named #7 of the top 100 indie filmmaker in the
world.

Akil was born and raised in Tallahassee, FL. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Florida A&M University (FAMU) and a MFA in Film Production from Florida State University (FSU).

Akil has worked in the film/television industry in the Atlanta and New York area. He taught for 8 years with Clayton State University and the Georgia Film Academy and is currently a Professor with Pace University and an instructor at the New York Film Academy.

Rose Van Dyne

Rose Van Dyne is a multifaceted artist and educator in New York City. Rose has worked as both a performer and a pianist on Broadway, off-Broadway, regionally, and on national and international tours. Selected credits include 1776, Waitress, Beau, The Lonely Few, Interstate, Cambodian Rock Band, and Jim Henson’s Labyrinth in Concert. She is the co-founder of @BroadwayCooks, an organization that provides fresh food for houseless and hungry community members in Times Square and the five boroughs. Rose earned her MFA in Musical Theatre Vocal Pedagogy at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, as well as dual degrees of BA Musical Theatre and BA Piano from the University of Northern Colorado. Rose’s research centers on the intersection between race and identity in the musical theatre vocal studio. Rose currently teaches in NYC at Pace University, Marymount Manhattan College, New York Film Academy, and with BroadwayVox Studios

Bill Einreinhofer

Created Emmy Award winning nonfiction content; from traditional documentaries and news reports, to narrative driven “real-life” stories and magazine-show segments. Developed and produced programming for PBS (“PBS NewsHour,” “INNOVATION,” “China Now”), ABC (“Good Morning America”), CBS (“60 Minutes”), Discovery (“Spacewalkers,” “Cathedrals of the Sky”) and HBO (“Diary of a Red Planet”).

Producer/Director/Writer/Host, “China: Frame by Frame,” one-hour 2023 documentary tracing his 30+ years of making stories in and about China. Seen on 250+ Public TV stations, and the PBS App. Historic and original footage gathered for this project is the basis of the Bill Einreinhofer China Archive, at the University of Southern California’s East Asian Library. Past co-production partners include the ABC (Australia), Globo (Brazil), CCTV (China), SMG (China), ZDF (Germany), NHK (Japan), KBS (Korea) and SVT (Sweden).

Veteran educator. Chair, NYFA Broadcast Journalism department 2013-2022. Prior adjunct appointments: Parsons School of Design, Rutgers University, Saint Peter’s University. Lectured at United Nations and East China Normal University.

Honors include three Emmy Awards; Judge – National News & Documentary Emmy Awards; Judge – International Emmy Awards; two CINE Golden Eagles; two Telly Awards; Gold Medal, New York Festivals; Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival. Member, Directors Guild of America.

Bob Eisenhardt

Bob Eisenhardt edited the Academy Award winner, Free Solo, is an Academy Award-nominated director, a four-time Emmy Award winner and two time winner of the coveted ACE “Eddie” (American Cinema Editors Award.) He has edited over 60 films which have garnered a BAFTA, additional Academy Award nominations, multiple Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, three Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award nominations, and a Grammy Award nomination. Meru won the Audience Award at Sundance (2015) and was shortlisted for the 2016 Oscar. The Rescue was nominated for a BAFTA and won the National Board of Review Award and Cinema Eye Awards. HBO’s Everything is Copy premiered at the 2015 New York Film Festival and earned another two Emmy nominations. Additional editing credits include Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, Valentino: The Last Emperor, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing, Wagner’s Dream and Living Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders, which was also shortlisted for the Oscar. Bob shares a director’s credit, and Emmy, IDA and DGA Awards with legendary documentarian Albert Maysles.

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.

Nate Entz

Nate Entz is an NYC based actor with a passion for storytelling and teaching. He’s worked with NYFA’s Summer Kids Camps for two years now and loves bringing his experience, education and passion for his craft into his instruction. He has been acting all his life and graduated with his BFA in acting from SUNY Purchase’s conservatory program. He has acted professionally in theater regionally, in NYC, and has also starred in several short films.

Avy Eschenasy

Avy Eschenasy has over 20 years experience in motion picture business affairs. He is the principal of Eschenasy Consulting, which provides advisory services in connection with all business aspects of motion picture production, financing and distribution. Eschenasy Consulting serves independent producers and financiers in assembling finance plans and project financing, budgeting, negotiating above and below-the-line deals, and negotiating sales and distribution arrangements. Eschenasy Consulting also represents select U.S. distribution companies in acquiring motion pictures and negotiating distribution arrangements in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Previously, Avy was a senior executive at Focus Features from its inception in May 2002 until December 2013, most recently serving as Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning, Business Affairs and Acquisitions.

Prior to Focus Features, Avy was Executive Vice President, Business Affairs, at USA Films from 1999 to 2002, and Senior Vice President, Business Affairs, at October Films from 1997 to 1999. Avy began his motion picture career at New Line Cinema, where he served as Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs, from 1992 to 1997.

The many notable projects that Avy has been integral in supervising and finalizing the dealmaking process on include such Academy Award-winning films as Dallas Buyers Club, Milk, Brokeback Mountain, The Constant Gardener, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Motorcycle Diaries, Lost in Translation, The Pianist, Gosford Park, and Traffic; and such hits as Moonrise Kingdom, Coraline, Seven, The Mask, Austin Powers, and Boogie Nights.

Avy graduated from Columbia Law School in 1991 and from Harvard College in 1988.

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.

Robert F. Ferraro

Robert Ferraro is an Emmy award winning television news producer with extensive experience in both local and national news production at the NBC and ABC television networks. He earned distinction and numerous awards as a writer/editor, and long form and documentary news producer.

Currently also producing and narrating audio books, Mr. Ferraro is a published writer with magazine, online and newspaper credits.

Mr. Ferraro served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Panama, and has taught News Production at Purchase College, NY and currently at the New York Film Academy.

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.

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!

Benny Forstadt

Benny is a born and raised New Yorker who has always loved the world of the arts and entertainment. Benny attended LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the Performing Arts, where he studied theater and went on professional acting auditions. After high school, Benny enrolled in Emerson College, where he studied filmmaking and screenwriting as part of the school’s Visual Media Arts program. During and after college, Benny worked as an intern in various film production companies in both Los Angeles and New York City. He is incredibly excited to share his passion for filmmaking with the future generation of filmmakers at NYFA!

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.

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