NYFA
Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

Israel Gutierrez

Israel Gutierrez is a Mexican American filmmaker with a background in film and video editing. He worked as an editor at NBCUniversal for E! Entertainment International and Telemundo International. As a filmmaker, he recently won Best Film Screenplay (Mexican American Film Festival 2022) and Best Short Drama (Official Latino Film Festival 2022) for his multi award-winning historical drama They Call Us Sediciosos. Iz wrote, directed, and edited the short as a proof-of-concept for a feature film and TV series.

Mentored by Oscar-winning screenwriter David S. Ward and former DGA president and director Martha Coolidge, he is the recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant for the short he wrote and directed Sin Frontera, an immigration love story, which screened at the SAG Foundation, won numerous drama awards including official selections in Academy accredited festivals.

Andrew Hall

Andrew Hall has more than 30 years of experience working with such diverse elements as moving liquids, smoke and vapor, pure light and floating bubbles. Hall owns and runs the School of Light darkroom facility in DTLA. He teaches all of NYFA’s alternative processes and darkroom classes at his beautiful space in the Reef building in downtown Los Angeles. His clients include Kodak, IBM, Honda, BBC, Castrol, Infiniti, Lexus, Nokia, Nestle, L’Oreal. Awards won include The Association of Photographers Award, Communication Arts Annual Award, Graphic Photography Annual (Gold) Award, International Photography Awards, and Polaroid European Final Art Awards. His publications include Global Corporate Identity and The Art of Saying Hello.

Lonnie Halouska

MS, USC School of Cinema-Television; JD, Loyola University. Entertainment and telecommunications lawyer, negotiator and business manager for more than 20 years. Major studio and network background.

Denise Hamilton

Denise Hamilton has over 30 years experience as a writer and producer for NBC, ABC and PBS network specials and syndicated programs. In the area of documentary film she most recently was co-producer of BEING MICHELLE, a feature which won the 2022 Audience Award as Best Documentary at the Florida Film Festival, and presented at fourteen other festivals. Ms. Hamilton was writer and field producer for four internationally-shot documentaries, including “NGONE’S STORY: A Tale of Africa’s Orphans”, which aired on NBC affiliate stations; as well as the feature “Hollywood Musicals: Singing and Dancing” which screened at the Palm Springs Film Festival and as a 4-part series for PBS. She served as series producer of “Where Cultures Collide”, a 5-part web series for KCETLink, and was coordinating producer on “For Peace Sake”, the Emmy award-winning 2-hour NBC-TV special, as well as the “Motown 40: The Music is Forever” documentary special for ABC-TV. She has served on the awards selection committee of the International Documentary Association, and has taught documentary film production for Spelman College. For eighteen years Ms. Hamilton also served as co-chairperson of the Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers-West.

Matt Harry

MFA in Film Production, USC
Matt has been telling stories since he was 10 years old. He spent his early years writing newspaper articles for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and one-act plays before discovering filmmaking at Ohio University. He graduated cum laude with a BS in Television Production. He moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts and received an MFA in Film Production. As a screenwriter, Matt’s work has been recognized by the Austin Film Festival, the FOX/NYTVF Comedy Script Contest, Script Pipeline, the Launchpad Manuscript Contest, and the Nicholl Fellowships. His first produced feature screenplay, FUGUE, landed on several top-ten lists, won Best Horror Film at the Mississippi Film Festival, and was picked up for distribution by GoDigital. His short film SUPER KIDS, which he wrote and co-directed, has over 6 million views on YouTube. His TV pilot MONSTER COPS was awarded Grand Prize in the Second City Original Sitcom Contest, and is currently in development. Matt has also published four novels, written and directed an immersive play, and created a card game called You Are a Filmmaker. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Thesis Workshop, Transmedia, Feature Workshops, Script To Screen, Unscripted Storytelling, Adaptation, and Genre Studies. For the Producing Department, he teaches Producing Reality TV.

Scott Hartmann

Scott Aaron Hartmann (Eastern Shawnee) is a filmmaker and storyteller, and proudly holds an MFA in film production with an emphasis on directing from Chapman University. Scott has written and directed a long list of short films, commercials and music videos. His independent short films have screened at festivals all over the world, garnering a number of awards. He has been fortunate enough to be able to direct many great performers, including Joseph Runningfox (“Geronimo,” “Ravenous”) and the late Misty Upham (“Frozen River,” “August: Osage County”). As a Los Angeles-based director, Scott continues to develop his own projects while also teaching directing and screenwriting to future filmmakers. Scott has also worked as a screenwriting consultant, with some student work accepted in the Oscars Library. Most recently, Scott he has served as the Academic Chair for the New York Film Academy campus in Abu Dhabi, teaching both filmmaking and screenwriting.

