Faculty Directory

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).

Marissa Read

Marissa is a muli-hyphante who aims to create material she can direct and act in. She first accomplished this goal when she, along with her writing partner Selyna Warren, made their first sell to AwesomenessTV in the form of a half hour streaming show called “Foursome”. Foursome ran for four seasons, broke YouTubeOriginals’ record for longest running series, and garnered over 95 million views. Marissa then went on to sell television shows and features to Nickelodeon, Tristar, American High, Sony, and more. Currently, Marissa is working alongside Cobia Kai’s Counterbalance and Sony Studios on a True Crime dramady titled, Bad Apple. On the feature side, Marissa is in development with Jordan Kerner on a kids and family Halloween movie. Marissa and Selyna’s feature, Bat Mitzvah, was just announced as a finalist for Tribeca’s Untold Stories Million Dollar Grant. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, Marissa teaches Comedy Writing, Scene Study, TV Workshops, and Web Series.

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.)

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.

Jerry Shandy

MFA in Screenwriting, USC
Jerry is a writer-producer who has credits on such television series as Batwoman, Dominion, and Perception. In addition, he’s sold numerous pilots and feature film scripts. Jerry has taught at NYFA, both in the United States and abroad, across multiple departments, including Screenwriting, Producing, Filmmaking, and Acting. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches TV Workshops, Feature Workshops, Business of Screenwriting, and Online Screenwriting

Jan Epstein Schwaid

BFA in Writing for Screen and Television, USC/Cinema-Television
Jan has written for 15 years across games, podcasts, marketing, and short films. She wrote games for Aeria Games & Entertainment, PlayNext Inc, and Kayat Games/Singta Games. She was the head writer on Nosh: Bite Size Adventures, an animated children’s cooking show. Wrote the short film The Noodle Man, which is streaming on Amazon Prime. Has written for Glamour.com and Fox Digital. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Podcasting, and Story Generation.

Alex Simmons Screenwriting Instructor

Alex Simmons is an award-winning freelance writer, writing coach/teacher, and creative arts consultant.  He’s written for Disney Books, Penguin-Random House, and Marvel/DC/Archie Comics. Simmons is the creator of the acclaimed adventure book series Blackjack. He’s also developed scripts for plays, teleplays, documentaries, interactive live shows, and animation projects.  Simmons has taught creative arts masterclasses for students and educators in the US, West Indies, Africa, and Europe. He’s taught screenwriting at the New York Film Academy.  Simmons has been a guest speaker, served on numerous arts and education panels, delivered lectures on children’s entertainment mediums, and on empowering young people through the arts. He founded the annual family event, Kids Comic Con, and three comic arts exhibits, which have traveled abroad.

Sue Jin Song

MFA in Acting, NYU/Tisch
A “Usual Suspect” at New York Theater Workshop, where she worked with Van Lier playwrights on developing new work. She has acted in theaters in New York City and regionally around the country, including world premieres written by Paula Vogel and Velina Hasu Houston. Film/TV credits include New Amsterdam, Generat+ion, Law & Order, Won’t Back Down, and Someone Like You. Sue Jin also wrote and acted in a one woman play Children of Medea, which was awarded “Best of DC Fringe” and was subsequently produced by Constellation Theatre. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Acting as part of the Script To Screen course. In the Producing Department, she teaches Acting for Producers. In the Filmmaking Department, she teaches Acting for Filmmakers.

Jenny Sterner Associate Chair of Screenwriting

MFA in Screenwriting, New York Film Academy.
Jenny has developed a manga for Seven Seas Entertainment. She is the creator of the web series Searching for Eden. She served as Coordinator of the Screenwriting Department for five years before taking over as Associate Chair. She teaches Story Generation and Building & Researching Your World for the Department.

Alan Trezza

BA, Film & Television, Fordham University
Alan Trezza wrote and produced the zombie comedy Burying the Ex, which was directed by Joe Dante and starred Anton Yelchin and Ashley Greene. He wrote and executive produced the thriller We Summon the Darkness starring Alexandra Daddario and Keean Johnson. Alan has sold screenplays to Miramax Films and Paramount Pictures, and has developed projects for such Hollywood legends as Drew Barrymore, Tony Scott, and Ridley Scott. He is currently casting his next script Sanctuary, a supernatural horror film that will be directed by John Leonetti and produced by Joel Silver. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Script To Screen, Feature Workshops, Adaptation, Rewriting, and Story Generation.

