NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Justin LaReau

LaReau founded Zoe and Pebbles Productions and developed A Demon Within which was acquired by Blue Fox Entertainment and Level 33 and released theatrically on Jan 12, 2018. The company, under LaReau’s direction, produces high production value feature films while working within efficient budgets. LaReau also works as a director and loves being on set, specifically having the opportunity to work with talented actors. LaReau is currently in development of multiple projects. BS in Economics, Illinois State University, MAT in Teaching, Olivet Nazarene University and MFA in Producing, New York Film Academy.

Jacek Laskus, ASC, PSC

Jacek Laskus, ASC, PSC, is a cinematographer and photographer born in Warsaw,
Poland. After graduating from the Polish National Film Academy with a degree in
Cinematography, Jacek left for the United States and made his home in New York City,
where he worked for BBC TV working on many documentaries. While in New York he
also worked on numerous music videos with the Academy award winning director
Zbigniew Rybczynski, as well as for SNL with director Jonathan Demme.
There he shot his first feature film Parting Glances directed by Bill Sherwood
After moving to Los Angeles he worked with the directors such as Donal Petrie Sr,
(Square Dance), Robert Altman (The Caine Mutiny Court Marshal), Michael Pressman,
(Quick Sand, Frankie & Johnny are Married, and the series The Guardian)
The Caine Mutiny Court Marshal earned Jacek the 1989 American Society of
Cinematographers nomination for the Outstanding Cinematography. In 1996 Garden of
Redemption directed by Tom Donnelly, a WWII drama earned Jacek his second A.S.C
nomination. In 1997 Jacek co-lensed a full-length documentary Colors Straight Up. The
film was nominated for a 1998 Academy Award. In 2007 Jacek shot Jerry was a Man
directed by Academy Award nominee Michael Tolkin.
In 2000 Jacek became a member of The American Society of Cinematographers.
In 2011 Jacek became a member of the Polish Society of Cinenamtographers.
Jacek has traveled the globe, shooting films in Canada, Portugal, New Zealand, Italy,
Lithuania, Japan, Nepal, India, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Peru.
Jacek’s second passion is photography. He has participated in two group shows, Still
Moving at the gallery in Los Angeles and in 2006 Photographs by the members of the
A.S.C. at the Academy of Motion Pictures. In April 2008 he held his first solo exhibit at
the WM Gallery in Amsterdam.
Over the course of the past five years Jacek has taught cinematography at a number of
colleges including, The American Film Institute, USC School of Cinematic Arts,
California Institute of the Arts, and The Maine Photographic Workshop.
Jacek speaks Polish, English and French.

Paul Laverack

Paul has an MFA in Screenwriting and MA in Mass Communication from Cal State Northridge, and a BA in Theater from Elmira College in New York. He has toured the country as a performer in musical theater as well as educational shows for kids, worked as Video Producer for the Families in Schools foundation, and has created over 100 episodes for his YouTube channel, Read Aloud with Mr. Paul.

Pascal Lebegue, AFC

Pascal studied cinema at the IDHEC (aka FEMIS) in Paris at a time when Henri Alekan, Ricardo Aronovitch and Nestor Almendros were sharing their immense knowledge and passion for cinematography. He met cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn straight out of school and assisted him for the 5 following years. French director-producer Claude Berri offered him his first movie to operate and Pascal Thomas his first TV to shoot.
Pascal fondness for lighting and filming -especially in black and white- found expression with the advent of music videos. He worked with such talented directors as David Fincher, Francis Lawrence, JB Mondino and brilliant artists as Madonna, Janet Jackson, Don Henley, Rihanna, Jay-Z, to name a few.
Pascal’s work on music videos earned him awards and recognition, including two MTV Awards for Best Cinematography (Madonna’s Vogue and Don Henley’s Boys of Summer), Silver D&AD Awards (Sting’s Russians), and a KODAK Lifetime Achievement Award for Cinematography in the Music Videos category.
Pascal shot most of his feature films in France. His collaborations with Roman Polanski and Alain Corneau were defining moments. Pascal worked on a string of movies, including films with Gerard Pires, Jean-Marie Poirier, Pierre Granier-Deferre and Etienne Chatilliez’ Life is a Long and Quiet River.

Bryant Lemelle

Bryant Lemelle is a graduated of Pitzer College (member of the Claremont Colleges) with a BA in Film Production Studies. His MFA degree in Cinematography is from the American Film Institute. Bryant is a 20 year + member of the International Cinematographer’s Guild. He is an award-winning cinematographer with credits in feature film, TV and commercials. In his decades long career Bryant has well over 50,000 hours on set. As an instructor, Bryant seeks to help his students cultivate their passion and knowledge for the art and craft of cinematography. “I want to help prepare a new generation of cinematographers to meet the artistic and technological demands of an ever-changing business.”

