NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Alexa Alemanni

BA in History & Theater, Vassar College.
Alexa started as an actress on Emmy-winning drama Mad Men for four seasons, for which she won a SAG Award. In television, she has staffed on TNT’s The Librarians and sold a pilot to Tornante with Intrigue Entertainment. In feature films, she wrote Something Borrowed, the sequel to the 2006 hit Something Blue for Black Label Media, and the adaptation of the book Serpent’s Bite by Warren Adler for Grey Eagle Films. Alexa sold the feature I Won’t Be Home for Christmas to UCP for USA. Another feature project, The Lion in the Library, was recently set up with Prodigal Entertainment and Level Forward. She has projects in development with Team Downey, Hello Sunshine, and A Thousand Ships. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Scene Study, Script To Screen, Writing The Feature Film, Writing The TV Pilot, Masters Character Workshop

David Armstrong

David A. Armstrong has more than 35 years of film industry experience and holds an MFA in Cinematography from the prestigious American Film Institute (AFI) and a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Starting as a camera assistant, he has risen through the ranks to become a cinematographer. He has over 100 feature film and television productions to his credit.

He is the first recipient of the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) Student Heritage Award, and his AFI short film John received the Student Academy Award Gold and the AFI’s Franklin J. Schafer Award. He served as director of photography for James Wan (The Conjuring, Aquaman) on the Saw film franchise (Saw I-VI). As a key team member of the Saw franchise, he helped to create the Guinness Book of World Record for largest-grossing horror film franchise in history.

Armstrong also directs feature films, and has directed actors including Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, Peter Stormare, Common, Justin Chatwin, Stephen Lang, Michael Chiklis, Nikki Reed, and Martin Csokas. His most recent feature, The Assassin’s Code, a neo-noir thriller starring Peter Stormare (Fargo) and Justin Chatwin (Shameless), premiered at the 42nd Cleveland International Film Festival in April 2018, with theatrical release by Gravitas Venture and VOD in May 2018.

Zareh Arevshatian

M.A. in Critical Studies, California State University, Northridge; B.A. in Radio-Television-Film, CSUN. Adjunct faculty at Los Angeles Mission College. Media Coordinator for the School of Film, TV, and Digital Media at UCLA. Background in retrospectives and festival programming, American Film Institute, American Cinematheque, and UCLA.

Andy Ashcraft

BA in Graphic Design, UCLA

Andy is the founder of Giantsdance Games. He has held game design positions at Sony Computer Entertainment of America (working on God of War and God of War II), Electronic Arts, THQ, Disney Mobile, Disney Consumer Products, and THQ.

Gregory Ballesteros

Gregory Ballesteros is an experienced entertainment marketing professional with over a decade of experience within marketing and distribution for global theatrical marketing campaigns. Ballesteros worked with Warner Bros. Discovery and AMC Theatres in a variety of different capacities ranging from film programming, exhibitor marketing and distribution. Throughout his tenure Ballesteros partnered with the major film studios like Disney, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Studios, Paramount, and SONY along with other studios like Lionsgate Films, A24, and Amazon Studios. His interests include finding opportunities for the entertainment industry to evolve through social media, new technology and innovations.

Lane Barden

Lane Barden is an architecture photographer with a fine arts background. His client list includes major national and international firms such as A.C. Martin, Harley Ellis Devereaux, Atelier Jean Nouvel (Paris) Audi Bank of Beirut and Coop Himmelblau. His work is included in the collections of The Getty Research Institute at the Getty Center, The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and The Los Angeles County Museum of Fine Arts.

Lane has taught at the Art Center College of Design and the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles. In 2015 he was a guest lecturer at the Annenberg Space for Photography. He holds an M.A. and an M.F.A. from the University of New Mexico.

Ashley Bank

BA in Film, NYU. Graduate of The Second City Conservatory
Ashley has been working in the entertainment industry for virtually her entire life. She’s worked as an actress, stand-up comedian, producer, and writer. As an actress Ashley has appeared in over 40 commercials, and has guest stared on TV shows like Family Ties, My Two Dads, Frasier, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She’s also appeared in numerous TV Movies, working with greats like Henry Winkler, Dolly Parton, and Raquel Welch, as well as the feature film The Monster Squad. She also worked as a producer for CBS News/48 Hours, and later for CBS News’ documentary department, working on documentaries for The History Channel, The Food Network, A&E, Discovery, and ESPN. She is a graduate of New York University, with a BA in Film, Journalism, & Political Science. She is also a graduate of The Second City Conservatory. For the Screenwriting Department in Los Angeles, she teaches The Business of Screenwriting, The Art of The Pitch, Acting as part of the Script To Screen course, and Scene Study. For the Producing Department in Los Angeles, she teaches Producing Documentaries, and in the Filmmaking Department she teaches Advanced Producing.

Leslie Bates

Leslie Bates has an undergraduate degree in Marketing and English Literature from San Diego State University, and a JD from Lincoln Law School. After a stint in Turkey as a contracts attorney, Leslie returned to America to complete an MFA in Screenwriting at the American Film Institute. She has written and produced the dramatic feature, Broken Angel and the documentary, Cesar Chavez, as well as producing countless short films, commercials and live theater. Her other credits include producer of the Istanbul National Ballet production, Agir Roman (East Side Story), at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood.

Brian Beery

Brian is a vested member of the Screen Actor’s Guild due to many years of professional acting work in TV and Film. After working at a literary agency Becsey, Wisdom, Kalajian, Brian became an assistant to Alexander Payne (Election). Brian recommended Sideways to Alexander and the movie became a financial and artistic success, earning Payne an Oscar for his adaptation.

