NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

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

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 Acting for Film Instructor

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.

Eric Nelson

MFA in Screenwriting, American Film Institute.
Eric Nelson has developed film and television projects with Nickelodeon Original Movies, ABC/Disney Channel, 20th Century Fox, Smart Entertainment, and Underground Entertainment. He has written, developed, and produced for numerous branded content campaigns and video games. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Thesis Workshops, Rewriting, Feature Workshops, TV Workshops, and Story Generation.

David Lewis Newman Associate Chair of Film Arts Department (Filmmaking)

Graduating from Boston University, David Lewis Newman moved to Los Angeles, where he was accepted into the highly competitive Assistant Directors Training Program, ultimately qualifying him for membership in the Directors Guild of America.

A partial list of Newman’s A.D. credits include features How I Got into College, Firebirds and Two Moon Junction; series The A-Team, The Flash and FBI: The Untold Stories; and TV movies Roe vs. Wade, Nothing But the Truth, and Bionic Ever After. In 1985, he wrote, directed and co-produced the dramatic short film, The Thin Line.

Throughout Newman’s A.D. career, he continued writing, making his first sale to the CBS/Warner Bros. series The Flash. Subsequent writing assignments led to producer/writer positions on UPN/Paramount’s The Sentinel, and for three seasons on Paramount’s syndicated series, Viper, where he also directed multiple episodes. Newman worked for two seasons as a writer/producer on the syndicated sci-fi/action series Mutant X, as well as writing episodes of 18 Wheels of Justice and Pensacola: Wings of Gold.

Theatrically, Newman developed and directed The Last Telethon, presented at The Comedy Central Stage in Hollywood. A staged reading of Newman’s Beautiful Dreamer, a musical featuring the life and songs of America’s first great songwriter, Stephen Foster, was presented at the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival in Auburn, NY. He was also invited to present the show at the New York Musical Festival. He directed a workshop production of his latest play, Friendly Valley, a dark family comedy, at the Santa Paula Theater Center in April, 2022.

Newman’s professional affiliations include membership in the aforementioned DGA, the Writers Guild of America and SAG/AFTRA. For a list of Newman’s film and TV credits, you can visit his IMDB entry: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0628057/?ref_=nv_sr_8

Matteo Nurizzo

Matteo was an industrial designer and graphic artist in Italy. He holds a Master of Science in Industrial Design and Fashion Management from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
Director and Editor of Style In Frames. Client: Comune di Milano, worked at “Lillisimone” as a graphic and video artist.
Clients: Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Tissot, Panerai, Opel.
As freelance videographer and editor, clients: BM Factory, Banque PSA Finance, Castiglioni.
After becoming an editor, moved to Los Angeles and ended up editing and shooting various shorts and features independent films and Documentaries. He has been an Avid Certified Instructor since 2013.
He has been Teaching Bachelor and Master classes in Editing and History of films since 2007 at the New York Film Academy in the Filmmaking, Liberal Arts and Science and Documentary Departments.

Kim Ogletree

Kimberly joined the BET family as Supervising Producer for Development and Special Projects where she produced several syndicated television shows and specials, BET’s 15th Anniversary and “The Walk of Fame” featuring Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Babyface among others. Her other producing credits include the BET Arabesque films, Rendevous, A Private Affair, Midnight Blue, and Rhapsody starring LisaRaye; Hair Show starring Oscar Recipient, Monique; Playas Ball starring Allen Payne of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne; CuJn’ Da Mustard starring Brandon T. Jackson which won the 2007 Pan African Film Festival. Choice Award; the MTV Original Movie, Love Song, directed by Julie Dash; Ashes which won the 2010 Best Horror Film at Shriekfest; and Hellraiser: Revelations for Dimension Films. Most recently, Kimberly produced the faith-based film A Beautiful Soul.

David O’Leary

BA in Film and Cognitive Science, Vassar College
David is a film and TV writer/producer, whose recent credits include working as Consulting Producer/Writer on Season 3 of NBC’s “Law & Order: Organized Crime” in 2023. O’Leary also Created/Executive Produced the UFO drama series “Project Blue Book” starring Aidan Gillen (“Game of Thrones”), alongside Oscar-winning Robert Zemeckis, which ran on HISTORY for two seasons, aired in over 165 countries, and was the #1 new cable drama series of 2018/19. O’Leary has sold projects to TNT, Miramax, Universal TV, A+E Studios and others. As a film producer, he co-produced the reality-hopping sci-fi thriller feature “Parallel” (2020) released by Vertical Entertainment, and the Netflix supernatural hit film “Eli” (2019), both available on streaming now. David has worked as a Screenwriting and Producing Instructor at New York Film Academy (NYFA) in Los Angeles for over a decade. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches The Business of Screenwriting, Elements of Screenwriting, Genre Studies, Feature Workshops, and TV Pilot. For the Producing Department in LA, he teaches Marketing and Distribution.

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