Robert Bella is an American filmmaker, best known for his work as a television Director, Writer & Producer on shows such as The Rookie, '' The Rookie: Feds'',

Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

and '' The Following''. Bella has also worked on over 100 plays as an actor, director, producer and writer. He is a co-author of ''Training of the American Actor'', and he wrote the stage adaptation of the film ''

Stand and Deliver ''Stand and Deliver'' is a 1988 American drama film directed by Ramón Menéndez, written by Menéndez and Tom Musca, based on the true story of a high school mathematics teacher, Jaime Escalante. For portraying Escalante, Edward James Olmos wa ...

''.

Early life

Bella was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he studied acting with Stella Adler, David Mamet and

William H. Macy William Hall Macy Jr. (born March 13, 1950) is an American actor. His film career has been built on appearances in small, independent films, though he has also appeared in mainstream films. Some of his best known starring roles include those i ...

Career

When he was 23 years old, Bella became an

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

adjunct faculty member. By the time he was 25, he was teaching Master Classes around the world, on subjects such as directing, script analysis, performance technique, on-camera acting and audition skills."Robert Bella"
Atlantic Acting School. Retrieved December 27, 2014. His former acting students include Jessica Alba, Rose Byrne,

Heather Burns Heather Burns (born April 7, 1975) is an American actress, known for her role as Miss Rhode Island Cheryl Frasier in the 2000 film '' Miss Congeniality'' and its 2005 sequel, '' Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous''. Her other film appearan ...

Eddie Cahill Edmund Patrick Cahill (born January 15, 1978) is an American actor known for portraying "Miracle on Ice" goalie Jim Craig in the 2004 film ''Miracle'', and for playing the roles of Tag Jones in ''Friends'' and Detective Don Flack in ''CSI: NY.' ...

Justin Chatwin Justin Chatwin (born October 31, 1982) is a Canadian actor. He began his career in 2001 with a brief appearance in the musical comedy ''Josie and the Pussycats''. Following his breakthrough role as Robbie Ferrier in the blockbuster ''War of the ...

, Abbie Cornish,

Peter Facinelli Peter Facinelli (born November 26, 1973) is an American actor and film and television producer. He starred as Donovan "Van" Ray on the Fox series '' Fastlane'' from 2002 to 2003. He played Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the film adaptations of the ''Tw ...

, Matthew Fox, Bryan Greenberg,

Simon Helberg Simon Maxwell Helberg (born December 9, 1980) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for playing Howard Wolowitz in the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019), for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supp ...

, Diane Neal, Jason Ritter,

Gina Rodriguez Gina Alexis Rodriguez-LoCicero (born July 30, 1984) is an American actress. She is known for her leading role as Jane Villanueva in The CW satirical romantic dramedy series ''Jane the Virgin'' (2014–2019), for which she received a Golden Glob ...

, Shaun Sipos, and Skeet Ulrich. Bella became one of the founding members the Atlantic Theater Company, where he served as the Managing Director, Associate Artistic Director and executive Director of the Atlantic Acting School. His experience producing and directing numerous

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

plays ultimately led him to try his hand at filmmaking.

TV and film

In 1996, Bella produced and directed the independent film '' Colin Fitz Lives!''. The film tells the story of two security guards who must protect a rock star's grave against excitable fans who may attempt to commit suicide there. It was shot on 35mm in New York City. The budget was $150,000, and the film was shot in 14 days. It had its World Premiere in Dramatic Competition at the 1997

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. The film won awards at numerous film festivals, including the

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...

, WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival and the Long Island Film Festival, but it did not receive distribution until IFC Films released the movie on-demand in 2010. Bella has worked as an ADR Director with numerous actors, including: Chevy Chase, Judi Dench,

Jimmy Fallon James Thomas Fallon (born September 19, 1974) is an American comedian, television host, actor, and writer. He is known for his work in television as a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' and as the host of the late-night talk show ''The Ton ...

, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Hader, Freddie Highmore, Harvey Keitel,

, James McAvoy,

Catherine O'Hara Catherine Anne O'Hara (born March 4, 1954) is a Canadian-American actress. She is known for her comedy work on ''Second City Television'' (1976–84) and ''Schitt's Creek'' (2015–2020) and in films such as '' After Hours'' (1985), ''Beetleju ...

Christina Ricci Christina Ricci ( ; born February 12, 1980) is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci predominantly works in independent productions, but has also appeared in numerous box office hits. She has receiv ...

and

Jon Stewart Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He hosted ''The Daily Show'', a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and now hosts ''Th ...

. Bella also worked as a Post Production Supervisor for various film studios, including DreamWorks Pictures. His credits include ''

Delivery Man Delivery is the process of transporting goods from a source location to a predefined destination. Cargo (physical goods) is primarily delivered via roads and railroads on land, shipping lanes on the sea, and airline networks in the air. Cer ...

'', '' Lincoln'', '' War Horse'', ''

Real Steel ''Real Steel'' is a 2011 American science fiction sports drama film starring Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo and co-produced and directed by Shawn Levy for DreamWorks Pictures. The film is based on the short story "Steel", written by Richard Mathe ...

'', '' The Help'' and '' I Am Number Four''. He has worked as a TV Director/Writer/Producer on shows such as '' The Rookie'', '' The Rookie: Feds'', ''

'' and '' The Following''.

Personal life

Bella is currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Theater

Awards and nominations

* Film Festival AwardsSimonC (July 17, 2010)
"Sundance Selects – ''Colin Fitz!''"
WorldFilmFest.net. Retrieved December 27, 2014. **Gold Award: Won, 1997, for Comedy **Grand Jury Prize: Nomination, 1997, for Dramatic **Best of Fest: Won, 1997, for Feature Film Competition **Grand Jury Award: Nomination, 1997, for Narrative **Feature Film Award: Nomination, 1997 (shared with Tom Morrissey) **Feature Film Award: Won, 1997, for Best Feature **Audience Award: Won, 1997.

References

External links

* *
YouTube ChannelInstagram
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bella, Robert 1963 births American male film actors American male screenwriters American male stage actors Date of birth missing (living people) Film producers from New York (state) Living people American voice directors Writers from Brooklyn American theatre directors 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers Film directors from New York City Screenwriters from New York (state)