How to Make an Acting Resume: Step-By-Step Guide

As Bette Davis said, “Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.” However, it is essential to strike the right balance between pursuing the desire to make art and earning enough money to make ends meet. In other words, you need a striking resume to impress your potential employer and get a decent salary.

According to BLS.gov, the average U.S. actor earns circa $20.43 per hour. This role doesn’t necessarily require a degree or extensive experience, as your success mostly depends on your talent and acting skills. However, you should show your capabilities to get the job, so describing your qualifications is crucial.

The good news is, even if you are a beginner with little to no experience, you have an incredible chance to get noticed! For this purpose, follow the tips below and learn how to write an acting resume according to modern requirements. It’s essential not to miss any critical elements of this “must-have” paper, so be attentive and improve your chances of getting a job.

What Should an Acting Resume Include?

Of course, each document is different, as it represents the unique experience that an actor gained while mastering the profession. However, some standard rules will make your talent shine.

Include crucial information and references in your file to make it look like a professional summary of your experience. It should embrace the roles you’ve worked and your headshot right at the beginning. All the descriptions should fit on one page, so stay concise. As for the recommendations, they are especially important in the acting environment, so provide the contacts of the people who were once very impressed by your audition. Also, don’t forget to briefly mention a few personality traits to create a positive impression on a casting director.

How to Make an Actor Resume?

Professional acting resumes dramatically increase the odds of getting hired fast. They work both for seasoned experts and individuals taking their first steps in the acting world. No matter how challenging it may seem to produce an outstanding paper, your efforts are worth it. Our platform will help you with a plethora of templates and samples that you can use to compose your document. We provide the latest designs that catch your prospective employers’ eyes, unlike a hand-made file that might look too ordinary.

What Sections to Put in Your Resume?

Your file should start with yours and your agent’s contact data and an objective and summary. The objective is a brief statement revealing your intentions to join a particular project and your motivation to contribute to the common goals. The summary contains your core skills, achievements, and the number of years you’ve worked as an actor. It is a good place to mention any awards or other acknowledgments that set you apart.

What Skills to Put in Your File?

There is no doubt that actors possess special skills that help them excel in theater or on-screen roles. Thus, highlight your special skills for acting resume using action verbs to emphasize that you are a result-oriented person. The fact is, recruiters like actors who prefer showing results instead of describing the work process, and such verbs help to convey such a message.

Here’s an actor resume template to provide you with some inspiration:

• Does comprehensive character research
• Exercises regularly to endure lengthy shoots
• Listens carefully to fulfill instructions
• Quickly memorizes long lines
• Speaks two foreign languages fluently (French, Italian)
• Always arrives on time

You might also want to add a few special skills to highlight your unique expertise:

• Creates Stand-Up Comedy
• Speaks in Dialects/Accents
• Professionally Plays the Guitar
• Writes Powerful Song Lyrics
• Applies Meisner Acting Technique

You should also highlight your excellent EQ, outstanding communication skills, the ability to work in a team, and excellent time management skills.

Essential Tips on How to Build an Acting Resume

The following pieces of advice will help you to design an impeccable document for an actor’s position. If you consider all of them, your chances of finding an excellent new job will double or triple.

1. State the desired role which you’re applying at the beginning of your document.
2. Mention your previous roles and workplaces in reverse order
3. Avoid lengthy descriptions of your former responsibilities and focus on describing the role.
4. If you played many roles, list only the prominent ones (the same refers to naming only famous directors).
5. Create several resumes to fit different roles, each based on your experience.
6. Don’t exceed one page while creating your document.
7. Use a traditional font, such as Times New Roman or Arial.
8. Mention your physical parameters if needed.
9. Don’t forget to provide a list of courses you accomplished.
10. Highlight your accolades and/or awards.

Apart from the tips mentioned above, it would also be useful to show a wide range of characters you can play if the vacancy requires such diversity. Furthermore, it is essential to reveal how well you’ve mastered various acting techniques by displaying different cases from your stage life.

Use the advice mentioned above as a checklist while designing your unique resume. Such an approach will help you to land your dream job and grow as an actor.

Acting Resume Example

We have prepared a sample document to give you some ideas on building a quality resume and getting noticed in the crowd of other applicants.

Resume summary

Dedicated movie actress with a strong desire to bring excellence to the film industry. Skilled at bridging the gap between the character’s inner world and its representation on the big screen. Passion for the melodramatic and thriller genres. A proud winner of the Boston Society of Film Critics Award in 2018 and the title of the Best Actress at Colorado Shakespeare & Maxim Gorki Theater, 2019.

Career objective

Play the main female character’s role in “The Beginning” to contribute my experience, develop professionally, and help the team achieve excellent results.

