Adam Salky | Discipline Head

Adam Salky’s most recent feature film, I SMILE BACK, stars Sarah Silverman in her first dramatic leading role, alongside Josh Charles and Tommy Sadoski. Silverman’s award-winning performance received widespread critical acclaim, and was nominated for a 2016 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. The film premiered in dramatic competition at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, before screening at the Toronto and Deauville film festivals.

Salky made his feature directorial debut with DARE, a Grand Jury Prize nominee of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. DARE was acquired by Image Entertainment, released theatrically that year, and distributed in dozens of international markets. It features Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford, Alan Cumming and Sandra Bernhard, as well as the first starring role of Academy Award^®-nominee Rooney Mara.

Salky was selected for the 2016 Warner Bros. Television Directors’ Workshop. He has since directed three episodes of NBC’s hit show BLINDSPOT, including the 2017 midseason return, “Hot Burning Flames,” which was their biggest-budget episode ever, and filmed in part in Morocco.

Salky has served as an advisor at the Sundance Labs, guest-lectured on directing at Columbia University and various high schools, and taught directing at USC’s Graduate School of Cinematic Arts. He graduated magna cum laude from Emory University, and completed his MFA at Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts Film Division.

Andrew Wagner | Senior Lecturer & Lead Faculty, Directing

Andrew Wagner’s third feature, BREAKABLE YOU, starring Holly Hunter, Tony Shalhoub, Alfred Molina, Cristin Milioti and Omar Metwally, premiered at the 2017 Palm Springs International Film Festival and screened in the Film Independent Series at LACMA, curated by Elvis Mitchell, and at the Napa Valley Film Festival. BREAKABLE YOU was released by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions in March 2018.

Wagner’s second feature, STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING, starring Frank Langella, Lili Taylor, Lauren Ambrose, and Adrian Lester, premiered in Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically by Roadside Attractions. It was named one of the Top 10 Independent Films of the year by the National Board of Review and made over 30 critics’ top-10 lists. Frank Langella was voted Best Actor by the Boston Critics Association and was nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. Wagner’s screen adaptation written with Fred Parnes was also nominated for a Spirit Award.

His first feature, THE TALENT GIVEN US, was an Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival. It also won the Jury Prize at the CineVegas Film Festival and Best First Feature at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival. It went on to play theatrically in over 30 cities and made The New York Times’ and other critics’ Best Films of the Year lists. Wagner was nominated for Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Awards.

Wagner majored in Creative Writing at Brown University and then became a Directing Fellow at the AFI Conservatory, where his thesis film, THE LAST DAYS OF HOPE AND TIME, won the Franklin J. Schaffner Fellowship for Excellence in Directing.

Matt Black | Lecturer

Stan Brooks | Senior Lecturer

A graduate of Brandeis University and the AFI Conservatory, Brooks is an award-winning producer of film and television with more than 30 years of industry experience. He has produced more than 70 works of film and television since 1989, which was the year he founded his first independent production company, Once Upon a Time Film. His producing credits include: the Academy Award®-winning feature RAIN MAN, the miniseries THE CAPTURE OF THE GREEN RIVER KILLER; the Emmy® and Golden Globe Award-nominated telefilm PRAYERS FOR BOBBY; and Walter Hill’s Emmy®Award-winning miniseries BROKEN TRAIL, which was also nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, won a Directors Guild of America Award and received four SAG Award nominations and 16 Emmy nominations.

In 2012, under his new production company, Stan & Deliver Films, Brooks produced and directed his first feature film, PERFECT SISTERS, and later produced the docu-reality series, HOLLYWOOD SCANDALS, and the feature THE GRIM SLEEPER.

Brooks also teaches in the Directing Discipline.

Mike Connors | Lecturer

Michael Connors is an award-winning filmmaker whose films have played festivals worldwide, including Tribeca, London and Austin. He made his feature directing debut with ALLEGIANCE, starring Aidan Quinn and Pablo Schreiber. ALLEGIANCE was released theatrically and acquired by Netflix. He produced the award-winning feature film AMIRA AND SAM by director Sean Mullin, which was released theatrically by Drafthouse films.

Connors has directed and produced several commercial spots for ESPN and directed episodes for UNCABERET, an unscripted series for Amazon about the legendary Los Angeles-based alternative comedy show. He is currently in development on the television series OPERATOR for First Look Media and the feature film ASHLAND FALLS for Candleridge Entertainment.

Connors is a winner of the National Board of Motion Pictures Award and the IMAX Outstanding Achievement in Motion Pictures Award. He holds a BA from Harvard University concentrating in Political Science and his MFA in Directing from Columbia University’s Film Division. He has taught filmmaking at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and Columbia University. Before starting his career in film, Connors served four years as an infantry officer in the United States Army.

