Faculty

• Dan Asma

  

  Dan Asma is one of the co-owners of the advertising agency, Buddha Jones, that specializes in visual trailers and motion graphics. Dan graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in film and moved to Los Angeles to develop his editorial skills. Starting as a PA at a theatrical marketing post-production house he found himself shifting from film to digital. After bouncing around from different agencies, he worked his way up to a founding partner of Buddha Jones. Buddha Jones has recently worked on marketing campaigns for IT, Ready Player One, Netflix’s G.L.O.W., Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Bird Box, Aquaman, Shazam, and The Conjuring films, just to name a few.

• Jake Bohrod

  

  Jake Bohrod is currently a PhD Annenberg Fellow of Cinema and Media Studies. His dissertation examines the theoretical implications of virtual reality documentary and the politics of interactivity within contemporary society. Jake received his B.S. in Journalism from Minnesota State University, and his M.A. in Critical Cinematic Studies from the University of Southern California. He has taught English both domestically and abroad in a variety of positions, and has taught Introduction to Film and several other topics in the Cinema Studies department at USC for the past six years. He currently teaches Mapping Los Angeles in Cinema and Television, a critical historical survey of Los Angeles as it shapes and is shaped by the film and media industries. His areas of interest include interactive and new media, media praxis, and documentary rhetoric.

• Rona Edwards

  

  Rona Edwards was Vice President of Creative Affairs for John Larroquette, Academy Award-winner Michael Phillips, and Emmy-winning Producer Fern Field before becoming an independent producer. Her producing credits include: Killer Hair, Hostile Makeover, Blind Trust (Lifetime), One Special Victory (NBC), The Companion (USA/SyFi), I Know What You Did (ABC), Out Of Sync (VH1), and Der Morder Meiner Mutter (Sat.1). Documentaries include: Selling Sex in Heaven (CBC), Selling Sex (Ralston Ltd) and Unforgettable (PBS). She has had projects made or in development with CBS, ABC, NBC, HBO, Phoenix, Edward R. Pressman, USA Network, SyFi Channel, Warner Bros., and David Wolper. When she isn’t developing projects in television, feature film, and transmedia, Rona writes for various publications/newspapers including Produced By and Script magazine, and co-wrote the bestselling books, I Liked It, Didn’t Love It: Screenplay Development From The Inside Out!, and The Complete Filmmakers Guide to Film Festivals.

• Donna Freed

  

  Donna Freed brings over 20 years of operating, marketing and sales experience. Prior to creating Phaz2 in 2006, she was President of Terry Hines & Associates helping to transform the firm from a regional firm to a national media placement and promotional agency. 2656 Marketing was created in 2013 to support filmmakers and brands with strategy, marketing plans, and campaign execution. Before THA, Donna served as a senior executive at Hollywood.com. Donna started her career in the newspaper industry, moving from the Los Angeles Daily News to the Los Angeles Times, where she quickly rose through the ranks to Vice President of Advertising and Marketing. While at the Los Angeles Times, Donna led the department with innovative new products and strategies to build the entertainment franchise into the largest product category of advertising revenue for the paper.

• Chad Gervich

  

  Chad Gervich is a television producer, bestselling author, and award-winning playwright. He is currently a Consulting Producer on Adam McKay and Will Ferrell’s Amazon series This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy, starring Kal Penn, and two upcoming shows for Facebook Watch and MTV. In addition to writing television, Chad has written three books, including Small Screen, Big Picture: A Writers Guide to the TV Business, and How To Manage Your Agent: A Writers Guide to Hollywood Representation. He has also taught at workshops and universities around the globe, including UCLA, Drexel University, Cal State Fullerton, the David Lynch Graduate School of Cinematic Arts (Maharishi University), the Warner Bros. Writers Workshop, the FOX Writers Initiative, the Fox Global Directors Initiative, and the Singapore Media Academy.

• Sandy Holmes

  

  Sandy Holmes is an accomplished and highly regarded media executive. Her more than 20 years strategy, management and marketing experience brought her to found Phaz2 in 2006, which is a mobile centric technology firm. 2656 Marketing was created in 2013 to support filmmakers and brands with strategy, marketing plans and campaign execution. Her marketing experience has resulted in great success within the entertainment, gaming, and media industries. Sandy has worked with both major and independent film studios creating strategies that expand customer engagement, increasing box office and ancillary success. Prior to creating Phaz2 she served as Senior Vice President, Managing Director of West Coast for Channel One News, a niche teen network. Prior to Channel One News, she held key positions with Tribune Broadcasting and launched the sales and marketing departments for the West Coast's leading public broadcasting station, KCET.

• Suzanne Lyons

  

  Suzanne Lyons is president of Snowfall Films, which has produced more than twelve feature films. She’s worked with talent such as Christopher Walken, Naomi Watts, Alfred Molina, James Caan, Brenda Blethyn, Dean Cain, Susan Sarandon, Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Tilly, Asia Argento, Winona Ryder, and more. Her films have won a gamut of awards and festivals, including a BAFTA award, a premiere at the Directors Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, best picture at FAM Fest, and acceptance into the Toronto, Berlin, Hollywood, and Montreal Film Festivals. In addition, Suzanne has been a guest speaker at over seventy entertainment industry events, guilds, and organizations and hosted more than 125 informational online videos for the entertainment industry. In 2012 Ms. Lyons published her book through Focal Press called Indie Film Producing… The Craft of Low Budget Filmmaking.

