51黑料

Adam Salky | Discipline Head

Adam鈥檚 2021 Netflix film, INTRUSION, was the number one streaming movie worldwide the week of its release with over 42 million hours of viewership. Adam’s second feature film, I SMILE BACK, a Grand Jury Prize Nominee of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, features Sarah Silverman’s critically acclaimed, award-winning dramatic performance. It was nominated for a 2016 Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. Adam鈥檚 first feature, DARE (based on the viral 2005 short with over 15 million views) is a Grand Jury Prize Nominee of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Adam鈥檚 films have premiered in competition at Sundance, Toronto, and Deauville. Adam is an alum of the Warner Brothers Television Directors鈥� Workshop and has directed multiple episodes of NBC鈥檚 BLINDSPOT, including the season three mid-season return 鈥淗ot Burning Flames,鈥� their highest budget episode. 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鈥檚 Graduate School of Cinematic Arts. He graduated magna cum laude from Emory University and completed his MFA at Columbia University鈥檚 Graduate School of the Arts Film Division. Adam is a citizen of the United States and Poland, but currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two girls of 7 and 5 yrs. He is represented at CAA and Circle Management + Production.

Andrew Wagner | Faculty Lead, Directing

Andrew Wagner鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥� 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 Traverse City Film Festival. It went on to play theatrically in over 30 cities and made The New York Times鈥� and other critics鈥� 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 51黑料 Conservatory, where his thesis film, THE LAST DAYS OF HOPE AND TIME, won the Franklin J. Schaffner Fellowship for Excellence in Directing.

Stan Brooks | Senior Affiliated Faculty

A graduate of Brandeis University and the 51黑料 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庐-winning feature RAIN MAN, the miniseries THE CAPTURE OF THE GREEN RIVER KILLER; the Emmy庐 and Golden Globe Award-nominated telefilm PRAYERS FOR BOBBY; and Walter Hill鈥檚 Emmy庐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 Producing Discipline.

Samantha Buck | Affiliated Faculty

Mike Connors | Senior Affiliated Faculty & Mentor

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鈥檚 Film Division.聽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.

Amedeo D鈥橝damo | Associate Dean, Academic Affairs and Lecturer

Amedeo D鈥橝damo is a filmmaker and a prolific author in the fields of film, media, fandom and celebrity. He is also the editor of 鈥淧roducing for the Screen鈥� (2020: Focal Press), and the author of 鈥淓mpathetic Space on Screen鈥� (2018: Palgrave Macmillan). Most recently he has worked as a script consultant for the SKY TV series UNWANTED (2023) and as a story consultant for the animation company Studio Campedelli (2025). Independent feature films that he has written, directed and co-produced have screened at festivals such as Rome, Miami, Austin, Torino and Sulmona.

He has also taught at many universities including the UCSC Universita Cattolica in Milan, The New School University, Royal Holloway, USI Universita Svizzera and the University of Zurich. D鈥橝damo 聽also served as the Lead Teacher for the studio-funded Native American Feature Lab in Los Angeles (2019鈥�2022).

D鈥橝damo was the Scientific Director of the E.U.-funded Feature Development Program Puglia Experience (2008鈥�2011) and the founding Dean, later President of the original Los Angeles Film School (1999鈥�2002). He co-designed and co-ran both the University Feature Development Lab and the University Doc Lab for the Locarno Film Festival.

He is also co-founder of The Traveling Film School, a volunteer-run organization that provides free film and theater training to children in underdeveloped regions. Endorsed by UNICEF, it has built small tuition-free film-schools in Cameroon and Sardinia.

D鈥橝damo holds an MFA in Film from Columbia University and is currently ABD on a PhD in aesthetics at the European Graduate School.

Cari Daly | Senior Affiliated Faculty

Cari Daly is the grandchild of Irish gangsters, Canadian Mennonites and Southern orphans. After an activist childhood in the suburbs of Washington, DC, she escaped to the various villages and kitchens of New York City and now lives in South Los Angeles. While in New York, Daly received her BFA at NYU鈥檚 Tisch School of the Arts, winning the Playwrights鈥� Horizons Excellence Award, Tisch鈥檚 Artist and Scholar Award, and a nomination for the Rhodes Scholarship. In New York, she worked as a theater director and dramaturge both with living playwrights and on adaptations of classic works. After a tour of RUGRATS: A LIVE ADVENTURE, she accidentally relocated to the west coast, where she earned a living in the hardscrabble world of TV and film production on shows like GILMORE GIRLS and Rob Lowe鈥檚 DR. VEGAS.

