NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Steven Peros

Steven Peros is the writer of Lionsgate’s The Cat’s Meow, starring Kirsten Dunst and directed by Hollywood legend Peter Bogdanovich. Recently, Steve sold original pilots to MTV and NBC/Universal and directed two features, one of which, Footprints, was hailed as “One of the 10 Best Films So Far This Year” by the Chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. He has written many features including Disney’s Around the World In 80 Days, is a twice-published Samuel French playwright, and was a staff writer on AMC’s Emmy-winning half-hour comedy series, The Lot. Steven has written projects for such diverse talent as Dolly Parton, Jackie Chan, and Eva Longoria. He is a graduate of the Film/TV program at New York University and has also taught Film/TV writing for UCLA Extension and The Writing Pad.

Francis J. Pezza

Francis J. Pezza has more than 40 years experience in Film, Television and Theater as a designer. Mr. Pezza is an MFA Degree graduate from the New York University School of the Arts (currently known as The NYU Tisch School of The Arts). He has been a Production Design Instructor for the last three years, teaching in the New York Film Academy MFA and BFA programs.
Among his many Television Credits as Production Designer are Miami Vice, The Flash, The Young Riders, Viper, Murder She Wrote. Mr. Pezza’s Major Motion Picture Credits include Outbreak, Dante’s Peak, Baby Geniuses, Born To Ride.

Lindsey Phillips

Lindsey Phillips is a documentary filmmaker and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. In her work, she celebrates unique traditions and idiosyncrasies of place, culture, and communities, finding the humor and humanity in complex places. She is known for directing and editing The Exceptionally Extraordinary Emporium, a film about the significance of costuming in New Orleans, My Name Is Marc, And You Can Count On It, about Cleveland’s late-night commercial cult icon Marc Brown and, recently, Rhythm’s Gonna Get Ya, a city symphony of the challenges NYC subway commuters face.

Her award-winning films have screened at numerous festivals across the country, appeared on PBS’s Reel South and MailChimp, and her editing work has been featured on The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Vox, CNN’s Great Big Story, and The Washington Post. Phillips was part of the 2019 UnionDocs Collaborative Studio residency, holds a Certificate in Documentary Arts from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in Digital Media Production

Ben Mehl Acting for Film Instructor

Ben Mehl is best known for his role as Dante on Netflix’s YOU. He has taught Movement and Shakespeare’s Clowns at the NYU Graduate Acting Program, where he also received his MFA and completed a teaching mentorship in Movement under Jim Calder and Voice under Scott Miller. He teaches at the New York Film Academy, HB Studio, and has also taught at The Public Theater, Red Bull Theater, Vim Vigor, Clown Gym, the Refugee Youth Summer Academy, the New School and as a private coach. He is a member of The Actors Center and a volunteer at the 52nd Street Project. Acting credits include: TV: YOU, THE GOOD WIFE, SUPERNATURAL INVESTIGATOR. Film: VIRAL BEAUTY, THE FLY ROOM, OFF-DUTY.Off-Broadway: THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR, SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL; (Red Bull Theater); PERICLES, COMEDY OF ERRORS (Public Theater). Regional: THE CRUCIBLE, YENTL (Cleveland Playhouse); TROUBLEMAKER (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION (Williamstown Theatre Festival); HENRY V (Two River Theater); LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST (Chautauqua Theater Company). Other New York: DANNYKRISDONNAVERONICA, JULIUS CAESAR (Wheelhouse Theater); AT THE TABLE (Fault Line Theatre); HABIT (P.S. 122)

Patricia Phillips

American actress and singer Patricia Phillips has altered the history of American Broadway theatre, twice. Known for her power-house soprano, Patricia’s is the first woman of color to portray the Tony Award winning role of Carlotta in the longest running show in Broadway history, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. She is also the only woman of color to appear in KINKY BOOTS on Broadway. Classically trained at Carnegie Mellon University, Patricia has a wide range of stage and film credits including the Emmy Award winning Live at Lincoln Center production of SWEENEY TODD starring EMMA THOMPSON, the US premier of JERRY SPRINGER THE OPERA at Carnegie Hall starring Harvey Keitel, the Tony Award winning productions of BAZ LUHRMANN’S LA BOHÈME (OBC), THE SECRET GARDEN (OBC) and THE SOUND OF MUSIC (OBC Revival). She can be heard on three original cast recordings on DreamWorks, Columbia and RCA.

Some of Patricia’s television credits include BILLY ON THE STREET, SHADES OF BLUE, THE TONY AWARDS and THE SOPRANOS. Her film credits include EVERYBODY’S FINE where she performed alongside Robert De Niro. Patricia has appeared as the guest soloist with many symphony orchestras including The Pittsburgh Symphony, The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, The Minnesota Orchestra, The Indianapolis Symphony, The Bay Area Symphony, The Harrisburg Symphony, The Sioux City Symphony, and The Virginia Symphony.

Patricia currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at The New York Film Academy and New Jersey City University. She taught previously at Carnegie Mellon University, NYU Tisch New Studio on Broadway and at The Hun School in Princeton.

Patricia Lives in the greater New York City area where she savors dual citizenship between the United States and Italy and she will always consider her son, DIF, her finest production of all time.

Robert Pietri

BFA, Carnegie Mellon University; MFA, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Dean’s Fellow. Robert has worked in several mediums and genres, from live-action narrative to animation and documentary. His films have been in competition at festivals around the world, including AFI/DOCs, Animafest Zagreb, Annecy, BFI London Film Festival, and the Tribeca Film Festival. Pietri served in the United States Marines Corps and worked for years as an art director before committing himself to filmmaking. His first feature, Semper Fidel, was shot in Havana, Cuba. Robert continues to work and develop projects internationally.

