NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Saul Robbins

Saul Robbins is interested in the ways people interact within their surroundings and the psychological dynamics of intimacy. His photographs are motivated by observations of human behavior and personal experience, especially those related to loss, unity, failure, and the latent potential residing in traditional photographic materials and personal history. Robbins is best known for “Initial Intake”, which examines the empty chairs of Manhattan-based psychotherapy professionals from their clients’ perspective, and “How Can I Help? – An Artful Dialogue”, a pop-up office into which he invites strangers to speak with him about anything they wish for free, and in complete confidence.

Robbins’ work has been exhibited and published internationally. He received his MFA from Hunter College of the City University of New York, where he studied under Roy DeCarava and is Adjunct Professor of Photography at International Center of Photography, NYFA, and SVA. He also consults privately and leads Master Workshops about communication strategies and professional development. His work can be viewed at: www.saulrobbins.com and @Saul.Robbins on Instagram.

Dafina Roberts

Dafina Roberts is an award-winning writer/director/producer with television development experience.

Recently, Dafina was a 2019 Ryan Murphy Half Initiative Directing Fellow. Previously, she created the digital series Giving Me Life (In The Land Of The Deadass). The series was released in 2019 via Comcast’s Xfinity, Gravitas Ventures and iOne Digital. Previously, the series won the AT&T Audience Award for Best Episodic at the 2018 Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival. It was also an Official Selection of the 2017 New York Television Festival, 2018 Cleveland International Film Festival, and 2018 Atlanta Out On Film Festival. In 2017, Dafina was a Kickstarter Creator-In-Residence while she was in production on Giving Me Life.

Prior to that, she worked as a Director of Development & Production at Nickelodeon, where she oversaw development and current series for scripted and unscripted projects. She also co-produced the urban coming-of-age feature film, Punching At The Sun (Official Selection of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival; Winner for Best Narrative at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.)

David Robinette Associate Chair of Performing Arts Department

MA in Performance Theory/Playwriting, California State University, Northridge and BA in English/Creative Writing, Hunter College. Television actor with appearances on “The Young and the Restless,” “Law & Order,” “As the World Turns,” and “All My Children.” Film role in “Cry Funny Happy,” Official Selection at Sundance.

Eddie Rosenstein

Eddie Rosenstein has produced and/or directed ten award winning documentary films including THE FREEDOM TO MARRY, BOATLIFT, SCHOOL PLAY, WAGING A LIVING, A TICKLE IN THE HEART and SANDHOGS. He has also created non-fiction programming for television networks including PBS, A&E, TruTV, History, Discovery ID, HBO and AMC. He has won dozens of awards at film festivals including Berlin, Full Frame, San Francisco, Chicago and Savannah. A TICKLE IN THE HEART was shortlisted for an Academy Award and CALLED TO ACTION (AMC) was nominated for an EMMY. Eddie has produced and/or directed more than 150 commercials and corporate films, and served as an executive producer at several production companies, including at Eyepop Productions which he co-founded. Eddie has lectured at many universities and corporations and has been teaching documentary filmmaking at NYFA since 2008. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons.

Christopher Rossiter, CSI

Christopher’s cinematography credits include the period war series “Benedict Arnold: Hero Betrayed” starring Peter O’Meara and Martin Sheen, the Arleen Sorkin series “How to Marry a Billionaire” and numerous commercials such as the “I Love New York” campaign. He has worked under many notable cinematographers such as Fred Goodich, ASC; Tom Houghton, ASC; Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC; to name a few.

In addition to being a cinematographer ranked member of the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG), Christopher was recently accepted into the Colorist Society International (CSI) for his work as a colorist. His most notable credits are “Iconic Vision: John Parkinson Architect of Los Angeles” that premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival and was EMMY nominated after airing on PBS in 2019, the documentary “The Art and Times of Frosty Myers” that also aired on PBS, a series for “La Palma Magazine: Niki Koss Fashion Story”, the feature film “Brahmin Bulls” starring Mary Steenburgen and “Hollyweird”.

For many years Christopher worked as a key grip and gaffer for union and non-union productions. Some highlights include Jon Favreau’s “Dinner for Five”, Ming Tsai’s series “East Meets West”, Yahoo Music video series, Dale Pon Advertising for Oxygen and Spike TV campaigns, Fedora Chocolate campaign, Apple Computers, and photographer Annie Leibovitz for Vogue Magazine.

Christopher is a graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Cinematography. He is also a Cinematography peer group member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Christopher has taught cinematography at many programs including New York Film Academy, and his alma mater, the American Film Institute.

In 2023, his work was nominated and selected for honorable mention at the International Color Award.

