MFA in Digital Filmmaking Faculty

Learn from working filmmakers, screenwriters and film scholars, including a Warner Bros. Discovery executive and award-winning directors, who bring industry practice and research into every course.

Academic Leadership

The leaders of the Akira Kurosawa School of Film.

David Desser, Ph.D.

Founding Dean of the Akira Kurosawa School of Film; Professor Emeritus of Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois.

Vikram Channa

Associate Dean of the School of Film; Vice President at Warner Bros. Discovery for East and Southeast Asia.

Professors

Firdosi Wharton-Ali

Screenwriter with an MFA in Screenwriting from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

Raphael Raphael, Ph.D.

Film and media scholar who also lectures at the University of Hawaii at Manoa; author of Transnational Horror Cinema.

Henryk Cymerman, MFA

Cinematographer and NYU Tisch film graduate whose credits include Star Trek: First Contact.

Robert Jones, MFA

Award-winning filmmaker and film teacher for more than 50 years; MFA in Film Producing from UCLA.

Dallas King, MFA

Award-winning director and producer with an MFA in Directing and Production from UCLA.

Alison Marek, MFA

Award-winning writer and director (MFA, New York University) with grants from the Sloan Foundation and Showtime.

Ryan Daniel McKinney, MFA

Award-winning Los Angeles director and producer of narrative films, music videos and commercials.

Billy Budd Vermillion, Ph.D.

Film scholar with a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in East-Central European cinema.

Faculty