Step 3: Your First Acting Resume And How To Nail It!

Help! It’s time to write your First Acting Resume… and you might not have that much acting experience. Aaah, what to do? 

In this post I will explain how I made my resume look fuller despite only having a couple of acting credits when I initially arrived to LA. You can do exactly the same. So don’t, worry,  it’s gonna be ok 🙂 Together with your killer headshot, you will soon be getting audition invites.

Let’s start.

This is Step 3 in My 10 Steps To Start Your Acting Career in Los Angeles – For International Students

Here is the very first version of my resume that I submitted to casting websites:

First Acting Resume

 

This is what an industry standard acting resume looks like. Therefore, don’t think more about how it should look. Just copy this format when you write your own resume.

---

 

Top of the page

• Start with your name, email and phone number.

---

Film credits

• If you acted a lot in your country before you came here, put those here.

Start with the name of the project, then your position (lead/supporting/co-star/etc. Lastly, add production company and director or type of movie.

• If you don’t have any film credits, skip this headline entirely.

---

Theatre credits

In this section, you are going to list the scenes you have worked on in your scene study classes. It was my acting teacher who told me this. I was honestly a bit reluctant to add it at first, until she said:

“Your scenes in scene study class is legitimate work. You know the work as well as a paid actor. You have worked on character building, voice, physicality, backstory, you have rehearsed and performed”.

Great teacher, right? So go ahead and put your scenes amongst the theater credits.

• List the name of the play, the name of your character and where you worked on it.

---

Commercials/Print 

• If you don’t have any, skip this headline entirely.
• If you do have credits,  name the project, a description of your character and which company you worked for.

---

Training

I’m assuming that most of you who read this are on a student visa and spend at least 20 hours/week on acting classes. This means you have a LOT of training. Show it off in your resume 😀

Don’t just write the name of your program and  school. Instead,

• Break your program into all the different courses you are taking with all the different teachers

This will instantly enrich your resume as well as show that you are training.  In turn, this will signal that you take your craft seriously and casting will be more open to sending you an audition invite.

---

Skills 

When you are starting out,

• Feel free to add any skill/interest you think could be slightly relevant to your acting

In my first resumes, I added skills such as hobby baker, amateur makeup artist, sushi maker, zombie training, etc. They will work as great ice breakers in the audition room.

When the casting people say “Tell us about yourself” you can respond: “Well, one of my hobbies is to bake cakes/go hiking. It’s in the skills section. Later today I’m going to make a chocolate cake for my best friend/check out Runyon Canyon in Hollywood.”

This little exchange will make you more memorable because you talked about something super specific. – Then you have to nail the audition as well of course!

---

Languages/Accents

This is another trick to make your resume look fuller. Instead of bundling your language skills together with your other skills in the skills section,

• Create a separate section for languages

Knowing other languages is a major way to stand out.

---

Smile 🙂

That’s it! I hope this was helpful in getting you started with your first acting resume. Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback. Remember, this is something you have total control over, so make the best out if it. Good luck!

Cheers,

Ina Rose