Brian was a medical researcher on the FOX TV series Bones. His medical research was used in several episodes, detailed on their official website and published in hardcover Bones: The Official Guide. Brian worked in Post Production on several feature films and TV shows directed by Spike Lee, M. Night Shyamalan, Tony Scott, Betty Thomas, the Russo brothers, and Jim Burroughs.

Brian earned his MFA in Screenwriting from AFI. Brian won the Ellen Idelson Playwriting Award, the George Mayr Award for Excellence in Screenwriting and the Kodak 35mm Award for his script Speed Dating. Speed Dating competed in film festivals all around the world and was ranked Best of USA by FilmsShort.com. Brian sold and optioned screenplays and was hired to rewrite movies based on the recommendations of Oscar winning filmmakers. Brian directed over 50 industrials and short films.

Matthew Bellows Acting for Film Instructor

Matthew Bellows is a classically trained actor with an MFA from the prestigious Old Globe. With over 50 current tv and film credits to his name, Matthew’s credits range from the professional stage in Anna Christie, The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure (and more) to Television in The Mandalorian, recurring roles on New Amsterdam and Snowfall, and major roles on FBI International, United States of Al, Brooklyn 99, as well as big studio features, The Gray Man, Captain Marvel and Hereditary to name a few.

Michael Bershad Acting for Film Instructor

BA, Criminology, University of MD. Trained with Stella Adler, Michael Shurtleff, David LeGrant. Series regular, 2 seasons, “Capitol”. Theatrical Agent with Stephan Gray Artists. Casting: Glenn Larson Prods, White Eagle Prods (Sylvester Stallone). Cable Ace Awards Judge, 5 years. Produced 3 films, including the feature, “Dispatch” (Netflix, Amazon), which he also wrote and starred in.

Joseph Bonier

An active Sound Mixer and Sound Designer, Joseph graduated with a BA from the University of Maryland. Joseph also has a degree for Recording Engineering from the Recording Connection. He has worked as Boom Operator and Sound Mixer for numerous features, TV shows and shorts. He also worked as an Engineer at Avalon studios in Washington DC and Matrax productions in Philadelphia, PA.

John Briscoe

Editor of multiple commercials broadcast both in Western Pennsylvania as well as Los Angeles. Worked as a freelance contractor on various independent films, webisodes and commercials. Editor of an 8-episode “war time” style documentary independently and aired locally in Los Angeles. Director, Producer and Editor of various segments airing on Pennsylvania television including a commercial for Hyundai, as well as various local food establishments and businesses.

Bruce Buckley

Bruce attended Sheridan for college where he studied art fundamentals. His primary focus was photography, shooting both 35mm and 4×5. Commercial photography was exciting and he did lots of studio work and architectural photography.

After earning his degree, Bruce took a job with the Canadian government working with microfilm. There he discovered computers and became curious about the possibilities of using them to make art. After nine years there Bruce returned to school to study technical illustration.

In 1987 he went to NAB where he met fellow Canadian Steve Williams who was at the conference presenting with Alias. A phone call from ILM in 1993 brought Bruce to ILM. At ILM he went to work right away on films including; Casper, Dragonheart, and Congo helping to develop systems and tools to make the artist’s work move seamless. In 1995 Bruce was headhunted away by Disney to come work on Dinosaur. Bruce’s credits include; Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Incredibles, Monster House, Beowulf, Scott Pilgrim, Tree of Life, John Carter, Prometheus, Fate of the Furious, Kong: Skull Island, and Deadpool 2, to name just a few.

Today Bruce teaches at the NY Film Academy and is a Freelance CG/VFX Supervisor.

Joe Burke

Joe Burke’s debut feature film, Four Dogs, world premiered to great reviews at the Los Angeles Film Festival. He’s directed such shows as Newsreaders on Adult Swim and FOX Digital’s half-hour comedy, Bad Samaritans, along with having written/directed several award-winning short films. Joe has a few new exciting film projects in the works at different stages of the process. He has also spent plenty of time on the other side of the camera as well, acting on screen in movies, national commercials, and television shows, including the critically acclaimed Showtime show Ray Donovan and Freeform’s Good Trouble. Joe earned his MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute, and his BA in Film/Minor in Theater from Columbia College Chicago. He is a member of both the DGA and SAG-AFTRA.

Preston Butler

MFA in Acting, California Institute of the Arts.
Preston Butler III is a multi-hyphenate artist who engages in acting, directing, writing, and music. He has performed all across the United States as well as internationally in France, Belgium, and Scotland. Butler starred as Kitch in the West Coast Premiere of Pass Over by Antionette Nwandu (She’s Gotta Have It) at ACT Seattle, in which he won Best Actor in a Play. In 2021, Butler made his network television debut as a jazz pianist (Kendle Spotnitz) on NCIS. Preston also wrote and directed an original theatrical production at his alma mater, Vanguard University. Created in collaboration with current students, the play, God So Loved: Do We?, explored the complexities of racism, social justice, and faith. This “Digital Play” centered on the new reality of ‘stay-at-home’ virtual communications with each scene taking place via Zoom, FaceTime, and social media posts. Butler voices Cooper Calhoun, a recurring character on the Focus on the Family audio series, Adventures in Odyssey. Most recently, Preston narrated The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois for Apple Books as a part of their celebration of Black History Month. As an educator, Preston worked intensively with the CalArts Community Arts Program (CAP) developing new programs centered on digital content creation and the various elements of filmmaking. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, Preston teaches Acting in the Script To Screen course, as well as Scene Study. For the Producing Department in LA, he teaches Acting for Producers.

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