She received her MFA in Screenwriting from the 51黑料 Conservatory, then began work as a television writer on an Ali Baba sci-fi romance series in pre-production. Currently, she has television projects in development with producer Thomas Hartmann (29 Reform) and works as a screenplay consultant in feature and documentary film. On the producing side, Daly started at Valhalla Entertainment (WALKING DEAD, TERMINATOR, ALIENS) and Esmail Corp (MR. ROBOT, HOMECOMING) then became a development consultant and creative executive for boutique production companies. Most recently she has line-produced an upcoming true crime documentary series from HBO/A24/Fruit Tree. Her writing work has been lauded by over 30 competitions, including the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, Austin Film Festival, Page International and Big Swing Productions. Her feature, INTERWOVEN, won the William J. Fadiman Award for Screenwriting, and her pilot BANSHEES, won the Writers鈥� Room Ready Award for television writing.

As an educator, Daly has taught for 51黑料 Conservatory, NYU鈥檚 Tisch School, Academy of Art University and Native American Media Alliance, and she was the codirector of the Writers鈥� Ink Screenwriting Lab India (funded by Ford Foundation and Netflix India). Her students have gone on to win major entertainment fellowships, staff in writers鈥� rooms, and sell pilots and films.

Marjorie David | Senior Affiliated Faculty

Marjorie David is a writer and producer with over three decades of experience.聽 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鈥橲 LOVERS and SHY PEOPLE.

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

David also teaches in the Screenwriting Discipline.

Laura Davis | Senior Affiliated Faculty & Senior Mentor

As a writer/director, Laura Davis鈥檚 second feature, INHERITANCE, starring Mark Webber, premiered at SXSW and was released theatrically by Breaking Glass Pictures. It was nominated for the Adam Yauch H枚rnblow茅r Award and the SXSW Gamechanger Award. Her first feature was the award-winning film, THIN AIR, which played at festivals domestically and internationally.

Her other films include the short COUP DE GRACE, starring Sarita Choudhury (HOMELAND) and her undergraduate thesis, a 48-minute documentary about HIV/AIDS activism in Paris, which premiered at San Francisco鈥檚 Frameline Film Festival.

Her script, THE COMMONS, was featured as one of the top pilots of聽2018 for Tracking Board’s聽Launch Pad Pilot competition. It was also selected for the inaugural series section of the 2017 IFP Film Week, where it was one of two pilots聽highlighted at the SAG Indie Reading Series.

Davis has been a frequent visiting professor in the film and media department of the Universidad de Francisco Marroqu铆n (UFM) in Guatemala. An honors graduate of Brown University, Davis concentrated in Art-Semiotics and received her MFA from UT-Austin as a Michener Fellow in screenwriting and fiction writing.

Jane Goldenring | Senior Affiliated Faculty

Jane Goldenring is a film and TV producer with over 30 years of experience.聽 She started out producing documentaries and then worked as an executive at Walt Disney Pictures where she supervised over 40 films including: THE ROCKETEER, WHITE FANG, PHENOMENON, THE REF and ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING.聽 She has produced numerous TV movies for Disney Channel, Lifetime, Hallmark and Freeform.

Her most recent Hallmark movie is FAMILY HISTORY MYSTERIES:聽 BURIED PAST which premiered on January 8th, 2023.聽 She has exec produced numerous Hallmark Christmas movies, and RADIO REBEL and ZAPPED for the Disney Channel.聽 She also produced Indie films MY FIRST MISTER starring Albert Brooks; $5 A DAY starring Christopher Walken; and, BOYCHOIR starring Dustin Hoffman and Kathy Bates.

She has developed TV pilots for Warner Bros, A&E and SyFy Channel and Fox TV and is currently developing and packaging several indie films and TV series.

She teaches courses currently at NYU LA and 51黑料 and was an adjunct film professor at USC鈥檚 School of Cinematic Arts for 8 years. She is a former Member of the Board of Women in Film and a member of the Producers Guild (PGA) and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences.聽 Before coming to Los Angeles, she worked for 5 years as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Chris Dodd. She got her BA from Wesleyan University where she majored in government and literature but found her true passion studying film under the tutelage of Jeanine Basinger.

