GABE

GABE

ACADEMY PRINCIPAL

Teacher BLUE GROUP
(students 8 – 12 years old)

Gabriel has over six years of experience teaching film & TV to students.

Gabriel was a child actor, working with Sir Ian Mckellen, Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir David Suchet & Zoe Wanamaker at the age of just 12. He was then cast as the lead role in SyFy’s “Boogeyman” when he was 13. He spend his acting money on filmmaking equipment and began to develop his skills behind the camera. In 2013 he co-founded production company “Steele & Coe Films” and spent several years working on many different types of film projects – notably the 2015 short film “The Question”, which won an award at the Reed Short Film Competition, and was screened at BAFTA.

Gabriel continues to encourage and inspire his students to follow their dreams within the filmmaking & acting industries.

JAMIE

JAMIE

ACADEMY PRINCIPAL

Teacher BLUE GROUP (students 8 – 12 years)

Over the past six years, Jamie has worked with many students of all ages on film projects, and to date has worked on over 100 films, with over 500 students.

In 2013, Jamie launched film production company “Steele & Coe Films” with Gabriel, and worked on many different film projects, including TV pilot epsiodes, documentaries, music videos, wedding videos & acoustic music videos for Oak Sessions UK.

In 2015, Jamie was at BAFTA, seeing his short film “The Question” screened, and picking up an award at the Reed Short Film Competition.

In 2021, Jamie co-founded FTA with Gabriel, and continues to work with students in blue group to improve their filmmaking & acting skills. His favourite film of all time is “Shawshank Redemption” directed by Frank Darabont.

JASON

JASON

FILM & TV TEACHER

Teacher RED GROUP (students 13 – 18 years)

Jason is an actor, director & filmmaker. He has many years experience teaching filmmaking & acting to young people, as well as a wealth of professional industry credits.

Jason Farries attained a BA Hons Degree in Film Production from the SAE Institute, Oxford. Since then, Jason has directed & produced a range of award-winning films and media, which include a feature adaptation of J.B. Priestley’s classic play “An Inspector Calls” which received 3 awards including best Feature, Best Production Design and Best Costume from the Swindon and Kosice Independent Film Festivals. Jason has reached over 1 million views worldwide, and continues to work on several indpedent feature film projects.

EMILY

EMILY

TEACHING ASSISTANT

Assistant RED GROUP (students 13 – 18 years)

Emily Stanley is an award winning Director/Producer from Birmingham, UK.

Emily has worked on various popular film and television productions. Emily’s most notable credits include; Great British Menu (BBC) and Richard Hammond’s Crazy Contraptions (Channel 4). The Marvels (Marvel/Disney), Masters of the Air (Steven Spielberg for Apple TV) and, most recently, 6888 (Netflix).

Emily has been working closely with Black Elk Productions and continues to manage numerous in-house roles. Her credits with Black Elk Productions include HOMESICK, The Voodoo Man, An Inspector Calls and in 2022 Emily made her writing and directorial debut with Gunpowder and Lead, which was selected for screening at Cannes Independent Shorts Awards and received the award for Best Actor at Swindon Independent Film Festival.

SANIKA

SANIKA

TEACHING ASSISTANT

Assistant BLUE GROUP (students 8 – 12 years)

Sanika is an award winning filmmaker who started out as an FTA student, and now works as the blue group teaching assistant in our afternoon class.

She has a passion for cinema and is very knowledgeable when it comes to filmmaking & acting. She’s looking forward to developing the younger generations filmmaking skills here at FTA.