Michael Urban | Faculty Lead, Screenwriting & Senior Lecturer

Michael Urban is a graduate of the AFI Screenwriting program. His first feature film, SAVED! (co-written with Brian Dannelly), was produced by MGM/UA in 2004.

He has since completed writing assignments for several major film and television studios including Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, ABC Television, Lionsgate and HBO.

Mark Amato | Lecturer

Mark Amato began his writing career by faxing jokes to SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE when he worked as an assistant at the Brillstein Company. Following a short segue as Manager of Comedy Development for Sony Television, he has spent the past two decades as a professional writer on staff.

Amato has been a writer on sitcoms like SUITE LIFE ON DECK, sci-fi dramas such as MUTANT X and animated shows like MEN IN BLACK. He has also written ten romantic comedies for Freeform, Hallmark Channel and Netflix, including ROYAL MATCHMAKER and IT’S CHRISTMAS, EVE. He has sold over a half-dozen original pilots throughout his career, and most recently his spec pilot, “60.40.20” won first place in the WGA diversity competition.

Alon Aranya | Lecturer

Writer and producer Alon Aranya has set up 40 scripted shows at studios and networks around the world, including RED WIDOW and BETRAYAL for ABC and HOSTAGES at CBS. He’s currently in production on YOUR HONOR, starring Bryan Cranston, at Showtime and TEHRAN, an international drama thriller from Israel.

Aranya’s company, Paper Plane Productions, is under a two-year first look deal with CBS Studios International and has helped launch their original drama slate with DISTRICT Y, an Israeli drama, and BEST SELLER BOY, an original Dutch dramedy based on a best-selling book by Mano Bouzamur. Both shows are slated for production in 2020.

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, as well as two features, MARIA’S LOVERS and SHY PEOPLE.
Most recently, David wrote READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN, which is in post-production.

Marjorie David currently serves on the Board of Directors of the WGA West and has previously served as Vice President.

Cami Delavigne | Lecturer 

Jonathan Fernandez | Senior Lecturer

Jonathan Fernandez is a writer, producer, and director and a board member of the Writers Guild of America.  He began his career running the production companies of legendary filmmakers Roger Corman and Dino De Laurentis.

His film ROB THE MOB (2014), starring Michael Pitt, Andy Garcia, Ray Romano and Nina Arianda, closed the Miami International Film Festival and made multiple top 10 lists. Other principal credits include Y2K (1999), the top-rated television movie of the year for NBC, and as producer, the Kurt Russell film BREAKDOWN (1997).  Fernandez also served as a story editor on STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE, where he wrote the fan favorite episode “Impulse.”

Fernandez is currently writing an adaptation of the video game INDIVISIBLE for Legendary Pictures with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Meg LeFauve. He is also writing AMERICAN SPY for ABC Television, a limited series based on the life of Valerie Plame.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Fernandez was the president of the Harvard Lampoon.

Karen Janszen | Senior Lecturer & Senior Creative Thesis Mentor

Gabrielle Kelly | Senior Lecturer

Gabrielle Kelly is a screenwriter and producer of diverse content for the global marketplace. Her feature producing credits include LAST SUNRISE, a Chinese sci-fi thriller; the Burmese MUDRAS CALLING; German-UK co-production ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN; the Paramount family film D.A.R.Y.L.; and the UK-French drama BEAUTIFUL IN THE MORNING. She is also the screenwriter and producer of the indie feature ALL AGES NIGHT released on Starz. Her script development experience includes VP of Development for producer Robert Evans and Head of Development for Sidney Lumet’s New York-based company.

Considered a global expert in Media/Screen Labs, Kelly has designed and run Screen Labs in Pakistan, England, Myanmar and Singapore, and was a Mentor in the first Sundance Screenwriting Lab in the Middle East.

The recipient of two Fulbright Awards in media, Kelly is also the author of the book “Celluloid Ceiling: Women Film Directors Breaking Through,” the only comprehensive global study of women directors.

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 Directing and Producing Disciplines.

Luisa Leschin | Senior Lecturer

Luisa Leschin has participated in almost every aspect of the entertainment industry. Starting out as a ballet dancer, she quickly segued into acting, getting typecast in major shows like BEVERLY HILLS 90210, ER, LOVE BOAT, etc. Fluent in Spanish, French and conversant Italian, she has had a busy voice-over career.

Tired of the typecasting, Leschin co-founded the successful comedy group Latins Anonymous (over 45 productions nationwide).

Leschin has worked on over 450 episodes of produced TV including the GEORGE LOPEZ SHOW, EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS, ARE WE THERE YET?, AUSTIN & ALLY, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, EAST LOS HIGH, JUST ADD MAGIC and MR. IGLESIAS.

As a feature writer, Leschin has written for Universal Family, Showtime, Disney Channel and Warner Brother’s Premiere Entertainment and has sold television pilots to CBS, Fox Studios, NBC, TNT and FOX.

Leschin is a Disney Writing Program alum and 2019 recipient of the Norman Lear Writing Award.