A. Laura James | Senior Affiliated Faculty & Senior Mentor

A. Laura James (she/her) is an award-winning filmmaker and television director and a proud member of the Director鈥檚 Guild of America (DGA). She holds a BFA in Theater Arts and worked as an actor before transitioning into directing television. Her theater background, coupled with experience in improv, sketch comedy, and years as an on-set acting coach, has equipped her to work collaboratively with studio executives, producers, writers, and actors to shape compelling stories and craft a distinctive visual language for each project.

Alongside creating her own work, James teaches workshops and classes all over the world, helping emerging artists develop their unique stories. She is a frequent guest on craft panels, has taught directing at USC鈥檚 Graduate School of Cinematic Arts, and currently teaches and mentors first- and second-year Fellows at the 51黑料 Conservatory.

James is an alumni of the CBS Director Program, the Disney Channel Multi-camera 360 Program, and the inaugural DGA Director Development Initiative. James is also an active member of the DGA鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Steering Committee.

Kevin Kennedy | Senior Affiliated Faculty & Senior 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鈥檚 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 Producing and Screenwriting Disciplines.

Anna Khaja | Affiliated Faculty

Anna Khaja is an award-winning actress, writer, director and solo performer. She is best known for her recurring roles on NBC鈥橲 THE GOOD PLACE, AMC鈥橲 THE WALKING DEAD WORLD BEYOND, HBO鈥橲 SILICON VALLEY and Netflix鈥檚 THE LINCOLN LAWYER. She also co-stars in the Netflix feature DEFINITION PLEASE directed by Sujata Day and produced by Ava DuVernay. Khaja is the author and star of the play 鈥淪haheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto鈥� which had an acclaimed, extended Off-Broadway run in New York City. Time Out called her performance 鈥渁 wonder鈥� and Backstage NYC called it 鈥渉eart-stopping, engrossing, funny, and profound theatre.鈥澛� She is the recipient of both an Ovation Award and an LA Weekly Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play. As a writer, Khaja is the Grand Prize Winner of Screencraft鈥檚 2023 Pilot Competition and the recipient of the Google x Black List Storytelling Fellowship. She is currently developing her pilot INFIDELLE into a series with Rosewood Television. As a director, her film HEADBANG was the Grand Prize Winner of Film Alliance鈥檚 2024 Short Film Grant and will premiere in 2025.

Rosita Lama Muvdi | Affiliated Faculty & Mentor

Rosita is a Colombian born director/screenwriter whose visceral films explore the monster within all of us. After working in Colombia鈥檚 film industry for several years, Rosita attended the American Film Institute Conservatory where she graduated with an M.F.A. in Directing. Her films have been featured on platforms like CRYPT TV, DUST, and ALTER, including her short film LA SIRENA, a psychosexual fairy tale which won Best Horror at multiple festivals including the Grand Jury Award at Dances With Films and the Mary Shelly Award at Other Worlds Austin, given to a female filmmaker whose film furthers the representation of women in genre. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she鈥檚 a directing professor at the American Film Institute Conservatory.

Simone Ling | Senior Affiliated Faculty & Senior Mentor

Simone Ling is a creative producer and story consultant. Credits include executive producer of Aurora Guerrero鈥檚 Spirit Award-nominated MOSQUITA Y MARI and producer of Anahita Ghazvinizadeh鈥檚 THEY, which premiered at Cannes and continues to play on the international film festival circuit. Clients include Paramount Pictures and the Sundance Film Institute. Additionally, she spearheads outreach for Sundance鈥檚 Asian American Fellowship. Ling is a member of the Producers Guild of America, the Motion Picture Editors Guild and BAFTA/LA. She also sits on the BAFTA New Talent and Scholarship Committee, Women in Film鈥檚 Finishing Fund jury and was a juror for Seattle International Film Festival鈥檚 2019 New Directors Competition. A Fulbright Scholar with Masters degrees from the University of Oxford and Stanford University, she is a TAP/Transatlantic Partners, Film Independent Fast Track, Tribeca TFI Network and IFP/Independent Film Project No Borders Fellow.