Cari Daly | Lecturer

Marjorie David | Senior Lecturer

Marjorie David is a writer and producer with over three decades of experience.  Her career began on the acclaimed cop drama HILL STREET BLUES. Since then, she has worked on twenty television series, including LAW & ORDER:SVU, 90210, SHADOWHUNTERS: THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS, and TAKEN.

David has also written TV movies for Lifetime, NBC, CBS, TNT, and USA, including INTO THE BADLANDS and REMEMBERING CHARLIE, as well as two features, MARIA’S LOVERS and SHY PEOPLE.

Marjorie David currently serves as Vice President of the WGA West.

David also teaches in the Screenwriting Discipline.

Laura Davis | Lecturer

Wendy Davis | Lecturer

Amedeo D’Adamo | Lecturer & Creative Thesis Mentor

D’Adamo currently teaches film directing at the Universita Cattolica, Milan: he is also the Lead Teacher for the studio-funded Native American Feature Lab in Los Angeles. He was the Scientific Director of the E.U.-funded Feature Development Program Puglia Experience (2008 – 2011) and the founding Dean and then President of the original Los Angeles Film School, where he also co-created and ran the Feature Film Development program. He has also taught at many universities and labs including AFI, Royal Holloway, Universita Svizzera and the University of Zurich, and with his wife Nevina Satta he designed and ran both the University Feature Development Lab and the University Doc Lab for the Locarno Film Festival. Together they co-founded The Traveling Film School, a non-profit organization that provides free film and theater training to children in underdeveloped regions; it has built small tuition-free film-schools in Cameroon and Sardinia. His book Empathetic Space on Screen (2018: Palgrave Macmillan) is about how character is expressed through production design, cinematography and soundtrack. D’Adamo has also edited a new book, Producing For The Screen, which is out from Routledge/Focal press in 2019.  His features have been to festivals such as Rome, Miami, Austin, Torino and others.

Lara Jean Gallagher | Lecturer

Julian Higgins | Lecturer

Julian Higgins is a director, writer, producer and AFI alum from the class of 2010. His AFI thesis film, THIEF, won the gold medal Student Academy Award, two Student Emmy Awards and played at over 50 festivals around the globe. Subsequent shorts include HERE AND NOW – winner of Ron Howard’s “Project Imagination” contest – and WINTER LIGHT, which was a top-ten finalist for the Oscar® in 2016. On the strength of his film work, Higgins made his television directing debut at the age of 26, with one of the final episodes of the celebrated drama series, HOUSE. More recently, he executive produced and directed Seasons 2 & 3 of the anthology drama series GUIDANCE, released on Hulu. His first feature, GOD’S COUNTRY, a neo-Western thriller starring Thandie Newton, is currently in production.

Harrison James | Senior Lecturer, Cycle Development Mentor & Creative Thesis Mentor

Harrison James studied directing at Boston University where she received the Dean’s Grant for Filmmaking. She then attended the AFI Conservatory as both a Screenwriting and Directing Fellow. Her screenplay “Still Life” was a finalist for the Sundance Lab. She is currently writing and directing VENICE BEACH CC, a television series, and SHOOTING STAR, a feature film about a Marine who comes home from Afghanistan and re-enters his life, changed. She recently directed professional, mounted stage productions of “Cowboy Mouth,” “Savage Love,” and “Fool for Love,” all by Sam Shepard. Harrison is a working screenwriter for producers such as Heather Graham, and directors such as Autumn DeWilde, Julian Goldberger and Melodie McDaniel. Her spots for Spies Travel were directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and won the bronze lion at Cannes. Harrison co-founded Girl Trip, a production company, film festival and panel series to advance emerging femme-identifying filmmakers, and is on the Directing faculty at the AFI Conservatory. Devoted to being an actor’s director, she currently studies with Nancy Banks. Harrison lives and works in Los Angeles and is represented by Anonymous Content.

Laura James | Lecturer & Creative Thesis Mentor

Laura James (she/her) is an award-winning filmmaker and television director. Laura began her career as an actor and transitioned into directing. Her background in theater, improv and sketch comedy along with years of experience working as an on-set acting coach for television and film meant working closely with studio executives, producers, writers, directors and actors which has given her the ability to create and shape a story, invent a rich visual language for each project and the tools to realize that vision.

