Faculty Directory

Hal Cantor

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MA in Dramatic Writing, NYU; MS in Journalism, Northwestern University.
Hal writes television, film, and theater. He is currently writing on the second season of Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman for The History Channel. His comedy, To Hal & Back, was optioned by Sony Pictures Television. He wrote on Fusion channel’s acclaimed special, The Naked Truth: Dirty Little Secrets, which broke The Panama Papers story. Prior to that, his drama pilot, Mouthpiece, was bought by Fox Television Studios. He wrote The Lake Effect, a one-hour drama pilot for Showtime, developed with Emmy-winning director Scott Winant. Hal also sold the drama pilot, Twilight, to Sony Pictures Television. In features, he developed a comedy with John Davis Productions. Hal’s had multiple plays produced. His new one-man show, The Importance of Being Anxious, debuted at London’s Camden Fringe. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Online Screenwriting courses in Television.

Denise Carlson

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Denise Carlson is a producer, consultant and development executive with twenty five years of experience in the entertainment industry. She was at Disney Channel for 9 years as the Director of Original Movies, responsible for overseeing the development and production of 47 television movies, including the megahit High School Musical, as well as other highly successful films such as Wendy Wu and The Cheetah Girls movies. She has also produced series for Disney+ and independent productions. She is on the board of the LA Femme film festival, which is dedicated to presenting films that are made by and about women. She has a BFA from Rollins College and a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Ryokan College.

Roxanne Captor

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Roxanne Messina Captor is an Emmy-nominated, Humanitas Prize-winning creator/ producer/writer/director. She executive produced and wrote the story for Hallmark Channel’s Dream Moms, starring Tamera Mowry-Housley and Chelsea Hobbs, premiering on May 13. Captor admits. “I always write from personal experience,” and fortunately, she’s had an interesting life to draw from, but she is equally focused on elevating others, especially women, to gain a foothold in the entertainment industry. Towards that end, Messina Captor is a current member of the California Arts Council, appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom, and she’s currently a Film and Television Studies professor at New York Film Academy and Santa Monica College, after teaching at Cal Arts, Emerson LA, UCLA and Loyola Marymount.

Messina Captor received the Emmy nomination and a Humanitas Prize for producing CBS’ Home Sweet Homeless, she also directed and produced Lifetime’s Her Married Lover and CBS’ Fatal Vows, produced HBO’s Dead on Sight, and wrote/produced/directed and choreographed countless other award-winning shorts and theatrical productions. Messina Captor is the former Executive Director of the San Francisco International Film Festival and Film Society, and she was awarded France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her producing/directing work in films.

It all began in Chicago, when her mother, a ballet dancer, gave up her career to become a devoted mom who inspired her daughter’s appreciation for the arts, especially dance. Messina Captor was accepted into the Chicago Lyric Opera at 12 after dancing as a child in Equity musicals and at the Goodman Theatre, followed by stints in NY’s Harkness Ballet, the Béjart Ballet in Brussels and Paris and guesting at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet before eventually being cast in Bob Fosse’s Pippin on Broadway after 11 previous rejections for Fosse shows. She also danced on-screen in the films The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Xanadu and Pennies from Heaven, and she became the assistant choreographer to Gene Kelly on her mentor Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart. “By age 30, I and most dancers are looking for new careers as their bodies are done,” says Messina Captor. She became one of the founding production executives at TNT. Overseeing other people’s films helped her clarify her actual goal of being a creator herself and telling her own stories as a producer/writer and director. Messina Captor confessed, “I realized that my dance skills of passion, discipline, organization and dedication, coupled with my network exec background, were perfectly suited to producing, so I never looked back and stayed happily behind the camera ever since.”

Messina Captor’s awarding-winning documentary shorts, Homecoming: Veterans, Wives and Mothers and Thank You for Your Service also screened at the UN and Doctor Biden’s Common Defense Organization. Her award-winning short, A Couple of White Chicks at the Hairdresser premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner before debuting on Comedy Central.

With multiple films and TV series in pre-production or development, Messina Captor continues to find inspiration for her future projects all around, but her best source material is always found in the woman in the mirror.

Nick Cartell

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Nick recently completed a two and a half year run as prisoner 24601, aka Jean Valjean on the National Tour of Les Misérables. He was previously seen in Paramour, the first musical produced on Broadway by Cirque Du Soleil, where he was a standby for and performed the three male lead roles. He also appeared in Scandalous the Musical, written by TODAY show host Kathie Lee Gifford, about the life and trials of Aimee Semple McPherson, and can be heard on the Original Broadway Cast Recording. Nick made his Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated 2012 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar, understudying the roles of Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot and the High Priest Annas, all three performed. He has also toured the U.S. and Canada in The Phantom of the Opera.
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Nick has sung with the South Coast Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony and as a member of the critically acclaimed group The Broadway Boys. In March 2019 he performed his first solo show, Bringing it Home, to a sold out room at Feinstein’s/54 Below. Nick and his wife Christine are also the creators of Broadway Fights Ovarian Cancer, a benefit organization raising awareness and funds for Ovarian Cancer research.
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A graduate of Arizona State University with a BFA in Theatre, Nick enjoyed a brief stint in Japan performing with a certain famous Mouse. While there he met his incredible wife, actress/singer Christine Cartell.

