NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Mark J. Mooney

Mark Joseph Mooney is a life-long learner who professes critical thinking, critical writing, and advanced English composition at New York Film Academy. He also teaches foreign policy and international affairs courses at Florida International University’s School of International & Public Affairs where he mentors Fellows participating in the United States Intelligence Community’s, Centers for Academic Excellence Fellowship. Mark enjoys helping students focus research efforts; compose clear, concise & convincing papers, write critically, orally present, and develop professionally. His professional background includes providing military and civil service intelligence and security to U.S. policy and decision makers at home &
abroad. A Cold Warrior, he served his nation in these capacities for 38 years, 3 behind the iron curtain in East Germany and 1 in Iraq. Physically active, Mark completed 2 marathons, more ½-marathons, and many10-kilometer races. He coached teams (on which his son played) and was inducted into the Little League Hall of Fame. A native New Yorker from Jackson Heights (Queens Borough), Mark worked many years at 17 Battery Place. He acted in HS productions of The Skin of Our Teeth, The Time of Your Life, and Curtain Going Up (male lead) then earned his Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Languages at Fordham University, in the Bronx, NY and a Masters in National Security Affairs from Nova Southeastern University. He and spouse Carole live in Broward County and have 5 adult children and 2 grandchildren. His hobbies include photography, tennis, movies, writing poetry and reading mysteries.

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.

Stephen Nachamie

Stephen Nachamie is an award-winning stage and film director and an accomplished arts educator.

Broadway: She Loves Me – (Associate Director)

New York: Little Shop of Horrors – Reunion Concert (with Alan Menken), Small Town Confessions (with Alice Ripley and Daisy Eagan), Buyer and Cellar, My Name is Asher Lev, Rounding Third (Penguin Rep), Animals Out of Paper (Hudson Stage Co) Driving Miss Daisy, Torch Song Trilogy (with Seth Rudetsky)

Regional: Sweeney Todd (starring Carolee Carmello), Becoming Dr. Ruth (Cincinnati Playhouse), Fiddler on the Roof, Tick, tick…BOOM!, (New Rep), Sex with Strangers, 4,000 Miles (Capital Rep), The Whipping Man (Omaha Playhouse), Lady Day… (WHAT and Capital City Theatre), Camelot, 1776, A Chorus Line (Olney- Helen Hayes Award), West Side Story (Italian Tour).

Film/TV: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade/NBC, Stand Still (Telly Award – Direction)

Concerts and Opera: Music City Christmas (solo shows with Kellie Pickler, Tituss Burgess and Mickey Guyton for the Nashville Symphony), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Steamboat Springs Symphony)

NYFA: Head Over Heels, Carrie on the mainstage, and the Award-Winning Movie Musicals, Winning New York, Bang! Boom! Pow! and What’s Left.

BFA from NYU. Proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society

http://www.stephennachamie.com

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.

Jackie Neale

Jackie Neale is a hybrid photographic artist creating storytelling installations in mediums ranging from alternative processes to low-fidelity recordings. Her process relies on community immersion to depict honest interactions in underrecognized communities and serving as personal testimonials as oral histories. She is the former Online Features Imaging Director at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, completing over 300 storytelling projects over 15-plus years. She is also a published author, and undergraduate Photography Professor at Saint Joseph’s University and the New York Film Academy. Neale has completed residencies in New York City, Philadelphia, Texas, Mexico, Calabria and Milan, Italy.

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.

Till Neumann

Till N. Neumann was born and raised in Munich, Germany. He worked in Film Production before coming to New York City where he worked for hands on as a cinematographer. Till has compiled an impressive resume, shooting over thirty short films, numerous commercials, music videos, and over ten feature films as well as directing numerous commercials, shorts, and a feature film. He spent 3 years living and working in Los Angeles but decided his home and inspiration was and always has been New York.

Till Neumann’s work on El Camino received great reviews from Roger Ebert. He received awards for Best Cinematography for his film The Bakery at the Interpret film festival, as well as a special award for his cinematography at the CineVegas festival for his work on the movie 5up 2down along with best short film awards for The Strange Case Of Marie France at the Newport International Film Festival and the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

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

Ester Meyer Nunes

Ester Meyer Nunes is a Brazilian filmmaker with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Filmmaking from the New York Film Academy and a Master’s of Science in Mass Communication from Florida International University. Currently based in South Florida, Ester teaches liberal arts and science courses & Filmmaking Workshops at NYFA Miami.

With experience working on multiple feature films and award-winning short films, she has also held a range of roles, including production management and R&D at a local film production company.

Ester’s diverse career spans creative, technical, and educational aspects of the film industry, with a strong commitment to both storytelling and mentorship.

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.

Kristen Nutile, ACE

Kristen Nutile, ACE, is a documentary editor and filmmaker based in New York City.

Kristen recently co-edited the film TURN EVERY PAGE, directed by Lizzie Gottlieb and released by Sony Pictures Classics. Kristen holds editing credits on FATHOM (AppleTV +), ART & KRIMES BY KRIMES (MTV Documentary Films), LOVE, GILDA (Magnolia Pictures), ADRIENNE (HBO), DEEP RUN (Netflix), EVERY DAY IS A HOLIDAY (PBS). She edited UNFINISHED SPACES, which won an NY Independent Spirit Award and is part of the permanent collection at Museum of Modern Art. Kristen had the opportunity to work on WEED THE PEOPLE and BUSINESS OF BIRTH CONTROL, directed by Abby Epstein and Executive Produced by Ricki Lake. Kristen edited HEROIN(E) which was nominated for an Academy Award, a Peabody Award and went on to win an Emmy Award.

Kristen has directed eleven films. Her own work intersects experimental and non-fiction filmmaking. Kristen’s films have shown around the world, including the Sundance Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2006, Kristen collaborated with legendary filmmaker, Albert Maysles and Tanja Meding on SALLY GROSS – THE PLEASURE OF STILLNESS, about critically acclaimed dancer and choreographer, Sally Gross.

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.

Lanre Olabisi

Lanre Olabisi is an award-winning writer/director whose films have aired on HBO, Showtime, Netflix, and Hulu. Most recently, he has directed episodes of ABC’s “The Rookie” and its spinoff “The Rookie: Feds.” His short film “A Storybook Ending” streamed on HBO, leading to his participation in the HBOAccess Directing Program and the Disney Entertainment Television Directing Program.

Lanre’s feature films include “August the First” and “Somewhere in the Middle,” both distributed worldwide by Film Movement. His films have played in over 125 film festivals worldwide, including SXSW and Karlovy Vary. He has been nominated for an IFP Gotham Award and a Black Reel Award.

Lanre has taught at NYFA since 2008.

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.

Nick Ozeki

MFA in Filmmaking, Chapman University; BA in English, Amherst College. Wrote and directed an award-winning feature film out of graduate school that was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. He is also a part of the prestigious Fox Writer’s Initiative, aimed at developing and writing original content for their networks.

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