Karen Maruyama | Senior Affiliated Faculty

In addition to 51黑料, Karen Maruyama has taught improvisation at East West Players, USC, and taught comedy and sketch improv for over 20 years at the Groundlings Theater where she still performs and directs shows.聽 As an actor, her recent film credits include SELF RELIANCE, KUNG FU PANDA 4, I鈥橫 TOTALLY FINE, LIFE OF THE PARTY, and ULTRAMAN RISING. TV credits include BOSCH, TACOMA FD, BASKETS, BETTER CALL SAUL, and WHO鈥橲 LINE IS IT ANYWAY?

Luke Matheny | Affiliated Faculty

Luke Matheny is an Oscar- and Emmy-winning writer and director based in Los Angeles. He served as co-showrunner, producing director and writer of the Apple TV+ family mystery series, GHOSTWRITER — winner of the Emmy for Outstanding Children鈥檚 or Family Viewing Program in 2020. He has adapted the beloved novel “Charlotte’s Web” into an animated Max miniseries, coming in 2025.

Luke was also showrunner and producing director of the critically acclaimed, award-winning Amazon family series GORTIMER GIBBON鈥橲 LIFE ON NORMAL STREET, for which he received a WGA nomination.

In 2011, Luke won the Academy Award ^庐, for Best Live-Action Short for his film GOD OF LOVE, which he wrote, directed and starred in. The film was his thesis project at New York University鈥檚 graduate film program.

His other TV directing experience includes the IFC comedy MARON, the Netflix hit THE BABY-SITTERS’ CLUB, the pilot for Paul Feig鈥檚 space comedy OTHER SPACE, the Adult Swim stoner satire BLACK JESUS, and others. Luke also co-wrote the feature-length, coming-of-age comedy A BIRDER’S GUIDE TO EVERYTHING, starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Ben Kingsley.

Rebecca Metz | Affiliated Faculty

Rebecca Metz (she/her) is a working actor, best known for her recurring roles on SHAMELESS and the Peabody Award winning FX series, BETTER THINGS. She has a long list of credits featuring projects with writers and directors including John Wells, Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes, Dan Fogelman, Amy Sherman-Palladino and Chuck Lorre. On stage, Metz has appeared in numerous award-winning productions in Los Angeles, New York and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has studied and performed with The Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade.

In addition to her position at the 51黑料 Conservatory, Rebecca has been a guest lecturer at USC鈥檚 Graduate School of Cinematic Arts, the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University and the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, her alma mater.

Sean Mullin | Senior Affiliated Faculty

Sean Mullin is an award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter.聽 His critically-acclaimed feature film debut as a writer/director 鈥� AMIRA & SAM 鈥� won the top prize at numerous festivals and was distributed theatrically by Drafthouse Films.

His documentary debut as a writer/director 鈥� KINGS OF BEER 鈥� about the world鈥檚 most intense brewmaster competition, was released in theaters in 2019.聽 His documentary 鈥� IT AIN’T OVER 鈥� about baseball legend and American Icon, Yogi Berra, received a nationwide theatrical release by Sony Pictures Classics in 2023.聽 It was nominated for two Critics Choice Awards and a Writers Guild Award.聽 His most recent documentary 鈥� BROTHERS 鈥� is an unprecedented look inside the most unique culture of any Division I Athletic Team in America 鈥� the West Point Army Rugby Team 鈥� as they fight to defend their 2022 National Championship.

As a producer, Sean produced ALLEGIANCE (Alameda) and SEMPER FI (Lionsgate) 鈥� both of which received theatrical releases.聽 Most recently, Sean produced BOB TREVINO LIKES IT 鈥� which won the Jury Award and Audience Award at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival and will be released theatrically in 2025 by Roadside Attractions.

Prior to his filmmaking career, Sean served in the military.聽 He was stationed in Germany as an army officer and finished his time as a Captain in the New York Army National Guard 鈥� where he was a first responder on September 11th, 2001.聽 For several months, he spent his days working as the Officer in Charge of the soldiers stationed at Ground Zero 鈥� and his nights performing stand-up comedy.

Sean holds an MFA from Columbia University and a B.S. from The United States Military Academy at West Point.聽 He is a member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Producers Guild of America (PGA).聽 Sean is represented by UTA.聽 He is the co-founder of Five By Eight Productions and has taught film at 51黑料, USC and West Point.

Leonora Pitts | Affiliated Faculty

Leonora Pitts is an award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter, actress, dancer, and teacher. She received her BFA in Acting from NYU鈥檚 Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied with the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School, serving on their faculty for several years upon graduation.

