Biography

John Clua is an experienced filmmaker and educator with a global teaching career spanning China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. After over ten years in London, where he served as an associate professor of film at Richmond American University, he made the decision to return home to the U.S. and further pursue his passions for teaching and filmmaking. He is particularly interested in mentoring students to enter the media industry.

An active filmmaker, John has written, produced, and directed films distributed by the BBC, Discovery, Gravitas Ventures, PBS, Sky, Sony, Starz, and Universal. His diverse portfolio includes short and feature-length documentaries, animated features, and a thriller. Early in his career, he worked as a grant writer for the Shoah Foundation at the University of Southern California. He also served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Moscow State University, where he taught documentary filmmaking.

John earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where his dissertation examined intercultural interpretations of horror films. In his free time, John enjoys watching stand-up comedy.