Shana Lloyd | Lecturer

Shana Lloyd is a (recovering) actor, (sometimes) filmmaker and (mostly) writer hailing from suburban Maryland. She studied acting in New York at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. While in NYC, she worked off Broadway with many theaters, such as La Mama and NYTW. As an actor, she has shared the stage with such greats as Ed Asner and Isabella Hofmann.

Lloyd established Crisis Management Productions in May 2011, as a vehicle to produce more female-driven socially relevant content. Their debut film was the short, CRISIS.  She also has a few TV projects of her own in development, as well as with longtime collaborator and writing partner, Alison McKenzie. Their film HEAVEN DOWN HERE premiered in December 2023, starring “Hamilton”’s Krystal Joy Brown and the legendary Phylicia Rashad. Ms. Rashad was just nominated for a NAACP Image Award for the film.

One of her latest collaborations was assisting the last class of NBC’s Writers on the Verge (now NBC Launch), working with one of her mentors, Jen Grisanti. Lloyd is currently an adjunct faculty member in the screenwriting departments of the AFI Conservatory and Emerson. She has also taught classes at SOCAPA Los Angeles.

Antonio Macia | Senior Lecturer

Antonio is a writer, Blacklist alum, Spirit Award Nominee, FIND Screenwriting Lab fellow, and WGA member. With over ten years of experience in the industry, he has written HOLY ROLLERS, starring Jesse Eisenberg, AFFLUENZA, ANNE B. REAL, and BLACKJACK: THE JACKIE RYAN STORY.

The son of Argentine and Chilean immigrants, Macia is a graduate of Middlebury College and a proud independent Latinx filmmaker.

Blake Masters | Lecturer 

Blake Masters is a writer/showrunner whose credits include the Peabody-award winning drama BROTHERHOOD (which he created), FALLING WATER (which he co-created) and 2 GUNS. Among his other credits are LAW & ORDER: LA (co-creator), SNEAKY PETE (showrunner), RUBICON and HEELS. He has developed multiple times at Fox, AMC, NBC and Showtime and currently has series in development at Amazon and Netflix.

Jack Olsen | Senior Lecturer

Screenwriter Jack Olsen has worked for the past two decades on dozens of projects for Warner Bros, Paramount, Fox, Sony, Disney, Universal, MGM and others, experience that has given him a nuanced understanding of the ins and outs of studio feature script development.

In 2016, Sony released his original thriller, WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS. More recently, he wrote and executive produced the indie psychological thriller SLEEPWALKER, which screened at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival before its release in the spring of 2017.

Lara Olsen | Lecturer

Lara Olsen is a screenwriter who most recently served as showrunner on Netflix’s drama SPINNING OUT, which starred Kaya Scodelario and January Jones as a daughter and mother duo struggling with the pressures of competitive figure skating and mental illness.

Olsen got her start writing for many years in half-hour comedy before transitioning into one-hour television with her first show-running job on 90210, helming the show for its final two seasons. From there, she pursued development opportunities and served as co-showrunner on CW’s REIGN for its final season. Olsen has also served as showrunner on Netflix’s FREE REIN, and as co-executive producer on CBS’ swashbuckling adventure BLOOD & TREASURE.

Olsen’s background includes time on MIXOLOGY, LIFE UNEXPECTED, and Shondaland’s PRIVATE PRACTICE, among other series. With her former writing partner, Olsen wrote and produced CBS pilot NY-LON based on the original series which aired on U.K.’s Channel 4. She most recently wrote a project for Netflix with Fabel Entertainment and just finished writing a pilot for 3000 Pictures based on Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling novel “Summer of ’69.” Olsen is currently hard at work rebooting BAYWATCH for FBC and Fremantle.

Austin Reynolds | Senior Lecturer, Cycle Development Mentor & Creative Thesis Mentor

Austin Reynolds is a graduate of the AFI Conservatory. His thesis script “From New York to Florida” landed on the 2012 Black List, and he spent three years as a feature staff writer for Walt Disney Studios, developing and writing live-action theatrical scripts directly for the studio. He most recently co-wrote a new THE SANDLOT for 20th Century Fox.

Reynolds also teaches in the Producing Discipline.

Matty Rich | Senior Lecturer

Highly regarded as a pioneer of Black Filmmaking, Matty Rich gained major recognition in the early 90s as the 19-year-old writer/ director/ producer of his debut film STRAIGHT OUT OF BROOKLYN. The movie was critically acclaimed, going on to win the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize Award, an Independent Spirit Award, the NAACP Image Award and the Producer’s Guild Award.

Rich then signed a three-picture deal with Disney, where he directed the summer splash, THE INKWELL, which is now a Black film classic. Other credits include development of several television projects, including “Red Hook” as a writer/creator for Warner Bros/Fox Network, the Tupac Shakur bio project for HBO, and “Subway Scholar” with Whitney Houston for Showtime Network.