Drawing on her experience as an actor, writer, producer and director, in both film and television, comedy and drama, Laura has a unique and expansive love of the creative process and respect for the craft. In addition to creating her own work, Laura teaches workshops and classes, aligning emerging artists with the stories they want to tell. Laura has taught directing at USC’s Graduate School of Cinematic Arts, she is frequently a guest on craft panels, and currently teaches and mentors first and second-year fellows at AFI.

Laura has participated in the CBS Director Program, the Disney Channel Multi-camera 360 Program and the inaugural DGA Director Development Initiative. Laura is also involved in a leadership capacity for the Women’s Steering Committee at the Director’s Guild of America (DGA).

Kevin Kennedy | Senior Lecturer & Senior Creative Thesis Mentor 

Kevin Kennedy is a writer and producer with diverse experience in studio and independent film, as well as both cable and network television. His principal credits include THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON and the TV series THE DEFENDERS, which he co-created and executive produced.

In addition to his work as a writer and producer, Kennedy helped to educate and to develop the work of scores of novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters in his capacity as founder and workshop director of the Writer’s Film Project, a film writing fellowship program sponsored by Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures.

Kennedy is a graduate of the English/Creative Writing program at Stanford University, after which he attended the MFA screenwriting program at the UCLA School of Film and Television.

Kennedy also teaches in the Screenwriting Discipline.

Anna Khaja | Lecturer

Heidi Levitt | Senior Lecturer

Heidi Levitt has cast such successful films as THE ARTIST, THE JOY LUCK CLUB, JFK, NATURAL BORN KILLERS and THE ROCK, in addition to art house independent films which have been featured at world film festivals including Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Telluride, Tiff and Sundance. She has won four Artios Casting Awards for her work in film and theater. In collaboration with directors she works with, Heidi has been both casting director and producer for Wayne Wang, Victor Nunez, Diego Luna and Sally Potter. Most recently, she cast and co -produced The Bleecker Street release THE ROADS NOT TAKEN starring Javier Bardem and Elle Fanning. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and a proud graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University and the AFI Conservatory, where she is an adjunct professor in the directing department. Follow her on social media @theactorgenie and through her website www.heidilevitt.com. In 2010, she launched the iPhone App that continues to be featured by iTunes.

Karen Maruyama | Senior Lecturer

In addition to teaching improvisation at AFI, Maruyama was a company member of The Groundlings and teaches, performs and directs shows at The Groundlings Theatre. She directs the acclaimed The Black Version at Largo at the Coronet.

Maruyama is also an actress and has appeared in such films as THE CAMPAIGN, THE BUCKET LIST, PULP FICTION and THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT. Her television credits include 2 BROKE GIRLS, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, NIP/TUCK, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, HANNAH MONTANA and WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? She has also lent her voice talents to THE SIMPSONS, FAMILY GUY, AMERICAN DAD and FUTURAMA. One of her first acting jobs was in the AFI film ODD BIRDS with Michael Moriarty.

Amin Matalqa | Lecturer

Sean Mullin | Lecturer

Sean Mullin is an award-winning screenwriter and film director. His critically acclaimed feature film debut AMIRA & SAM won numerous film festival prizes and was distributed theatrically by Drafthouse Films. He is the co-writer and co-producer of the upcoming feature film SEMPER FI, alongside Academy Award^®-nominated director Henry Alex Rubin (MURDERBALL) and Academy Award^®-nominated producer David Lancaster (WHIPLASH). Mullin is currently in post-production as a writer/director on the feature-length documentary KINGS OF BEER, about the world’s most intense brewmaster competition. He has several other projects in various stages of development.

When he’s not making films, Mullin loves to teach. He was a film professor at USC before joining the faculty at the AFI Conservatory. Prior to his filmmaking career, Sean served in the military. He was a Captain in the New York Army National Guard – where he was a first responder after the attacks on September 11, 2001. For almost a year, he spent his days working as the Officer in Charge of the soldiers stationed at Ground Zero — and his nights performing stand-up comedy.

Mullin holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BS from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is a member of the WGA and is represented as a writer and director by UTA. He currently resides in Los Angeles, where he runs Five By Eight Productions.

Rosita Lama Muvdi | Lecturer

Asaph Polonsky | Lecturer

Robert Spera | Senior Lecturer

Spera has an extensive background in film, television and theater. He most recently completed principal photography on the feature film THE SWEET LIFE, starring Chris Messina and Abigail Spencer. His additional work includes writing and directing “Part One” for the triptych television feature FATHERS AND SONS, starring Bradley Whitford and Samantha Mathis. Spera’s television credits include numerous episodes of CRIMINAL MINDS, SUSPECT BEHAVIOR, SUPERNATURAL and ARMY WIVES.