Brendan Hay

BRENDAN HAY is a writer and producer for TV, film, comic books, and more. Most recently, he was an Executive Producer and writer on Gremlins: The Wild Batch and Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai for WB Animation/Max. Previously, he was the showrunner of Dawn of the Croods and Harvey Girls Forever!, both for DreamWorks Animation/Netflix. Brendan has also written for several other series, including Robot Chicken (2x Emmy nominated), The Simpsons, and Star Wars Detours. Also, Hay was a (Peabody Award winning) headline producer at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for most of the Bush administration, and a contributing writer to “America: The Book.” He has written pilots for Lucasfilm, WB Animation, Disney, ABC Family, DreamWorks Animation, Fox, and Nickelodeon. Brendan was once even called the “Best Svengali of Animation” by SF Weekly. He’s still not sure what that means, but chooses to take it as a compliment. On the print side, Hay has written comic books for DC Comics, Oni Press, and BOOM! Studios, and had his writing appear in magazines ranging from SPIN to Reader’s Digest. Brendan lives in Burbank, CA with his author/journalist wife, twins, a pair of pugs, and a cat named Gremlin.

Richard Van Heertum Academic Advisor

Rich Van Heertum has been at NYFA since 2014 and has also taught at UCLA, CUNY, the Art Institute and Drexel. He earned a PhD in cultural studies and education from UCLA and an MA in Economics from SDSU. He has published four books – The Fate of Democracy in a Cynical Age, Educating the Global Citizen, Hollywood Exploited and The Selling of Bohemia – over 35 academic essays and chapters and hundreds of articles in the popular press on movies, music, politics and sports. His newest book, Challenges to Democracy in and Beyond Education, will be released by Routledge later this year.

Arthur Helterbran, Jr.

Arthur has been with NYFA since 2011, holding many leadership positions within the Academy. Currently he is a full time senior faculty member focusing on film directing, while creating and producing his own projects within the greater Los Angeles area.

Jon Henry

Jon Henry is a visual artist working with photography and text. His work reflects on family, sociopolitical issues, grief, trauma, and healing within the African American community. Henry’s work has been published nationally and internationally and exhibited in numerous galleries, including Aperture Foundation, Smack Mellon, and BRIC, among others. Known foremost for the cultural activism in his work, his projects include studies of athletes from different sports and their representations.

He was recently named one of “The 30 New and Emerging Photographers in 2022” and TIME Magazine’s “NEXT 100” in 2021. He was included in the Inaugural 2021 Silver List and was recently awarded the Arnold Newman Grant for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture.

Henry was named one of LensCulture’s “Emerging Artists” and won the Film Photo Prize for the Continuing Film Project sponsored by Kodak. His book, “Stranger Fruit,” published by Monolith Editions/Kris Graves Projects, is currently in its second edition.

Baz Here

Baz Here is a queer fine art photographer and musician living in downtown Los Angeles. A multidisciplinary artist. Here is interested in the sound current and its effect on visual aesthetics. Through the use of self-portraiture, his work questions perceptions about race (white privilege specifically – White on White) and queer identity politics. His work has been exhibited at The Hive, Featured Resident Artist (DTLA) / The Getty Center, Pop-up Gallery/ Out There, Gallery 825 / Gallerie Sparta / LACDA / Gay Downtown LA Artwalk Pop-up Gallery / Beyond Baroque / Art Share LA Fall / Los Angeles LGBT Center Advocate and Gochis Galleries. His work is featured in The Advocate and The Cultural Weekly.

Jim Hillin

Jim came to Los Angeles in 1979 as an artist, animator and musician. He began is career in computer graphics at a start-up in 1985 in Pasadena, CA. while also attending The Art Center College of Design. As an artist, he pushed to learn the engineering side of CGI, eating and breathing the new discipline.

In his fifth year in the business, Jim was chosen to be the Artistic Supervisor of CGI for “Beauty and the Beast” at Disney.

In 1993, he was hired as the Director of Digital Production for a new VFX shop, Digital Domain. He hired the first crew, created specs for the original software, including “Nuke” and worked on many motion pictures.

