MA Media Producing Class of 2026

Hometown: New York, New York

Stephen Barnett is an indie filmmaker with a foundational background as a mixed-media artist and recycled-materials carpentry craftsman. His professional career began as a B/W photographer for The Miss Ohio Scholarship Pageant and then as a darkroom/photo lab technician before moving to NYC. Since then, he has worked in market research, theatre, acting, playwriting, screenwriting, interior design, custom carpentry, art, sculpture, and learning-by-doing almost every aspect of filmmaking through his twenty no-budget exploratory short film projects. His twenty-first short film, THE CHOICE ('23), is winding down its two-year festival run. Presently, Stephen is developing feature film projects while immersed in the Master of Arts Media Producing program at NYU Tisch.