Acting portfolio

Commercials:

• Washington Post — “Democracy Dies in Darkness”
• 2020 Super Bowl commercial (the voice-over)
• SimpliSafe — “Fear Is Everywhere”

TV series:

• Flashforward, Nicole Kirby
• The Following, Emma Hill
• The Unnamed Series, Tina Jackson

Theater:

• Funny Girl, Fanny Brice | Broadway

Education

The University of Alabama 2014
Bachelor of Fine Arts

Workshops and Training

MFA in Acting (2015-2018)
Stage development training

Awards and Accolades

Special skills:

• Stunt coordination and mini-roles
• Ballet choreography
• Fluent command of Spanish, French, and Italian languages

Awards and accolades:

• Boston Society of Film Critics Award in 2018.
• Best Actress, Colorado Shakespeare & Maxim Gorki Theater, 2019.

References:

James Nicolson, Director | j.nicolson@email.com

Sharon Turner, Producer | s.turner@email.com

Common Mistakes You Should Avoid in Your Acting Resume

We’ve collected the most common mistakes actors make in their resumes. Avoid them to impress your potential employer and find a new job quickly!

1. Too Many Roles in the Portfolio

Your theatrical background may be more than rich, but it doesn’t mean that you should include all the roles you played in your file. On the contrary, focus only on the essential, well-known characters and omit the rest. Recruiters are wise enough to understand that those three roles you’ve indicated aren’t your only experience, especially if they were parts in famous plays or shows. Furthermore, don’t mention experiences that date back too many years (8-10 years.)

2. Irrelevant Photo

The photo in your document must be a clear representation of how you currently look. Therefore, update the image if your appearance has recently changed. It is usually required to show the color and length of your hair and unique traits, such as scars. Thus, make sure that the photo displays all the features that you currently possess.

3. Incomplete Biography

While it’s not recommended to include a huge list of roles, you shouldn’t omit any meaningful experiences. Remember, recruiters are suspicious about gaps in the work history, so be careful. Even if some backstage conflict made you quit, you should still name this work in your file.

4. Home Address

While it is quite normal to indicate a home address while applying for an office job, you should omit it. Why so? It is considered inappropriate by serious employers in the acting field.

5. Misrepresenting Language Mastery

Lying in your resume is always a bad idea because your profile might end up in a blacklist due to the discrepancies. Thus, don’t tell recruiters that you speak a language if you can only say a few words. State your language mastery level according to your actual knowledge. After all, you don’t want unnecessary drama outside the play, do you?

6. Making Mistakes

Proofreading your document before sending it to recruiters is essential, but many actors still neglect it. A resume with grammatical and lexical flaws has a much lower chance of being taken seriously. Thus, use an online tool to check the spelling and read your file yourself several times. Moreover, pay special attention to the word “recurring” — according to Takelessons, actors often misspell it.

7. Forgetting About Student Roles

Entry-level actors often panic due to the absence of experience and simply forget that their student works count, too. For instance, you can indicate a student film in your work history if you lack notable portfolio cases. Be sure to include the film’s name as well as the name of the school. The same goes for staging and participating in musicals and plays.

Don’t make these typical mistakes, and you will get noticed very soon!

How to Create an Outstanding Cover Letter

Once you’ve finished designing your perfect resume, it’s time to create an impeccable cover letter! Many actors consider this step unimportant and neglect it, but that’s the wrong strategy. Writing a short message doesn’t take much time, but it creates a significant effect on your potential employers. However, it only works if you make your message personalized, not generic.

First, don’t hesitate to spend a few extra minutes searching for the recruiter or casting director's name so that you can address your message to a particular person. Second, spell the company’s name correctly and write 1-2 sentences describing why you decided to apply. For instance, you can say that you want to join a great team of actors or claim that you are eager to become a part of the world-famous theater and learn from the best directors. Tell recruiters what makes you a desirable candidate and what contribution on your behalf will bring value to the team.

Third, pay attention to the specific keywords listed in the job description. They will give you a hint regarding the skills you should mention in your letter. For instance, if a recruiter is looking for a person who is capable of withstanding lengthy shoots, you should say that you’re a resilient actor who exercises a lot and can stay productive despite such difficulties. At the same time, avoid overpromises as they are equivalent to lying, which is truly bad for your reputation.

While you are listing the skills to meet your recruiter’s expectations, focus on their needs. It means not just mentioning that you can perform the tasks they want you to do, but saying how your work will help them. In other words, tell your prospective employer that you can speak Italian like a native speaker, emphasizing that it will build trust with the audience of the film. Likewise, tell them how quickly you can transform while acting out the opposites of a difficult, controversial character, and how impressed the audience will be.

Conclusion

Of course, finding a decent job can be challenging, especially when it comes to the first job in a creative field. However, it is still possible if you invest proper time and effort into building your application documents. To achieve excellence in your self-presentation and show the recruiters what a gem they’ll get if they hire you, use our tips and professional resume builder. Remember, temporary difficulties shouldn’t stop you from looking for the best opportunity to apply your talent! Be persistent and search for new chances. Rest assured, your efforts will pay off, as building your dream career is only a matter of time.