During four seasons as Resident Director at the Tony^®-winning Actors Theatre of Louisville, he directed more than 75 productions. His Los Angeles production of “Fran” was hailed by L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times.

His published works include “Actors Write for Actors” and “Encore,” and the play “The Field.”

Allan Arkush | Senior Lecturer

Allan Arkush was the executive producer of the TV series HEROES and CROSSING JORDAN. His other Television Directing & Producing credits include NCIS,GET CRAZY, FAME, ALLY MCBEAL, MOONLIGHTING,LA LAW, HELLCATS, ELVIS MEETS NIXON,ST. ELSEWHERE, DEFIANCE,BRAINDEAD, WITCHES OF EAST END, SHANNON’S DEAL, CENTRAL PARK WEST, MOON OVER MIAMI and PARENTHOOD, over 400 episodes in all.

His most recent directing assignment, Netflix’s A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS: THE HOSTILE HOSPITAL episodes earned him a DGA Nomination for Best Directing of a Children’s Show.

As a lifelong film buff, Arkush’s film criticism can be found on TrailersFromHell.com, where he is a contributing Guru. He also taught Producing & Directing For TV at UCLA Graduate School.

Arkush graduated from NYU Film School and began his career working for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures in the mid-1970s. It was there that he began his career by Co-directing with Joe Dante, HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, for which they were paid $85. In 1979, he made The Ramones’ cult favorite ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, which Rolling Stone magazine named as one of the top 10 rock ‘n’ roll DVDs of all time.

Arkush resides in Los Angeles with his wife. He has 2 daughters in graduate school.

Moran Cerf | Sloan Scholar

Moran Cerf is a professor of neuroscience. Additionally, he is the Alfred P. Sloan faculty at AFI.

Prior to his academic career, professor Cerf worked as a hacker for nearly a decade, breaking into leading financial and government institutes to test and improve their security. His hacking background has led him to later pursue non-traditional ways to investigate the brain, using methods and techniques that benefit from heavy computational skills and novel research tools. Notably, he has been working with patients undergoing brain-surgery where he studies behavior, emotion, decision making and dreams – by directly recording the activity of individual neurons using electrodes implanted in the patients’ brain.

He is a multiple-times national story-telling champion (‘The Moth’), and his public talks at TED, TEDx, Google Zeitgeist, PopTech, DLD and others have received millions of views and a large following. In addition to his academic career, professor Cerf is a science consultant for various Hollywood films and TV shows. Recently, he was named one of the “40 leading professors below 40”.

Most importantly, he is right handed.

Barry Sabath | Senior Lecturer

Holding an MA and PhD in Cinema Studies from New York University, Sabath also offers two decades of feature film development experience as both a studio executive and producer.

A Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures, he also ran the film division of Robin Williams’ Blue Wolf Productions, whose productions include MRS. DOUBTFIRE. At Twentieth Century Fox, he was Senior Vice

President of Production for Paul Schiff Productions, where he oversaw MY COUSIN VINNY and was co-producer on GHOST IN THE MACHINE and PCU.

Sabath is a recipient of the French Chevalier medal for his contribution to French film culture, an international mentor for the Korean Film Council’s Filmmakers’ Development Labs, a participant in labs and panels at the Busan International Film Festival and the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, and a consultant for the newly launched Hainan Island International Film Festival in China.

Sabath taught film history and theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Illinois State University, and is the co-author of ERNST LUBITSCH: A GUIDE TO REFERENCES AND RESOURCES.

Cathy Wischner-Sola | Senior Lecturer & Faculty Director, Internships

Wischner-Sola is an award-winning executive producer. She executive-produced HBO’s TAKING CHANCE starring Kevin Bacon, which debuted in the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and won WGA and DGA awards and the Humanitas Prize. The film garnered 10 Emmy® nominations, including Outstanding Television Movie, and the Golden Globe nomination for Best Movie. She won the Christopher Award and Television Academy Honors, and was nominated for the Television Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild.

Wischner-Sola served as Vice President, Original Programming at TNT Originals, where she shepherded and supervised an extensive slate of distinguished movies, miniseries and high-budget international co-productions, earning network ratings and critical acclaim. Her projects include Emmy®-nominated PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY, DAVID COPPERFIELD, Patrick Stewart’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL and ANIMAL FARM.

Additional producing credits include the CBS miniseries COMMON GROUND and Emmy®-nominated A WINNER NEVER QUITS with Daniel H. Blatt Productions, where she previously served as Vice President, Creative Affairs. Wischner-Sola holds a BA from The New School for Social Research and attended Northwestern University. She is a member of the Television Academy.