Natasha Leonnet

Upon seeing her first film from the French New Wave as a nine-year-old, Natasha Leonnet was swept up into the world of film. Today, her passion remains undiminished. A Senior Colorist at Company 3, Natasha has worked on over 100 features and received the Hollywood Professional Alliance (HPA) Award for Outstanding Color grading of Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse in addition to an amazing eight HPA nominations. Leonnet has recently branched into streaming and is endlessly fascinated by the new projects and technologies she encounters. She has a BA from Brown University in Media/Culture and loves her time teaching Color Theory at New York Film Academy where she finds the students to be very inspiring.

Her credits include Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse, La La Land, Whiplash, Sin City, Hidden Figures, Defiance, Juno, Blood Diamond, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Up In The Air, Star Wars: Episode II, the Ice Age franchise, First Man, and Good Luck Chuck.

Rafael Lessa

Rafael Lessa is a filmmaker with over 14 years of experience working for players like Amazon and Netflix. He transitions between commercially successful TV projects and artistically relevant films on the international stage. His latest feature film as a screenwriter, “Rule 34”, won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno and has screened in multiple festivals such as Busan, Tallinn Black Nights, and Newfest. In addition, Rafael was the head writer and co-producer of the show “Lov3” for Amazon and won the Brazilian Writer’s Association award. He also wrote seasons one and two of “Samantha!”, a Netflix series. He’s also the head writer of “The Adventures of Jose and Durval” for Globo, the 4th biggest network in the world, and produced by Latin America powerhouse O2 Films (City of God). Rafael has also collaborated with filmmaker Alex Moratto as a screenplay consultant for his films awarded at the Independent Spirit Awards and Venice Film Festival. Rafael began his screenwriting career with the short “Tá,” winner of the Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival. He holds an MFA degree with Honors from Columbia University and a joint MBA in the Business of Entertainment from the University of Southern California.

Linda Lewis

Linda Lewis received her degree from Cal State Fullerton. During a 25-year career as a commercial photographer, Linda has documented over 500 weddings, shot for dozens of artists throughout Southern California, and worked for a variety of corporate, editorial and university clients — including Toyota and USC — that have taken her to Cape Kennedy for a Space Shuttle launch and given her the opportunity to photograph five U.S. Presidents.

In addition to her work with the New York Film Academy Los Angeles, she has taught courses in media, photojournalism, wedding and public relations photography at Chaffey College for over 20 years, and given workshops at the Los Angeles Center of Photography and Brooks Institute.

Jack Lipson

Multi-musical-hyphenate Jack Lipson composed the theme and score to zenroom, a new sitcom starring Cheri Oteri. The LA-native-turned New Yorker co-writes music, lyrics, and -stars alongside his twin brother in Jack & Benny Lipson’s “sensational, clever, and astute” revues across the country. They also penned Miranda, Please!, an “opera buffalo,” and Brainstorm, a song cycle of their material.

The LA Phil commissioned Jack to co-curate and -arrange a Weimar-era Berlin cabaret for their 2020 Weimar Festival. MD highlights include 3 shows with writer Mark Saltzman: Romeo & Bernadette (off-Broadway 2022), Another Roll of the Dice (arrangements/orchestrations, world premiere 2019), and Alice, Formerly of Wonderland (vocal arrangements); Sweet Charity (dir. Kathleen Marshall with Laura Bell Bundy, Reprise 2.0), Dot Dot Dot (TheatreWorksUSA), and on Welcome to Chippendales (with Andrew Rannells, Hulu).

Jack has piano’ed and sung supporting Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, esperanza spalding, Darren Criss, Broadway legend Barbara Dixon, and many more at venues from The Hollywood Bowl to Disney Hall. Jack currently writes in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop and earned his Bachelor’s in music composition at UCLA.

Barry London

Barry London holds a BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Following graduating in the late 90’s he worked as a boom op and as a location mixer on a number of independent films. He mixed the film Personal Velocity which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival in 2002. Following that, he spent years working in all different facets of the industry. From film, television, commercial, reality, documentary, hidden camera, and competition shows the list goes on and on. Where ever you may need sound he can be found, boom pole in hand, and trying to get someone mic’d up. In addition to being well versed in location sound, Barry ran a recording studio for 10 years in Brooklyn, and has a background in post audio and studio recording.

