What to Include in Your Acting Resume – Tips from a Professional Actor

Just like any other business, your resume is an accurate history of your employment or experience; however, instead of listing that cashier job you had in college, an acting resume is a portrayal of your theatrical work and relevant training. The layout and information included within your resume should be clear, concise and above all else, honest.

Many young actors, and some experienced ones, are unsure of what to include in their resume, which is why I’ve cultivated several tips on what to include in your acting resume.

Of course, there are numerous resources on the internet to help further you knowledge of acting resume writing; however, these tips are foundational to a great acting resume.

Organization

Just like a standard employment resume, an acting resume must be organized in sections to ensure the reader has an accurate understanding of your experience and history within the business. Centered at the top of the resume should be your name, contact information (or your agent’s contact information if applicable), personal stats (height, weight, eye color and hair color) as well as any union affiliations (AFTRA, SAG, Equity, etc.).

Next, you should organize your experience based on the type of productions you’ve been in. For example, if you’ve been in films, TV and theater productions – these should each have its own section. If you’ve done voice-over work or industrials these may garner their own sections as well.

Organize the type of productions you’ve been in based on the primary venue of acting you wish to participate in. For example, if you wish to be a theater actor, you would list your theater credits first under the “Theater” heading followed by your “Film” and “TV” sections, if any.

Within each section, you must list the name of the production, your character, the director and the production company; however, some markets only prefer the director’s name or only the production company.

After you’ve listed all of your work experience, you must then create a section titled, “Training.” Within this section list all applicable acting training. This may include formal training institutions such as college or private acting training at acting schools or with a particular acting coach.

Above all else within your acting resume, always be honest. The entertainment industry is quite small and close-knit. If you lie on your resume, sooner-or-later it will be discovered and you could very well be out of a job or agent.