Acting Resume Example

One might believe that creating an actor resume is more difficult compared to the resume of a lawyer or a sales assistant. Indeed, these professions usually have specific timeframes for each employment, making their resumes more chronological. Actors, however, can be employed by different studios at the same time. It makes it difficult to craft a winning resume.

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Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. Professional resume writers enjoy challenges, and writing an acting resume is one of them. Not only it includes interesting career details but also requires specific key skills to get more interviews. Also, such resumes usually have professional jargon and terminology, uncommon for any other resume.

Therefore, we offer a perfect acting resume example for you to check what sections and details should be included in your actor resume. You must approach the process of resume writing creatively to make your document stand out from the crowd. At the same time, never forget about the acting resume’s main mission – to land a job.

It should answer all the questions recruiters can ask while emphasizing your strengths. If you doubt you can write it, don’t ever hesitate to call for professional help or check the provided sample acting resumes.

How to Write An Acting Resume

If your goal is to impress everyone with your actors resume, you have to know how to write a resume. Not just a resume, but a breathtaking and bot-beating resume. It may seem to be an easy task at first; however, it soon becomes obvious that actor resume writing requires certain skills.

Here are a few steps on how to make an actor resume without much effort:

1. Work on your actor bio. You should always remember that a resume contains condensed information. A recruiter understands whether they want to proceed with the person behind the resume within the first 8 seconds of reading. Thus, cut all the unnecessary details and focus on highlighting your strengths.
2. Remember about the ATS system. You can’t just take any template and insert your information in it. Actors’ resumes should comply with an applicant tracking system like any other resume.
3. Show a person behind projects and numbers. Humans hire humans, especially when it comes to acting. So, it is important to demonstrate your people skills and amiable nature in your acting resume. Try not to sound boring and tedious. Add some creativity and storytelling for your resume to appeal to a hiring manager.
4. Check grammar, style, and vocabulary. You must write your actor resume in a way that makes it easy to understand for people who know little about acting. Also, you should check your formatting before submitting the final version. Recruiters want to read files that are neat and inviting to the eye.
   

Write an Acting Resume Summary or Summary Objective

Whether you are looking at a sample acting resume for beginners or professionals, you’ll definitely find one thing in common – they share a resume summary or summary objective. It is usually placed in the heading of the resume to be the first thing a recruiter sees.

This summary plays a very important role in making your acting resume stand out. Do not waste your chance to impress and appeal to readers from the very first line. Mention your key skills, previous accomplishments, or – for acting resume sample no experience – employment goals and future endeavors.

A great resume summary and a summary objective would sound as follows:

• A professional actor with a series of successful projects looking for a new role to discover the potential, transfer all knowledge and skills, and positively contribute to the movie’s success.
• Looking for a project with a well-established production studio to discover the talent depth and learn new acting techniques.
  

Put Your Education on Resume for an Acting

We always focus your attention on the relevance of the information that is being put in an actor resume. Unlike any other resume, an acting resume should indeed reflect actor bio but never make it too wordy.

Therefore, it is important to mention your education, and every acting bio example proves that. You need to give it much credit if this education is related to acting. For example, if you graduated from an acting school or attended special courses.

However, if your education is barely related to acting, you can still add it to a resume as the acting biography example shows. However, be critical whether this information is helpful in a job search. If it’s not, mention it only in passing.

Education is only attractive to recruiters if it’s relevant or if you try to get a specific part to play. For example, your degree in Physics will be a great asset if you want to play a Physics teacher in a new TV series.

Put Skills on an Acting Resume

Actors resumes should contain a list of skills for them to be compatible with ATS. The system filters candidates who don’t qualify for the role automatically. Thus, for your resume to get through, you need to include as many acting skills as possible.

However, don’t be dishonest. The idea is to describe your unique skill set, not to create a false image. Great actor bios are usually those where skills are used as keywords and are logically incorporated into a text.

For example, you can mention such skills as communication; good screen, stage, and vocal presence; excellent memory; creative insight; the ability to switch characters quickly; and many others in your resume. You can find lots of options online, so you only need to select the ones you need.

Yet, try to insert them throughout the entire resume instead of putting them as a list. Use the skills to prove your competence in a certain project while describing your duties and achievements.

Add Contact Info to Your Resume

An acting resume sample should contain contact details for recruiters to reach out to you easily. You can decide not to add your home address but do mention the city you live in now. If you are open to relocation, add this to your resume as well.

As for your cell number or email address, such details should be added to any resume. You can’t find any sample acting resumes without contact information. You can place your agent’s contact info instead of yours, but a recruiter should have the means to contact you.

Be particularly attentive not to make a mistake in symbols and figures.

Add Other Sections to Your Effective Resume

Every successful sample of acting resume should contain sections other than work experience and education. Hobbies and interests, for example, can really help you get employed as an actor because recruiters are also interested in your passions. Some of them can be really beneficial for the role you intend to get.

As an actor, you need to be able to bring a character in life. You can learn that only by interacting with different people. That is why different volunteering jobs and community engagements should also be mentioned in your actor resume.

Also, you can add references to your sample acting resume. These should be the people who know you and your potential, witnessed your talents, and can vouch for you as a professional. Make sure their contact information, positions, and role in your career are accurate because they will definitely be contacted.

Use Key Action Verbs

Resume keywords and action verbs are not something optional that you can choose to use. These are the requirements that make your acting resume successful in the applicant tracking process. You must insert keywords wherever you see fit as well as replace all passive verbs with their active synonyms.

For example, the verb ‘assisted’ sounds weaker compared to ‘streamlined,’ ‘launched,’ or ‘initiated.’ You can use stronger active verbs but add the names or positions of those who you collaborated with.

Also, ‘was responsible’ doesn’t mean the same as ‘achieved’ or ‘succeeded.’ Modify your sentences to show yourself as an achiever rather than a doer.

Beginner Acting Resume Sample

If you are a beginner, you might be interested in learning the peculiarities of acting resume samples no experience. First of all, you need to acknowledge the fact that a lack of experience does not make you a bad actor. Yes, you can’t be paid equally to well-known acting experts. Nevertheless, the fact that you are a beginner does not make you less worthy of great roles.

To get a job, you need to create an acting resume for beginners. Do not try to showcase skills and competencies that you don’t have. Instead, focus on your strengths and make your resume updated according to all recent requirements.

An ordinary acting resume sample for beginners contains all their acting projects and endeavors even if they are small. At the same time, such resumes list acting goals and skills as if explaining what this newbie can do and how they plan to develop their talent.

Quite often, recruiting firms seek new actors with no experience. Many short films and ads need fresh faces. Therefore, your sample acting resume beginner will definitely find its audience. Having no experience is not a problem in the acting career. Having no talent is an issue, though.

Professional Acting Resume Sample

When it comes to a professional acting resume, the names of successful projects become critical. You need to mention the roles that make you stand out from the crowd. Be sure recruiters and managers will check them to come to the conclusion concerning your professionalism.

Also, a professional acting resume sample usually contains detailed information on each notable project as well as all film and TV awards. Apart from that, there must be an actor bio where you tell a story of your becoming an actor, which is intertwined with your special skills. Yet, you need to be concise in these thoughts.

Should you have lots of projects, do not list them all in detail. Select the most notable ones if you want to talk more about your role. The rest should come in a list with the corresponding dates. Recruiters are interested in the freshest and most relevant information. Do not overload them.

Whether to add references or not is up to you; however, at a certain point in your career, references in your resume can undersell you as an actor. Be cautious.

It is always a good idea to include a cover letter where you can add more information about yourself. It’s less formal than an acting resume itself, so you have better chances to show what kind of person you are.