Faculty Directory

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.

Diana Henry

Diana Henry is an award winning professional actor with over 25 years experience in television, theatre, film, voice overs and commercials. Since 2009, Diana has been a series lead regular on ABC’s “What Would You Do?”, appearing in over 70 episodes. Other credits include: co-star roles in “The Equalizer”, “The Sinner”, “Law & Order”, “The Blacklist”; and female lead in the feature film “Fortunes”. Diana captured three NY Emmy Awards as the presenting host in “The Lineup: Best Sports Movies”, featuring Fran Healy, Spike Lee, and Chazz Palminteri. She is also a private coach for children and teens, focusing on the audition process for performing arts high schools and colleges. In 2010, she co-founded The Drawing Board NYC, a collective of screenwriters, playwrights, and actors dedicated to developing new works through table readings. Diana has an MFA in Acting at Rutgers University – Mason Gross School of the Arts, studying under William Esper and Maggie Flanigan; and a BFA in Acting at Miami University in Ohio.

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.

Daniel Hernandez-Alonzo

Daniel Hernandez-Alonzo moved from Mexico City to New York to study Film and Video at the School of Visual Arts. Inspired by his professors’ work and downtown Manhattan’s arts and music scene, he decided to specialize in non-fiction. Daniel teaches Non-Fiction Videography and Personal Journalism for the Broadcast Journalism at the New York Film Academy; and is the department’s Technical Lead and Studio Director for NYFA News.

Outside NYFA, Daniel is a cameraperson and video producer, the Director of Photography at the NYU School of Law and a Professor of Cinematography at The New School.

Recently, Daniel was Director of Photography for China: Frame by Frame, a feature-length documentary airing on PBS. He also documented the New School’s ACT-UAW Local-709 Strike. Daniel is currently pursuing a graduate degree at Columbia Journalism School and lives in Brooklyn with his partner, with whom he runs a company that creates non-fiction video content.

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.

Liz Hinlein

Liz Hinlein is an accomplished DGA director, creative director and visual artist with a vast portfolio of critically acclaimed work across film, commercials, and immersive media. Her debut narrative feature, Other People’s Children, premiered at the Director’s Guild of America and garnered high praise from Variety as “an intriguing debut.” The film received multiple film festival honors, including the prestigious Panavision New Filmmakers Grant, and is currently available for viewing on Apple Tv+ and Amazon Prime.

Liz’s short films have been screened globally at renowned festivals such as the Berlin Film Festival, Slamdance, and The Hamptons Film Festival. In the immersive space, her documentary VR experience, OSAGE ’85, is currently supported by the Venice Biennale. Liz’s work in the VR/AR space has earned recognition from clients such as the NFL, Walmart, Accenture, and Byton Auto, with her Accenture project winning Best VR Branded Content at CES.

As a sought-after director for high-profile commercials, branding videos, and music videos, Liz has worked with a diverse range of brands and artists, including Castrol Oil, Dove, Lifetime, Revlon, Gillette, Maybelline, A&E, Wella, NARS Cosmetics, Bare Minerals, Clairol, and MAC Cosmetics. She has also creatively directed and photographed projects for renowned artists such as Mary J. Blige, Britney Spears, Quincy Jones, Incubus, and Fishbone. She was selected for the DGA Directors Initiative, The Sony Initiative and the Viacom Initiative.

Liz is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts and holds an MFA in Cinematography from The American Film Institute. She is also the Creative Director of Film and Cinematography at the New York Film Academy, where she created and hosts the popular Zoom talk show series The 20/20 Online Series, which amassed over 1.5 million followers. Currently, Liz is in pre-production on OSAGE ’85, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Drew Hirshfield Acting for Film Instructor

As an actor Drew Hirshfield has appeared in new and old plays around the country (at places such as Magic Theatre in San Francisco, Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York, and many others). Other credits include a first Broadway National Tour, network TV, and independent film. He’s been nominated for a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award and he once played a lemur, professionally. Drew has trained with, and completed a pedagogical teacher-training program under, clown and physical acting master teacher Christopher Bayes and has studied with the renowned clown Aitor Basauri of Spymonkey. He is a trained practitioner of the Michael Chekhov Technique. Drew is a an alum of the National Alliance of Acting Teacher’s Teacher Development Program.

Amanda Hood

Amanda Hood is an Australian comedy writer and director based in New York City. She began her career making documentaries for the BBC. After a stint at Working Title Films in London, Amanda moved into script development and freelanced on everything from commercials to TV shows to feature films. She has written and directed ten short films which have screened at major film festivals and aired around the world.  In 2023, Amanda completed a director’s attachment with director Erin White on Paramount Plus’ TV show, Paper Dolls. Prior to that, she completed a director’s attachment with Oscar-nominated director Bruce Beresford on the Sony Pictures feature film, Ladies in Black. Amanda has received the Australian Directors Guild Metroscreen Fellowship and her feature script Baby Boomers was a finalist in the Page International Screenwriting Awards, placing in the top ten out of more than 6000 scripts from around the world. Amanda is a graduate of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and loves mentoring the world’s next generation of storytellers.

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.

Kenny Ingram

Kenny Ingram is proud to have been a part of the New York Film Academy’s musical theatre faculty for four years as a tap and jazz dance instructor. He also has had the pleasure of teaching tap for NYFA’s high school summer programs. Mr Ingram is currently in Disney’s “The Lion King” on Broadway.

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.