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Your Guide to Becoming an Actor: Build Your Portfolio - Actor Resume


Once you have a good grasp of acting techniques, it's time to build your acting portfolio. This will help you step into the actual practice of acting as work.


Create a professional actor resume that highlights your training, experience, and special skills. Include any acting roles, even if they are in local theater or student films. As you are starting out, the local theatre and student films will be a great opportunity to perform. It will also help you have a better understanding about your desire to act. Do you still want to do it? Was it actually about being famous after all? Were the conditions meh but the people were cool and you had a blast? Check in with yourself and be honest. Local theatre and student films are often the productions that will give you a shot even if you have ZERO credits on your resume. What do I put on my resume if I haven't done anything yet? Great question! You put your training. This is another reason it comes in handy. You didn't just spend time training for funsies, it also provides credibility.


When looking for student films or local low budget film/tv project check out actorsaccess.com. Here is my Actor's Access profile as an example of what they look like. With this in mind, people will also check your IMDb to see what projects you've been in. Here is a link to mine. Theatre projects are also posted there but in general theatre auditions will require a more localized search that Google should be able to help with. Search things like "community theatre auditions" and options should show up.


PRO TIP: The terms are different for each medium. Film roles are titled "LEAD" "SUPPORTING LEAD" or "SUPPORTING". TV is "Co-Star" "Guest Star" or "Series Regular". With theatre you actually put the characters name. This is a great time to mention DO NOT PUT WORK AS BACKGROUND ON YOUR ACTING RESUME.


Below you'll find my resume. If you don't want to download it, it's also here. It likely isn't the most current but the structure is more or less accurate.


Adetinpo Thomas Acting Resume
.pdf
Download PDF • 61KB

Adetinpo Thomas portion of resume

Be patient with yourself as you build up your portfolio. You will always be building it. At some point, you'll no longer need a resume/headshot because you'll be so famous everyone will know your work.

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