Johanna Pinzler

Johanna directs at regional theaters and college theater programs in New York City. She teaches acting, directing and comedy at Marymount Manhattan College and NYFA’s Professional Conservatory of Musical Theatre. She serves as an Artistic Associate at Summer Rep Theatre in Santa Rosa, CA.

Huch Platt

Avid Pro Tools HD Certified Instructor, Owner Majestic Sound Studios, Foley Mixer, Dialog Editor Flags for Our Fathers, Dialog Editor Black Dawn and Stranger by Me. Huch has dedicated his life to teaching the art and craft of Film Sound and helping new filmmakers achieve amazing Sound Design.

Michelle Potterf

Michelle Potterf’s Bio-
Michelle came to NYFA from a 9-year run in the Musical CHICAGO on Broadway where she played Go-to-Hell Kitty and the understudy for the lead, Roxie Hart. She was also chosen to work side by side with Ms. Ann Reinking as the Dance Captain for Chicago the Musical on Broadway. Michelle has also had the privilege of constructing and overseeing a special one night performance by the incredible Chita Rivera at the Hotel Pierre. Michelle has danced professionally in such productions as Crazy For You (International tour), The Will Rogers Follies (National Tour), Beauty and the Beast (Walt Disney World.) She has been a featured dancer in the remake of the Stepford Wives movie and as a featured Dancer in a National Ebay commercial directed by Sam Mendes, as well as many other TV appearances. She has also taught dance in the NYC Public school system through The National Dance Institute under the direction of the legendary Jacques d’Amboise. Michelle earned a BFA in Dance from Missouri State University. Currently she is head of the dance department within the Professional Conservatory of Musical Theatre at the New York Film Academy.

Jenni Powell

Jenni Powell is the Emmy Award-winning producer of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Welcome to Sanditon, lonelygirl15, Emma Approved, and The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy. For two years she was Director of Content and Social Media for VidCon and was a producer at Felicia Day’s YouTube Premium Channel Geek & Sundry, where she produced the Geekie Award-Winning Talkin’ Comics Weekly. She was Head of Production for NewMediaRockstars (rebranded to NewRockstars after her tenure) and is now tapping into her deep love of role-playing games, which she has been playing for over 20 years, by creating strategies for translating them from the game table to a consumable and entertaining visual medium. She is also a Faculty member of the New York Film Academy where she teaches Story Generation, New Media, and Transmedia (tabletop games, role-playing games, web series, and more).

Ray Preziosi

Primarily a feature film director of photography, Ray Preziosi’s film credits include: “Topsy and Bunker” with Kathy Najimi; “Italian Movie” with James Gandolfini; “Frog and Wombat” featuring Ronny Cox and Lindsay Wagner; “Big Packages”; and the Victorian era period film “Family Secrets.” Working with Saul and Elaine Bass, Ray Preziosi shot title sequences for “A River Runs Through It,” directed by Robert Redford, and “Casino,” directed by Martin Scorsese. Besides feature film experience, Ray Preziosi has also photographed many short films.

Ray’s documentary credits include “NY TV by the People Who Made It,” for which he received an Emmy nomination. A few of Ray’s nationally airing documentaries include “The Music of Ireland” series; History Channel’s Mega-Movers “Intrepid: On the Move”; “Francis Scott Key and the Song that Built America”; and “FS Key, After the Song,” among others.

Jen Prince

Jen Prince is a producer/director/editor with an MFA in Film Production from USC and a BFA in Acting and BA in Plan II Liberal Arts from UT Austin (Phi Beta Kappa). Her recent feature credits include 7000 Miles, Miles Underwater, Quality Problems, and And Then There Was Eve. She has worked in reality post-production television as well on shows such as The Amazing Race and The Contender (Mark Burnett Productions). Jen also recently produced Virtual Reality content for the Beijing Olympic Games (NBC), which was nominated for a Sports Emmy in Digital Innovation. Jen is a member of the PGA and Alliance of Women Directors.

Robert Pucci Academic Advisor

BA with honors in Economics, Gettysburg College; JD, Washington College of Law at American University; Licensed Attorney, NY and NJ; Writer The Corruptor New Line Cinema; Writer The Spider & The Fly Paramount Television, Writer of the fiction novel, In Harlem’s Way.

David Pultz

David Pultz, CSI has worked in motion picture post-production for over thirty-five years as colorist for film and video. A graduate of the film school at Emerson College, he spent two years at Film Tech Lab in Westfield, MA before moving to New York City. He spent much of his career at Du Art Film & Video, working on a wide variety of independent features and documentaries. After leaving Du Art in 2008, he served short stints with the lab at PostWorks and Deluxe New York before transitioning as an independent colorist specializing in Da Vinci Resolve. David has also directed and produced documentary films. In 1997 he completed the award-winning feature Eternal Memory: Voices from the Great Terror. Shot on location in western Ukraine, Meryl Streep narrates the film. In 2018 David was awarded an MA from The City College of New York. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. www.davepultz.com

Lee Quarrie Academic Advisor

Lee is a writer and actor in the Lady Bits Sketch Comedy group, and is an award winning filmmaker. Her short film “Patchwork Dreams” won grand prize at the Beijing International Screenwriting Competition in 2013. You’ll be able to see her short film “Earth Laundry” in multiple film festivals in 2023/24. And look for Lee’s latest book of monologues for film actors being published in 2023.

Julio O. Ramos Acting for Film Instructor

MFA in Film Directing and Production from UCLA; BA in Journalism from Universidad San Martin de Porres (Peru). Julio is the Writer/Director of “A Doctor’s Job” and “Behind the Mirrors,” films that were showcased in Telluride, Camerimage and CFC WorldWide, awarded with top prizes at Palm Springs ShortFest, Nashville and La Habana. He is an Alum of the Berlinale Talent Campus.

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