In the mid 2000’s, Rich accepted an offer from video game giant Ubisoft to serve as their Creative Director/Artistic Director for the video game, 187 Ride or Die. Then, returning to his filmmaking roots, he wrote, directed and acted in a 10-minute short film as part of his upcoming project Birth of the Black Underworld. The short film was screened at the 2023 Essence Film Festival where it won the Best Film and Audience Award and received rave reviews.

Marquita Robinson | Senior Lecturer

Marquita J. Robinson is a comedy screenwriter and producer in Los Angeles. Her writing career spans an impressive range of both critical darling “dramedies” and beloved network comedies including SURVIVOR’S REMORSE, NEW GIRL, GLOW, YOU’RE THE WORST, BLACK-ISH and the upcoming comedy HOW TO DIE ALONE— where she currently serves as co-executive producer. In her short career, Robinson has had the incredible honor of losing multiple awards: an NAACP Image Award, a WGA award, a BLACK REEL award and most recently, an Emmy^® for Outstanding Series for BLACK-ISH.

Terrie Samundra | Lecturer & Creative Thesis 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’s 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, and teaches in the mighty screenwriting department at AFI.

Samundra also teaches in the Directing and Producing Disciplines.

Derek Santos Olson | Senior Lecturer

Derek Santos Olson is a screenwriter who has worked in both film and TV.

He wrote on the final two seasons of NBC/DirecTV’s FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and was nominated for WGA Awards for both seasons. His other TV credits include ABC’s THE UNUSUALS and CBS’ HAWAII FIVE-O.   In film, he has sold original pitches and has done rewrite assignments in a variety of genres.

He attended Yale University and has enjoyed teaching or tutoring in one capacity or another since shortly after his graduation.

Darren Stein | Lecturer

Darren Stein was raised in a celluloid family with grandparents who started a boutique Hollywood film laboratory in 1961. The prolific output of childhood films he made on his Encino cul-de-sac would go on to become the subject of his 2003 documentary PUT THE CAMERA ON ME. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch Film School, Stein co-wrote and directed SPARKLER which premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival and featured Park Overall, Freddie Prinze Jr, Veronica Cartwright and Grace Zabriskie.

Stein went on to write and direct the dark teen comedy JAWBREAKER, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has gone on to become a cultural touchstone and cult classic. He is currently rebooting JAWBREAKER as a movie musical at Sony Pictures/Columbia.

Stein has written pilots for HBO, Freeform, The CW, ABC and E! and wrote the final installment of VC Andrews’ FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC movie series SEEDS OF YESTERDAY for Lifetime. In addition, he produced the cult horror film ALL ABOUT EVIL starring Natasha Lyonne and directed the cult teen comedy feature GBF, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and is currently streaming on Peacock. Recently, he has served as a producer and guest judge on five seasons of THE BOULET BROTHERS’ DRAGULA. He has also directed several music videos and fashion films, including a Clio Award-winning piece for designer Alexander Wang.

Patricia Verducci | Lecturer

Patricia Verducci wrote and directed the feature film TRUE CRIME, starring Alicia Silverstone and Kevin Dillon, and has written screenplays for Touchstone Pictures, Witt-Thomas Productions and Disney’s animation division.

She has also worked as a story consultant for Disney/Pixar.

Verducci co-produced/wrote the award-winning documentaries SOMEWHERE BETWEEN and BELLA, and has worked as a script consultant with Academy Award^®-winning screenwriters. She received her MFA in Directing from UCLA and is a mentor at The Writers Lab for Women in NY, Cinestory, Australia’s Talent Gateway and Untapped Labs. Verducci is a proud member of The Writer’s Guild of America.

Lauren Wells | Lecturer

Lauren Wells is a screenwriter who most recently wrote on FX’s Emmy nominated television show WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS. Prior to that, she worked in support staff roles on shows such as UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT, HAPPY!, LUKE CAGE, JESSICA JONES, and ANGELYNE, among others. In 2023, Wells adapted Bram Stoker’s “Dracule” as a 20-episode podcast series called MINA + LUCY’S GUIDE TO SLAYING DRACULA. Produced by Gen Z Media, the series stars Bradley Whitford and Ritchie Coster. Her original dark comedy pilot FLAT was featured on The 2023 Next List via Coverfly and The Tracking Board.

Originally from a horse farm in Central New York, Wells studied improv and sketch comedy at UCB while finishing her MFA in writing and producing for television at Long Island University Brooklyn. She has a BA in English from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and currently resides in Los Angeles with her rescue dog, Mr. Feeny.

Jesse Wigutow | Senior Lecturer

Jesse Wigutow has written on films for every major studio, including 8 MILE, TRON: LEGACY, ERAGON, THE RUINS, and IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY. He has worked consistently in the studio system, adapting  books like Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night for Sony, Anthony Bourdain’s memoir Kitchen Confidential for New Line and a reboot of THE CROW for Relativity.

He is currently writing “Tron 3” for Disney and a live action feature based on Thomas the Tank Engine for Mattel.

He graduated from the AFI Conservatory in 1999.

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.