Nebojsa Vulovich

Selyna Warren

Selyna Warren makes up one half of the multi-hyphenate team S&M, along with Marissa Read. They are writers and directors who act in their own material. They sold our first show, Foursome, to ATV/Youtube Originals and continued to showrun the series which ran for four seasons, breaking the network’s record. They worked with CounterBalance and Sony on the 1/2 hour comedy, Bad Apple. In the feature space they are writing an *NSYNC love letter alongside Rachel Bloom for Tristar. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, Selyna teaches Comedy Writing, Acting as part of the Script To Screen course, TV Workshops, and Web Series.

Christina Weir

MA in Mass Communications/TV Production, Emerson College.
Christina has worked in television, comics, film, and games for over two decades. Along with her writing partner (Nunzio DeFilippis), she was a writer/producer on HBO’s Arliss and wrote for the Disney Channel series Kim Possible. They have had features optioned at Hollywood Pictures, Process Media, and Humble Journey Films, and developed a video game at Sony and a TV movie at Oxygen. She and her partner have written for the comics New X-Men, Adventures of Superman, Batman Confidential, and Dragon Age, among many others. They created the comic franchises Bad Medicine (developed at Closed On Mondays with NBC), The Amy Devlin Mysteries (developed as a TV series at E!), and Frenemy of the State (co-created with Rashida Jones, optioned as a feature film by Imagine Entertainment/Universal Pictures.) For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Thesis Workshops, TV Pilot, Sequential Art, Transmedia, Interactive Narrative, Character Workshop, and Story Generation.

Liz Fania Werner

MFA in TV and Screenwriting, USC
Liz Fania Werner, originally from the Bronx, NY, got her MFA in TV and Screenwriting from USC where she earned an Annenberg Fellowship. She went on to write on television drama RPM MIAMI for Mun2 network, a member of the NBC/Universal family; to develop the feature adaptation of the novel Babylon Sisters by Oprah Book Club author Pearl Cleage and to pen a biopic about WNBA player Abby Bishop for Sentient Entertainment. “Into the Uncanny Valley,” the award-winning short film that she wrote and co-directed with Carlos Montaner, was featured in 11 film festivals, including L.A.’s Screamfest and HBO’s New York Latino Film Festival. Most recently, she wrote and co-directed her first feature film, WAKING KARMA, a psychological thriller starring Michael Madsen, distributed by XYZ Films. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches Thesis Workshops, Feature Workshops, Story Generation, Character Workshop, Adaptation, Script To Screen, and Genre Studies.

Danielle Wolff

MFA in Screenwriting, UCLA
Danielle Wolff is a writer of fiction, stage, and screen. Her credits include animated work (Kyle XY Continuum, Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble, Marvel Rising, Tarzan and Jane) and live action work (Wicked Wicked Games with Tatum O’Neal, and American Heiress). Her stage credits include Weightless, and she wrote the radio play Huntsville (broadcast on NPR). Wolff’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in publications such as the Chiron Review and Popcorn Fiction, and she recently published her debut Her Story collection, Mass Ave. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, she teaches TV Workshops, Playwriting, and Story Generation.

Nicholas Yellen

Nick founded NYCA, a Manhattan based literary agency representing screenwriters, directors, playwrights, TV writers, and novelists where he has set up projects at almost every major studio and TV network.

Nick co-founded Edwards-Yellen Entertainment (EYE), a literary management/film and television production company based in Los Angeles. While with EYE, the company had a 2-picture production deal with ABC-Productions. He produced I Know What You Did with Rosanna Arquette, the VH1 TV movie Out of Sync, Retribution for the SAT1 cable network, and the feature If Tomorrow Comes with James Franco. EYE also had development deals with many of the major networks and studios including ABC, Hearst Entertainment, VH1, Phoenix Pictures, Edward R. Pressman, Warner Bros., Alan Landsberg Productions, The Wolper Organization, Lifetime Network, All Girl Productions, and Wilshire Court among others. Nick also worked on the movie Intent for Columbia/Tri-Star.

Theatrically, Nick helped produce the musicals Lucky in the Rain, for the Goodspeed Opera House and Say Yes at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Nick started his career in film and television at International Creative Management (ICM), then the world’s largest talent agency. After leaving ICM, Nick managed the Geffen Records recording artist Graveyard Train. Nick began his career as an FM-Radio disc jockey in Saratoga, NY and San Antonio, TX.