Neil Casey

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Neil Casey is a cinematographer whose body of work includes feature films, short films, documentaries, music videos, and live events. He started his career in New York, where he worked as a camera operator and lighting technician for film and television before moving to Los Angeles to earn his master’s degree. For over a decade he has had the pleasure of working with a variety of artists and companies, including Stan Lee’s World of Heroes and POW! Entertainment. At NYFA, Neil works to teach aspiring directors and cinematographers the art, practices, and technologies that exist in the ever-evolving world of cinematography.

Christopher Cass Acting for Film Instructor

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BA in Theatre, University of Georgia. NY and LA credits include “Rounding Third,” “Jerusalem,” “Gaining Ground,” “RFK” (Off-Broadway), “Sleepwalk,” “Born in the RSA,” “Much Ado” (Central Park), “Henry V” (Off-Broadway) and “Macbeth.” Television credits include: “ER,” “Like Family,” “Tucker,” “Fired Up,” “Cedric the Entertainer,” “Night Court,” and many more.

Marina Catala

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Marina Catala is a New York-based Producer and Editor who has developed, produced and edited hundreds of hours of television content for networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Bravo, and The CW. She graduated with an MFA in Editing from the AFI Conservatory in 2003, just as reality TV was emerging as a major presence on broadcast and cable television. She was an Editor on shows like The Biggest Loser, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother, before a desire for more creative input took her out of the edit chair. For several years she oversaw the Post departments of shows like Ink Master and I Used to be Fat, and then took her command of Post Production and applied it to all aspects of Production – from development to pre-production to field producing – as an Executive Producer. Most recently, she was the EP of Impractical Jokers for seven seasons, and the Showrunner of its spin-off, After Party, for three seasons.

Kristy Cates

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Kristy Cates has been a professional actress in New York City for over two decades. She made her Broadway debut in the Original Broadway Cast of the smash hit, Wicked, as the understudy to Idina Menzel, and can be heard on the iconic cast recording. She went on to play the lead role of Elphaba in Wicked (Broadway, First National Tour, Chicago), Miss Bassett in Finding Neverland (Broadway), Grandma Josephine in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Original Broadway Cast/Cast Recording), Jerry Springer: the Opera (Carnegie Hall), as well as numerous off-Broadway and Regional productions.

She is a professional voiceover artist and has been heard on national tv/radio commercials for such brands as Subway, Almay Cosmetics, Chase Bank, PNC, and more. Kristy is an original member of NYFA’s Musical Theatre faculty dating back to 2009 and has taught master classes in musical theatre technique worldwide. In 2019, she was named “Young Alumni of the Year” by her esteemed alma mater, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, for her combined accomplishments in performance and teaching. Kristy is honored to be the current Chair of Musical Theatre for the Professional Conservatory of Musical Theatre at The New York Film Academy.

Craig Caton

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Craig started out by doing makeup effects and animatronic puppets on movies such as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Tremors, and Ghostbusters. Moving into the digital era, he worked as a character technical director for Disney Feature Animation and for DreamWorks Animation as a layout artist. Working for Stan Winston, Craig supervised the creation of a network of Silicon Graphics workstations that would later become a core piece of the Digital Domain when Stan partnered with James Cameron and Scott Ross. He is credited as one of the eight co-founders of Digital Domain.

Juanita Ceballos

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Juanita Ceballos is a documentary producer and filmmaker with extensive experience working in the U.S. and abroad, with bylines in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela, and Ukraine. She has covered sensitive topics, including Colombia’s civil conflict, police brutality in the United States, and the refugee crisis in Venezuela.

Her work has appeared on Frontline, VICE News, HBO, Showtime, Telemundo, Al Jazeera, Univision, NBC News, TIME, and The New York Times.

She is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she works as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Journalism.

Her work has been acknowledged with a Collier Prize for State Government Accountability, six News and Documentary Emmys, a George Polk Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and a New York Press Club Award.

Edward Cha

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MFA in Film, UCLA TFT
Ed Cha is a writer-director-producer of film and theater. He has worked as a Technical Director for theater, working with world-renowned artists including, Tim Miller, Holly Hughes, Rachel Rosenthal, and Oguri. As a Line Producer, he has produced for the Rolling Stones, and produced Katie Q, Shuffle, and Hello Herman. His company Mean Panda Productions is overseeing a short film production series anthology Three Palms, View Obscured focusing on the themes of homes and homelessness. Ed’s has written and will direct one of the shorts, My Honey Bee. For the Screenwriting Department in LA, he teaches Storytelling with Purpose, Scene Study, Elements of Screenwriting, and Feature Workshops. For the Filmmaking Department in LA, he teaches Thesis Prep and Producing.