Matt Lopez

Matt Lopez first started dancing at the age of 10, performing for a Filipino dance troupe in New Hampshire. He majored in theatre at Northeastern University and transferred to the University of Central Florida, where he danced at Walt Disney World. Matt performed with Hilary Duff in the Christmas Day Parade televised on ABC. He also worked as the mascot for the New England Patriots. In the spring of 2010, Lopez was featured in the Go-Go Segment on “Live with Regis and Kelly.” His other notable past stage/television performances include dancing for Sean Kingston and Wyclef Jean on a kids programming show on PBS, as well as for Demi Lovato on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Matt now lives in New York City, where he is currently dancing and choreographing with his partner, Melissa Ramos-Lopez, who previously danced for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. In April 2012, Lopez was the audition facilitator for a Nicki Minaj performance and was chosen as a lead dancer in Times Square for the debut of her album, “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.” Matt choreographed for the 5-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots Cheerleaders, the pre-game performance at Madison Square Garden for the NY Knicks and for R&B/Pop artist, Sid Haywoode. In 2015, he was selected as one of the Top 12 Dance Convention Teachers in the U.S. by “Dance Informa Magazine.” Lopez is currently teaching hip hop and street jazz at Steps on Broadway, Broadway Dance Center, Sarah Lawrence College and the New York Film Academy.

Rebecca Louisell

Rebecca Louisell graduated from Carleton College with a B.A. in Studio Art (photography, mixed media) and an M.F.A. in Production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts (USC). While at USC, she was awarded several scholarships and a College Television Award for her producing and directing work. Moving between indie narrative, documentary and new media projects, Louisell has served as Associate Producer on Limited Partnership: a documentary about love, marriage and deportation which was awarded the IDA Humanitarias Documentary Award 2014 and showed on PBS’ Independent Lens, and You See Me, which screened at Dances With Films and Docutah Film Festivals. She is Producer-Director on an upcoming web series, LA Picker.

Susannah Ludwig

Susannah Ludwig’s dynamic career in film production includes producing KINGS POINT, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Her latest project, ON MEDITATION, was released theatrically and via Netflix in 2016. ON MEDITATION features such notable personalities as Congressman Tim Ryan, Filmmaker David Lynch, Giancarlo Esposito, and Peter Matthiessen. Additionally, Ludwig has served as an Executive Producer for Snapdragon Films, working with clients such as Microsoft, Xerox, Weight Watchers, Conde Nast Traveler, Johnson & Johnson, and Lululemon. She co-created the docu-series BOOMTOWN, about the effects of oil discovery on a town in North Dakota. BOOMTOWN, which aired on Discovery/Planet Green, won the IDA award for best documentary series 2011. STOLEN, a documentary exploring the 1990 art heist at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, was released theatrically in 50 cities, distributed via Netflix, and broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens series. Five years ago, she started PORTRAITS THAT MOVE, a business that creates short documentaries of children for families. Ludwig serves on the board of the Kids In Need Foundation, a non-profit that provides school supplies to children who cannot afford them. She lives in Long Island.

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).

Diakeim Lyles

A native New Yorker, Diakeim began his career in the business attending LaGuardia HS of the Performing Arts.

He continued studying acting with a focus on filmmaking, and spent a year abroad at Middlesex University in London via SUNY Binghamton’s BFA program.He completed a stage manager/PA apprenticeship at the Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College, working with prominent actors like Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. His diverse training led him to pursue film/TV casting on commercials and several independent films, including The Hebrew Hammer and The Caller Returns. Diakeim Lyles has been a commercial casting for the last 21+ years and now works independently with various casting houses in the New York area including: Brooke Thomas Casting, Envision Studios, House Casting, Allison Twardziak Casting, Liz Lewis Casting to name a few. He is also a private virtual acting coach and teaches commercial audition classes. Actors respond to his outgoing personality making them feel relaxed during auditions so that clients always get their best performance. He loves casting.

Christopher Macdougall

Christopher Macdougall is an attorney based in NYC, where he represents individual and business clients primarily in the arts and entertainment fields, including film, television, music, dance, theater, and literature. He also represents small businesses and startups. While his practice is primarily focused on deal making, transactional work, and general business advice, Mr. Macdougall has dispute resolution and litigation experience. In addition to his law practice, Mr. Macdougall serves as outside business affairs for L.A. Dance Project, a nonprofit dance and arts organization.

Mr. Macdougall holds a law degree from Rutgers School of Law. Before attending law school, Christopher danced with the New York City Ballet for a number of years. With a background as a creative professional, Mr. Macdougall brings a unique and personal perspective to his legal practice.

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