Five Tips on Building Your Acting Resume

As an actor, your resume is one of the most critical tools in helping you get work.  It helps a casting director understand not just your experience, but the type of work you're interested in, the skills and training you bring to a project, and your goals as a performer.  It, along with your headshot, is a critical first step to getting into the room to audition.

There are many different formats out there for acting resumes, and this guide is not intended to convey a "one true way."  Rather, this will help you make informed decisions about your resume choices, so that everything you say with it is intentional.  Here are five tips to help you start a resume, or refine the focus of your current one.

1. Be sure not to forget the basics.  List your name prominently, your contact information (email address and a phone number, but do keep safety in mind - never list a home address and consider using a service for voicemail), your union status, the age-range you play, your height and basic measurements or sizes.  When it comes to ages and sizes, be accurate.  Nothing turns a casting director off more than bringing in someone they thought was perfect, who is nothing at all as advertised.
   
   


2. Break your credits up into sections - include seperate areas for film and stage work.  Lead with the one that has the most impressive credits or the one you are most interested in pursuing.  When you have more credits, consider creating a seperate resume for each, or maintaining two combined resumes (this is more common in New York City than in Los Angeles), leading with a different category depending on the job you are submitting for.   Other credit categories that may be applicable include "television," "industrials" and "print."