Staff
Michele Maher
Academic Registrar
Michele joins the London Film School with over 30 years of higher education registry experience leading and managing both small and large teams to achieve their potential in supporting the student journey including recruitment, enrolment, induction, programme support, student records, assessment, quality assurance and enhancement, timetabling, progression and graduation.
Michele’s has had substantial experience and her previous post was at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) as Campus Registrar based at Farnham and this included responsibility for the registry support in the School of Film and Performing Arts. Prior to joining UCA Michele also worked at Manchester Metropolitan University responsible for the professional support services in the Faculty of Science and Engineering and originally started her higher education career supporting medical and nursing students in a School of Nursing.
As well as experience in registry functions Michele has taken the lead on a number of significant University projects including implementation of assessment policies, new timetabling software and has contributed to the development of several successful collaborative University partnerships.
Michele has a Business Studies degree of which she studied part-time whilst working in Higher Education.
Nesta Morgan
Senior Lecturer - Production Design
Nesta Morgan is an experienced set designer and art director who graduated in interior design, and further studied TV design at Chelsea School of Art which led to her gaining an award from BBC Visions 2000 for Commended New Production designer. Her early art department roles include that of Portrait Artist for the NFT screenplay adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Trevor Nunn at Pinewood studios, Assistant Art Director on several TV comedy productions such as The Sketch Show, directed by Richard Boden, with further art director and production designer roles on short and feature films, and music video. Nesta has developed her art works in film through storyboarding, practical paintings and painting on set, she enjoys engaging in the design development and portrayal of story through film and media production, and her sketchbooks bring added dimension to film life and real life character events.
Nesta is an experienced tutor of interior design in further and higher education and sees teaching and mentoring as an integral part of her practice.
Nicola Gibson
Senior Lecturer
Nicola worked at the BBC as a Documentary Producer/Director on many primetime series and strands in BBC Arts, Specialist Factual and Documentaries and as successful Development Producer. Her work was nominated for a Grierson Documentary Award, a Royal Television Award and ‘My Life As A Child’, won at five International Input Documentary Festivals.
Her approach in all her work comes from her belief that documentary is ‘life shared on film’ and after leaving the BBC she worked in the independent sector for independents,including Ridley Scott Associates and The Garden.
She is also an experienced and qualified documentary lecturer in Higher Education and a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. She worked as a Visiting Lecturer for many years at City University, University of London Goldsmiths and Birkbeck, before joining London Film School.
Nikki Brough
MA Filmmaking Administrator
After graduating from Middlesex University with a MA in Film Production and Screenwriting, Nikki joined the BBC in the Children’s department working across both CBBC and Cbeebies gaining experience in multiple roles such as script development, programme acquisition and editorial management. Nikki was responsible for managing numerous productions for CBBC including Charlie and Lola, Shaun the Sheep and Dennis the Menace.
For the last five years Nikki has enjoyed using her experience to support students and staff at the University for Creative Arts working across the BA and MA film production courses and also works for the University’s Research office supporting academic research culture.
Rafael Kapelinski
Module 1 Leader and Term 1 Tutor
Rafael is a London-based, award-winning writer/director, media lecturer, screenplay development and new media technology consultant. A graduate of the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, London Film School and the EKRAN programme at the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing in Warsaw, he has created some of the most distinctive short and feature films that have won over 25 international awards at top-tier festivals such as Cannes, Oberhausen, Austin, New Horizons and Brest. His feature debut Butterfly Kisses (BBC Films/Film London/Microwave/Blue Shadows Films) won the Crystal Bear at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival and consequently Rafael was long-listed for the British Independent Film Award for Directing. His feature project Up on the Roof won Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Cinefondation Residence Award. His short To Bury The Horse was a finalist in the 2011 Bosch Stiftung Competition. He also worked as script supervisor on Nina Gantz’s BAFTA-winning short animation Edmond (over 50 other international awards). He has most recently completed a neo-noir psychological drama titled A Woman At Night produced by Blue Shadows Films (UK) and Haven of Peace (USA) and is currently in pre-production with Budapest Diaries (Polish Film Institute/DominoFilms/Filmfabriq). He has lectured in fiction development and audio-visual storytelling at the London Film School, Central Film School, London Film Academy and The American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles.
Social links: Twitter
Richard Kwietniowski
Module 3 Leader and Term 6 Tutor
Writer-director, born in London to Anglo-Polish parents. After studying literature then film at University of Kent at Canterbury, became Visiting Research Scholar in Film at University of California at Berkeley before returning to the UK to work in the independent film sector and higher education. Short films including Alfalfa and Flames of Passion were distributed internationally. Work as a director for British TV received Royal Television Society and D&AD (Gold and Best of Year) awards and a Prix Italia nomination. Feature-films Love and Death on Long Island (John Hurt and Jason Priestley), and Owning Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Minnie Driver) both made Best of Year critics’ lists. Awards include prizes from Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, New York Film Critics Circle, US National Board of Review, and BAFTA. He teaches directing, screenwriting and acting-to-camera at a range of institutions in the UK and beyond, and has contributed to many European initiatives in feature film development. His LFS directing workshop for film students and actors has just celebrated its 300th edition. His name is easier to pronounce than it looks: Kfee-etnee- ov-skee.
Richard Leeder
Head of Projection & Audio Visual Support
Richard is an Ex-Westend Chief Projectionist, Obsessed with film from a young age (particularly the horror genre). Richard landed his dream job as a cinema projectionist over 25 years ago and has worked for Odeon, Empire and Picturehouse Cinemas, and has worked on numerous film festivals, including LFF and Sundance. He has seen the changeover from film prints to digital media, which has made the industry a lot more inclusive although he still thinks 70mm film is the best.
Roberto Oggiano
Film Festivals Administrator
Roberto is also a film critic and film programmer. He holds a MA in Film Programming and Curation at Birkbeck College and his collaborations include Cineuropa (EN, FR, ITA, SP), Scenari (IT) and journal Cinelapsus (IT), Cinè-Lumière at the French Institute in London and Noods Radio (Bristol, UK).
Sabrina Semidei
Programme Coordinator - MA Screenwriting, MA International Film Business
French-Italian London Film School graduate in Screenwriting and winner of the LFS Final Draft award for Outstanding Screenwriting Student (2021). Before that, she graduated from King's College London with a BA in Film Studies. She has been living in London for the past five years, working on her own original screenplays and occasional short film shoots. She is currently also working on a novel adaptation and her first novel.
Sarah Sulick
Course Leader MA Film Producing
Sarah is a feature film producer based in London and founder/MD of her production company Bright Pictures. She sole produced Matt Winn’s award-winning black comedy The Trouble with Jessica (2024, Dinard opening night film), starring Shirley Henderson, Rufus Sewell, and Olivia Williams, now available on Netflix UK. Previous productions include comedy The Time of Their Lives (2017); urban drama Honeytrap (2015, LFF & SXSW); and off-beat romance The Waiting Room (2008, EIFF). Sarah also worked as an executive producer at theatre impresario Bill Kenwright's film and TV arm and in acquisitions for sales company Renaissance Films. Recently she was Co-producer on LFS filmmaking alum Anu Menon’s Hindi-language feature film Neeyat (2023) for Amazon Prime India. Sarah is a voting member of BAFTA, a Director & Screenplay selection committee voter for BIFA, and a member of European network ACE Producers.