Fedly Daniel — Actor Headshots at My New York Studio

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There are faces the camera simply agrees with, and Fedly Daniel has one of them. He came to my Midtown Manhattan studio (580 8th Avenue, 20th Floor) for a new set of actor headshots, and from the first frame the session had that quality I'm always chasing — stillness with something moving underneath.

Fedly is a Haitian-born, New York-based actor working across theater and film. He trained at the Ted Bardy Acting Studio and The Barrow Group, with credits including Target Margin Theater, The Chain Theatre, and Concrete Timbre. He's also a musician and producer under the name NDNI, and he's currently developing a solo performance that weaves music and storytelling together. That range — actor, musician, storyteller — is exactly what a headshot session needs to hold, and it's why we built the shoot around two distinct registers.

The Clean Frame

We opened with the essential commercial look: a simple olive tee against a graduated charcoal ground, lit softly from above and camera left. No costume, no armour — just the face. There's warmth in this frame, an openness around the eyes and the trace of a smile that casting directors read instantly. It's the headshot that says approachable, and Fedly carries it without a hint of performance.

The Dramatic Frame

Then we turned the temperature down. Black leather jacket, head tilted, the light raking across the face and falling away into shadow — closer to the tenebrist portraiture I've spent twenty-three years studying in Caravaggio and Rembrandt. The gaze here is level and unhurried. It's the frame for drama, for film, for the roles that ask a face to withhold as much as it reveals. Same man, entirely different weather.

That's the whole discipline of actor headshots: not one image, but a small repertoire — each frame a door into a different kind of room.

Booking Actor Headshots in New York

My New York studio in Midtown Manhattan serves actors across the city, from Broadway and Off-Broadway to film and television. Sessions are built around your casting range, with lighting drawn from the Old Masters tradition and finished to the standard of my work in the National Portrait Gallery's permanent collection.

To book a session, contact RL@RORYLEWIS.STUDIO