How You Can Write A Great Acting Resume

By On January 31, 2009 Under Cell Phone

The headshot expresses the look and feel of the actor at a glance, but the actors resume sells the versatility, skillfullness, and success of an actor before he or she ever shows up to the audition. In this article we will go back over the reasons for creating an acting resume and from there discuss what should and should not go in it and why.

An acting resume should take up precisely one side of one page, and you will usually want to staple it to the back of your head shot. This single page should represent you as an artist, as an entertainer, as an employee, and as a colleague. So the main thing is to understand what auditioners want from you. What show are they putting up, and how does it compare to their previous shows? What sorts of actors do they like to use, and what kinds of people do they usually use for the type of part you’re trying out for? Once you’ve considered what they’re looking for, the only thing to do is to try and give it to them. Since you’re a professional actor, this should be the easy part.

The main thing to have in mind is that your acting resume should represent the part you want to play more than you as an independent entity. So, you should twist and pull at the facts of your professional life until they fit, as closely as possible, the specific audition. Don’t lie; simply try to select and highlight the parts of your acting career that are the best fit for this show. This is a little bit of an extra investment in terms of time and energy, but it’s not that big an investment. The fifteen minutes that you spend for each audition could be the difference between your next big break and your next season of waiting tables.