In 1995, Jim returned to Disney to head up a new live-action animated project, called ‘Dinosaur.’ After completing his work on the film, he worked as a Writer-Director at Disney Animation, pitching five animated features and two shorts in six months.

In 2000, Jim was elected by his peers into the Visual Effects Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition, Jim belongs to the Visual Effects Society, The Animation Guild and he has recently joined The Television Academy.

Isabella Hoffman

A native Chicagoan, Isabella Hofmann began her acting career as a main stage member of Chicago’s Second City (alongside fellow company members Richard Kind and Dan Castellaneta.) She was also in several Chicago theatrical productions such as Painting Churches at Wisdom Bridge, Teibele and Her Demon at Northlight (for which she was nominated for a Jefferson Award), and Uncle Vanya at the Goodman Theatre (opposite John Mahoney).

After being cast as an Irish immigrant in the television movie Independence (for which she received The Western Heritage Award), Isabella moved to Los Angeles where she went on to become a series regular on such shows as Dear John (with Judd Hirsch), The Boys (with Chris Meloni), Homicide: Life on the Street (Melissa Leo, Andre Braugher, Daniel Baldwin), and Beggars and Choosers (Christina Hendricks). She’s also recurred on The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Providence, JAG, The Practice, and Criminal Minds.

Her feature credits include Dreamer, West End (in post production), Burlesque, Princess Diaries II, Little Chenier, Touched By A Killer, Tripwire, and Renaissance Man.

Hofmann still lives in Los Angeles with her son Atticus, and continues to work in film, television, and theater.

Heather Huntington

MAPH in Literature, University of Chicago
Danielle Evenson & Heather Huntington are two halves of one set of headphones. The podcast writers have been featured in Deadline, WhoHaHa, Podcast Delivery, PodFluence, Audio Drama Debut, Fiction Podcast Weekly, Pajiba and Broadway World. When they’re not knee deep in sound cues, they also write for TV and film, including The New Adventures of Old Christine, Noggin’s Tales From The Playground, PBS’s Frankenstein MD, MGM’s Craft, Cafe of Love, for Reel One and a Christmas series for Disney. Their audio series, Up a River for Aural Stories launched this summer, and their series A Midsemester Night’s Dream starring Bridgerton’s Charithra Chanran will be released this fall. They teach together (as they write together) for Screenwriting LA in classes like Podcasting and Storytelling with Purpose.

Alejandro Ibarra

Alejandro began taking photographs at age 17 after one of his brothers passed away. He mentions they did not have a good portrait of him to use for the funeral, so he decided to start documenting the people in his life.

With over ten years of editorial and commercial work under his belt, Alejandro works mainly with actors and people in the entertainment industry, musicians, politicians, among others. His work has taken him to four continents and has been shown around the world including: Australia, Turkey, Holland, Mexico, New York, Boston, Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles, and Spain, among other places. His work has been featured in GQ Spain, Cannes Film Festival, Out, The Advocate, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, PDN, HOLA!, Metro.co.UK, and various other publications. His projects Piece by Piece and Coming Out Stories have been shown in galleries and various festivals all over the country.

Alejandro obtained a BFA in Filmmaking and an MFA in Photography. He currently resides and teaches photography in New York, and travels to Los Angeles and Mexico City for work.

Corey Johnson Acting for Film Instructor

Corey Johnson is an actor and writer and holds his MFA in Acting from the University of Southern California.

TV credits include NBC’s Mr. Mayor, ABC’s One Life To Live, Adam Ruins Everything on TruTV, and Jennifer Falls on TVLand. He can be seen as Dave in Buddy and Bernice, produced by Kevin Hart’s LOL Studios, streaming on Peacock. He appears alongside Robyn Lively, Bart Johnson, and Arden Myrin in the feature film, Strong Father, Strong Daughters and can be seen in the 2019 Sundance hit, Greener Grass.

He has performed on Los Angeles stages (Sacred Fools, Four Clowns, Malibu Playhouse), regionally (AZ Theater Company, River Rep, Seven Angels), and internationally (Toulouse Opera House). Corey has performed improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade and collaborates regularly with his sketch team, Onassis (SF Sketch Fest, Friar’s Club Sketch winners).

As a writer, Corey is the creator of The 39 Years of Rory and Dylan and A VeryGood Home for the College Humor platform, DropOut, and was a contributing writer for The Onion News Network.

He is a part-time lecturer at Chapman University and was an Artist In Residence at Central CT State University.

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