James Rowe

James first stepped onto a film set at 18 as a British Red Coat in Michael Mann’s epic adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans, shooting outside his home town of Asheville, NC. That fall he entered UNC-Chapel Hill, where he would write and direct the jazz-inspired short film Sax Man. The short was purchased by PBS for their Southern Visions series and James was invited to join the American Film Institute as a Directing Fellow.
While at AFI, he optioned his first feature screenplay to Oliver Stone’s Illusion Entertainment. The resulting film, Blue Ridge Fall — starring Peter Facinelli (Twilight, Nurse Jackie) and Academy Award nominee Amy Irving (Traffic, Zero Hour) — was directed by James and released by HBO. It played the Los Angeles Film Festival, Austin Film Festival and Cine de Mar del Plata, Argentina, among others, and was given prominent placement on the Blockbuster Movie Awards.
“A taut drama,” proclaimed Film Threat, “extolling the bonds of friendship as well as the fragility and vulnerability of futures we wrongly assume are set in stone.”
James has since led filmmaking workshops for professionals around the world and continues to create in Los Angeles, as a screenwriter, director and educator.

Vivian Rubio

Vivian Rubio is an accomplished actor, director, and educator with extensive experience in film, television, and theater. She holds an MFA in Theater, Film and Television from UCLA and a BFA in Theater from the University of Florida & New World
School of the Arts. Vivian has performed in numerous productions, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and has appeared on networks such as Amazon Prime, NBC/Telemundo and TLC. With a background in both classical and contemporary performance, she brings a dynamic approach to actor training. She has studied under renowned industry professionals and specializes in voice, movement, and audition techniques. As a dedicated instructor, she is passionate about guiding students toward professional success in the entertainment industry.

Natasha Rudenko

Natasha Rudenko is a photographer and an educator, and has exhibited her work internationally. Her work was part of a few group shows in New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Budapest and some others as well as a few annual publications of feminist and queer art, including Issues II and Femme Fotale Volume III Analog and Femme Fotale Volume IV Leafless.

In her work Rudenko interprets her personal experience as a human being. She addresses self-reflection and investigates the realm of her feelings and emotions. Through being honest and personal she aims to make people relate to the ideas explored in her work and provoke their own self-reflection. Rudenko also believes art education can change the world and make it a better place. MFA, New York Film Academy.

Crickett Rumley

The founder and Senior Director of the New York Film Academy’s Film Festival Department, Crickett Rumley received her MFA in Film at Columbia University. She has guided filmmakers to official selections and awards at festivals ranging from Sundance to Bronzelens and to nomination and shortlisting for the Student Academy Awards, the BAFTA Student Film Awards, and the College Television Awards.

Crickett has moderated both live and virtual events for the school, including Q&A’s with NYFA alum Mohamed Diab (director of Marvel Studios/Disney+ series Moon Knight) and TV writers Boo Killebrew and Gail Lerner as well as panels with staff from festivals such as New Filmmakers LA, Hollyshorts, Austin, and Reel Sisters of the Diaspora. Most recently, she hosted the Winter Film Awards International Film Festival’s Education Day on the NYFA campus in New York, presenting workshops on “Social Media for Creatives” and “How to Craft the Low Budget Screen Story”.

A regular juror for the Forum on Life, Culture, and Society’s International Short Film Competition, Crickett also sat on the jury for the 2021 Tallgrass Film Festival, one of MovieMaker Magazine’s 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee. She now serves as their Panels Director.

Paul J. Salamoff

Paul J. Salamoff has been working for over 30 years in Film, TV, Video Games and Commercials as a Writer, Producer, Director, Executive, Comic Creator, Storyboard Artist and Make-Up FX Artist. He was recently named one of The Tracking Board’s Top 100 up & coming Screenwriters and has developed projects with Mosaic Media Group, Hollywood Gang, Blumhouse, Wigram Productions, Silver Pictures, Valhalla Motion Pictures, Vertigo and Eclectic Pictures. Salamoff is the author of On The Set: The Hidden Rules of Movie Making Etiquette (Now in its 4th Edition) and the graphic novels Discord, Tales of Discord, Hired Guns, Logan’s Run and issues of Vincent Price Presents. His short stories and essays have been included in acclaimed anthologies including Midian Unmade: Tales From Clive Barker’s Nightbreed and The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring The Blade Runner Universe and he is a two-time Bram Stoker Award Nominee. Salamoff made his feature-film directorial debut with Encounter, a multi award-winning Sci-Fi/Drama based on his original screenplay that stars Luke Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Cheryl Texiera and Tom Atkins. Encounter won “Best Independent Film” at The 46th Annual SATURN Awards. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Online Screenwriting, Genre Studies, Sequential Art, Script To Screen, and Feature Workshops.