As an actress, Leonora has guest starred on shows such as THE ROOKIE, IT鈥橲 ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, and THE GRINDER, appeared in films such as Charlie Day鈥檚 directorial debut, FOOL鈥橲 PARADISE, and was a recurring character on the Apple+ series FOR ALL MANKIND.

A frequent collaborator with the prolific Duplass Brothers, she鈥檚 appeared in their films THE FREEBIE and MAGIC HOUR (both directed by Katie Aselton) and MANSON FAMILY VACATION (directed by J. Davis) as well as guest-starring in their acclaimed HBO series TOGETHERNESS and ROOM 104.

Presently an MFA in Screenwriting candidate at the David Lynch School of Cinematic Arts, her screenplay MAD BAD DANGEROUS TO KNOW (written with Emily Robinson) won Best Unproduced Screenplay at the Raindance Film Festival and was a semi-finalist in the Academy鈥檚 Nicholl Fellowship in 2024. Her four award-winning short films have screened at dozens of festivals around the world, including the prestigious Aspen Shortsfest, Hollyshorts, Outfest, Raindance, Bentonville, Dam Short, Mill Valley, and Indie Memphis.

She recently produced her first feature film, reuniting with her MANSON FAMILY VACATION director. The film, titled I HATE MYSELF AND WANT TO DIE, will premiere at the Austin Film Festival in October 2024.

Leonora joined the faculty of the American Film Institute in 2024, teaching in their MFA Directing program.

She is the creator and host of MOTHERING HEIGHTS, a podcast focused on the intersection between caretaking, creativity, and community. She is the co-founder and leader of the Los Angeles Women鈥檚 Film Collective and the popular LA moms鈥� group NELA Mamas. She spent eight years serving as a Los Angeles City Commissioner, working on habitability issues and regulations surrounding the rent-stabilized properties of the City of Los Angeles. She is a board member emeritus for the Independent Shakespeare Company, which brings free Shakespeare in Griffith Park to nearly 40,000 Angelenos every summer and is a founding member and on the advisory council for the legendary Vidiots Foundation.

Asaph Polonsky | Senior Affiliated Faculty

Asaph Polonsky鈥檚 debut feature which he wrote and directed, ONE WEEK AND A DAY (Oscilloscope), premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 鈥� Critics鈥� Week, where it won the Gan Foundation Award. It went on to win Best Film, Best Debut, Best Screenplay and The FIPRESCI Award for Best Israeli Debut at the Jerusalem Film Festival. The film was nominated for seven Israeli Academy Awards and won Best Supporting Actor for Tomer Capone (THE BOYS). Recently he directed the first season of TRAITOR, an Israeli TV show starring Lior Ashkenazi (FOXTROT, FOOTNOTE) and Niv Sultan (TEHRAN), which screened at the Berlinale Series Market Selects. He directed the award-winning 51黑料 thesis film, SAMNANG, which was written by Vanara Taing; it premiered at the New York Film Festival and was nominated for a Student Academy Award ^庐,.

Terrie Samundra | Affiliated Faculty & Mentor

Terrie Samundra is a director and screenwriter whose debut feature film, KAALI KHUHI, was released globally by Netflix Originals in October 2020. Her many short films have screened internationally, garnering numerous accolades, and she recently wrapped the writer鈥檚 room for an undisclosed Netflix series.

Samundra is an alum of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the Sundance WIF Finance Lab, and is a current directing fellow of ReFrame Rise; a partnership between the Sundance Institute and Women in Film. She is a SFFILM Rainin Grant fellow for screenwriting, a Princess Grace recipient and a member of the WGAW.

A multicultural artist, Samundra grew up between a rural village in India, a small farming town in Missouri and along the coast of California. She is represented by the Gersh Agency and Circle of Confusion.

Samundra also teaches in the Producing and Screenwriting Disciplines.

Robert Spera | Senior Affiliated Faculty

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 鈥淧art One鈥� for the triptych television feature FATHERS AND SONS, starring Bradley Whitford and Samantha Mathis. Spera鈥檚 television credits include numerous episodes of CRIMINAL MINDS, SUSPECT BEHAVIOR, SUPERNATURAL and ARMY WIVES.

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

His published works include 鈥淎ctors Write for Actors鈥� and 鈥淓ncore,鈥� and the play 鈥淭he Field.鈥