• Claudia Puig

  

  Claudia Puig is president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and a nationally recognized entertainment journalist. Currently a critic for NPR’s Film Week and contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition, she was USA Today’s film critic for 18 years and host of The Screening Room video series. Prior to that she was a Los Angeles Times staff writer for 11 years. Claudia was a speechwriter for AMPAS and is currently program director for the Mendocino Film Festival and Film Fest 919 in North Carolina. Much in demand as a moderator for entertainment industry Q&As, she has a consulting business specializing in cultural and diversity consulting. A native Spanish speaker, Claudia studied at Universidad Ibero-Americana in Mexico City. She has a B.A. in Communications Studies from UCLA and an M.A. in Communications from USC’s Annenberg School. She was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times as one of 14 film critics making media more inclusive and is the winner of the Roger Ebert Award for Excellence in Film Criticism from the African-American Critics Association.

• Marc Sedaka

  

  MARC SEDAKA received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and holds MFAs from both the American Film Institute and New York University. As a writer/director, his short films have won numerous awards, including an Emmy, and he has written scripts for Disney, New Line, Fox, Paramount, and Warner Bros. His most notable feature credit is the romantic comedy Overnight Delivery, which stars Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd. On the TV front, he has written for such shows as NBC’s Inside Schwartz, CBS’s King Of Queens, and Disney’s Liv and Maddie. He is also an award-winning New York Times best-selling author of children’s and self-help books.

• Katie Jo Sheek

  

  Katie Jo Sheek graduated with a BA in Communications (TV/Film) from Fordham University in NYC. She also holds a Human Resources Management Certificate from UCLA. Most recently, Katie Jo works as a recruiter within the entertainment industry and has at companies such as Google, Walt Disney Studios and Marvel. Prior to joining Disney, she was an HR Manager for Paradigm Talent Literary Agency. She started her career on the Marketing and Production sides of the entertainment business working on desks at E!, NBC, Food Network, Academy of Country Music, Sony Pictures, ABC, Martha Stewart Show, Rachel Ray Show and more.

• Ron Taylor

  

  Ron Taylor was Vice President, Diverse Programming at Fox and VP, Programming at Columbia-TriStar where he developed series including Strong Medicine on Lifetime and Street Time on Showtime. Ron was one of the first executives hired at UPN and was instrumental in the creation of that network. Ron has also been a development executive at Warner Bros and Disney, and a freelance writer of produced episodes for such series as Renegade, Forever Knight, Covington Cross, and The Sentinel. In his Fox position, Ron directed efforts to guide diverse talent into jobs on series that were broadcast on FBC and FX and on shows produced by 20th Century Fox TV and Fox Television Studios, along with supporting Fox content that featured diversity in the media marketplace. Since leaving Fox he has returned to writing, and has been an adjunct instructor at Columbia College Chicago.

• Jon Vandergriff

  

  JON VANDERGRIFF received his MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Southern California and immediately segued into professional sitcom writing with his debut freelance script for the ABC hit show, Coach. That was followed by a six-year stint on the even bigger ABC hit, Home Improvement, where he rose from Staff Writer to Supervising Producer. He attained the title of Co-Executive Producer on the popular WB show, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Along the way, Jon wrote sitcom pilots for NBC and The WB and has also had two screenplays optioned by Hollywood-based production companies. A life-long lover of board games, Jon is also a board game inventor who has had three games published, including Anger Management, and A Way With Words.
• Rosanne Welch

  

  Dr. Rosanne Welch is a television writer/producer whose credits include Beverly Hills 90210, Picket Fences and Touched by an Angel. In 1998 she researched, wrote and co-produced Bill Clinton and the Boys Nation Class of 1963 for ABC NEWS / Nightline. She is the Book Reviews Editor for the Journal of Screenwriting and on the Editorial Advisory Board of Written By, the magazine of the Writers Guild. Welch has a chapter in Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television (I.B.Tauris) based on a paper she co-presented at the Torchwood Symposium, and an essay in Doctor Who and Race: An Anthology. Her current publications include The Monkees: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture for McFarland Publishing and co-editing The Encyclopedia of Women in American History (ABC-CLIO). She also presented "The Importance of Having a Female Voice in the Room" at 2016 TEDxCPP.

• Vance Van Petten

  

  Vance Van Petten is the National Executive Director/COO of the Producers Guild of America, representing producers of motion pictures and programming for television and new media. Prior to leading the PGA, Van Petten was Executive Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs at Universal TV, Twentieth Century Fox Television, and Paramount TV. Van Petten started his career as an associate in the entertainment law firm of Irwin & Rowan representing producers, actors, comics, and comedy groups such as The Groundlings. Van Petten simultaneously earned Juris Doctorate and Master of Public Administration degrees from the University of Southern California. He received his B.A. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles with Phi Beta Kappa distinction. Van Petten has written and lectured extensively for various educational institutions and professional organizations, and has led workshops on negotiating for producers. Van Petten’s book, Ten Minutes to the Speech, was published in 2007.