Brad Sample

Brad Sample is an award-winning writer/director for film, television and the web. He holds an M.F.A. in Film Directing from U.C.L.A.’s School of Theater, Film and Television. His film credits include Stuck, a dark comedy short, and the Iraq War film Attention, which aired on the Showtime Network. Brad’s television work includes pilots ¡YO! Television, including the hip-hop dance battle show, Crunkiao, and the celebrity profile show, Mi Barrio. The highlight of his online work is Stand Up, a promotional video for the United Nations Millennium Campaign. Brad currently teaches directing at the New York Film Academy and is working on his next screenplay.

Dr. Mary Samuelson Dean of General Education; Chair of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Dr. Mary Samuelson received her Ph.D. and MA degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and completed her undergraduate work in Cinema-Television and English Literature at the University of Southern California (USC). For the past four years, Mary has taught courses and advised students in the Cinema and Media Studies and Writing Programs departments at UCLA, the Cinema-Television department at Los Angeles Community College (LACC), and here at the New York Film Academy (NYFA). Her essays “Radical Moment: The National Recovery Administration and Hollywood’s ‘New Deal’” and “Wartime News Flow: Government and Studio Newsreels, 1941-1945” will come out in collections focusing on film and the law (September 2016) and the U.S. newsfilm (June 2016), respectively. Mary’s dissertation “The Patriotic Play: Roosevelt, Antitrust, and the War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry” is slated for book publication in Spring 2017.

Michael Sandoval

MFA, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts; MFA, University of Michigan, Writing Program; BA, Brown University.

Films have appeared in Berlin Film Festival, Palm Springs, Slamdance, Toronto Short Film Festival, Margaret Meade Doc Festival, and more. Director of The Good Son (competition screening, Berlin); Ariana (Audience Award, San Luis Obispo Film Festival). Cinematographer/producing consultant for numerous film/TV productions, including feature documentary, Horizontes sin Dueño and “The Encounter” (Best Short, Las Palmas). Awarded Ang Lee Fellowship. Published fiction/non-fiction. Residency Grants include Ucross Foundation, the Santa Fe Art Institute.

Boris Schaarschmidt

Boris Schaarschmidt is a director, producer, and writer with 15 well-recognized short films under his belt. Each of his films has won numerous awards at film festivals around the world. Boris holds a BFA in cinematography from the University of Applied Sciences in Dortmund, Germany, and a MFA in directing from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He has been awarded several prestigious scholarships and awards, among them the German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship (DAAD), and the Pat Hitchcock O’Connell Scholarship Award.

Throughout his career, Boris has worked with well-accomplished and recognized professionals in the film industry, among them German director Romuald Karmaker and Quentin Tarantino, for whom Boris worked on the post-production of “Inglorious Bastards.” Following the success of his short film “Haleema,” Boris went to Iceland for a three-month artist residency and shot the experimental film “Eldur a Himni” about the Northern Lights.

Robert William Schneider

Robert W. Schneider received his BA in Political Science from California Lutheran University and his MFA in Directing from Pennsylvania State University. He holds academic appointments at Penn State University, New York Film Academy, and Mt. Union. He has guest lectured at Yale University, Kent State University, UCLA, USC, and throughout London. Professor Schneider is one of the most recognizable figures in the field of online education. His new book, 50 Key Musicals, will be published by Routledge Press in 2022.
As a director, Robert has worked with such theatres as Center Theatre Group, Walnut Street Theatre, Manhattan Theater Club, York Theatre, Second Stage Theatre, and Lincoln Center Theater, as well as for PBS and Fox Seachlight. His work has been acknowledged with the Ovation Award, StageScene LA Award, BroadwayWorld Award, and the MAC Award.
In this capacity, he has also collaborated on projects with some of this century’s greatest artists including Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Audra McDonald, Emma Thompson, Seth McFarlane, Christina Aguilera, Bernadette Peters, Sutton Foster, Christopher Durang, Kristen and Bobby Lopez, Jason Alexander, Joe Iconis, Jane Lynch, and many others.

Nathan Schrader

Nathan Schrader is the Coordinator of the New York Film Academy’s English Language Lab, a unique position he has held since 2014. He is a graduate of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from Hunter College in 2018 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Film Production. He is currently pursuing Doctoral studies in Education and Curriculum Design at Fordham University. The English Language Lab is a space for NYFA students whose first language is not English to practice and improve their English speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. His approach is collaborative and relies heavily on discussion for meaning. Language Lab is flexible, and students come on an as-needed basis.

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