Samrat Chakrabarti

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Samrat Chakrabarti is a prolific, international artist. He holds a MFA in Acting from the A.R.T/ Moscow Art Theatre School Program at Harvard University. He has appeared/recurred on countless American TV shows and films including Homeland (Showtime), The Sinner (USA), 30 Rock (NBC), Mr. Robot (USA), The Sopranos (HBO MAX), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, (NETFLIX), Sneaky Pete (AMAZON), Damages (FX), Blue Bloods (CBS) and Little Voice (APPLE TV+).

Samrat also works consistently in film, both in Hollywood and International projects, ranging from Spike Lee’s “She Hate Me” to Gurinder Chadha’s “Viceroy’s House” to Sarah Colangelo’s “The Kindergarten Teacher” to Deepa Mehta’s film adaption of Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”.

In addition to being an award-winning actor, Samrat is also an acclaimed musician and director.

Xiaoxiao Chen

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Xiaoxiao Chen is a professional editor managing post production processes and storytelling techniques for feature films, TV, art exhibitions, installations, and commercials. Her clients include such giants as HBO, Paramount, Museum of Modern Art, Sony Pictures, Apple, New Balance. Career history of developing creative projects including works screened at Cannes Film Festival, DOC NYC, TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and the United Nations.

José Alberto Venutolo Chirinos

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José Venutolo is a freelance Filmmaker based in New York City since 2010, he works as a Director, Producer, Editor, DIT, Videographer, and Educator. Born and raised in Venezuela he found his way to New York in 2008 and pursued studies in filmmaking at the New York Film Academy from 2008 to 2010, he’s fluent in Spanish and English, and conversational Italian. Teaches Directing and Editing at the New York Film Academy (NYFA) and is currently the Director of the NYFA Teen Summer Camps at the New York City campus; he has worked as an educator in video production and editing for The Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) as well. In his 13 years career his has work on a range of video productions from Narrative to commercial, including Short and Feature Films, Advertisement, Institutional videos, PSAs, Documentaries, and Music Videos, frequently wearing many hats on a production.

Sally Chun

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Sally Chun earned her M.Ed. in Postsecondary Administration & Student Affairs at USC and her B.A. in Communication at UCSB. Her area of study targets student affairs – exploring the correlation between race and socioeconmic status vs. student success and experience in higher education. Prior to joining NYFA, she served as the Student Services Advisor for USC graduate students and as a Senior Seminar Instructor for the federal educational TRIO program – Upward Bound. Currently, she teaches LAS courses at the NYFA – Los Angeles campus and also serves the Academic Affairs Manager for BFA Filmmaking & BA Media Studies students.

Anna Maria Cianciulli Acting for Film Instructor

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Anna Maria’s work as an actor, director, writer, and producer has received nominations, awards, and recognition at many film festivals throughout the world, including Cannes.

Sanford Meisner personally assigned her the exclusive rights to bring out his seminal book, On Acting, in an Italian language edition (La recitazione – Dino Audino Editor 2007).

Anna recently played the co-star role of Juliana Chiari in the CBS series East New York, opposite Richard Kind, ended the filming of Maladaptive Daydreaming, and is currently filming My Mother is an Astronaut (2023).

She can be seen playing Gertrude on all major platforms in Hamlet/Horatio, a feature that has won 14 best film awards at festivals in the US and abroad. She also played a principal role in the Lifetime feature film Stealing Chanel.

Her solo-created short 33 Breaths was shot during the pandemic and was a finalist in the 2020 Single-Take Challenge.

Anna has produced, co-written, and coached the actors on the set of Life After Her, a multi-award-winning film shot in New York selected by the Short Corner of the Cannes Film Festival. Her film Stay has received a Special Mention from the Ouchy Film Awards Winter 2016.

As a theater director, actor, and producer she has worked with Kevin Bacon, the late Tony and Golden Globe-winner Brian Dennehy, the Academy Award winner Roberto Benigni, and the Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated Tony Danza.

Her work has been seen at: The Kitchen for a BAM event, Vanderbilt Hall of Grand Central Station, Joyce Soho, St. Peter’s Church, the American Museum of Natural History, and The Players Club.

Anna co-produced Tribeca in Rome – a cultural partnership between the Tribeca Film Festival and the Rome Film Festival, including the Steps and Stars Award received by Robert De Niro.

As an Acting Coach, she consulted with Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, Alessandra Mastronardi, Kick Kennedy, and Santigold, among others. She was the on-set Acting Coach of Yelo, a short film directed by Adrien Boublil (Cannes 2013).

Anna is also an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Film MFA Program and at the Feirstein School of Cinema MFA Program.